Hypothesis-based interventions for tantrum behaviors of persons with developmental disabilities in school settings.
When classroom tantrums are fueled by attention, a short teacher-run FBA plus an attention flip can cut them fast.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two students with developmental delay kept having loud tantrums in class.
The teacher first watched and tested to see if the fits were kept going by adult attention.
After the quick classroom FBA showed attention was the fuel, the teacher used an attention-based fix.
What they found
Tantrums dropped sharply for both students once the teacher gave brief, planned attention for good behavior and withheld it for fits.
The class kept running while the teacher applied the plan.
How this fits with other research
Jones et al. (1992) did the same thing two years earlier: teachers ran the FBA themselves and the results matched lab findings.
Tonnsen et al. (2016) later moved the model to kids with autism and added parent training at home, again showing big drops in problem behavior.
Griffith et al. (2012) swapped in a trial-based FA for preschool rooms and still got the same clean results, proving the idea works for younger ages too.
Why it matters
You do not need a Ph.D. to run a classroom FBA. A teacher can finish the check in one planning period and start the attention plan the same day. If tantrums are stealing instruction time, copy the steps: watch, test, then flip the attention. You will likely see quick relief and keep the lesson moving.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We conducted a functional assessment of problem behaviors of 2 students with developmental disabilities in their classroom environments. Results of the assessments showed that although there were more tantrums in demand than in no-demand conditions, the function of the behavior was to gain attention (positive reinforcement) rather than to avoid or escape demands (negative reinforcement); demand conditions apparently served a discriminative function for the availability of attention. Therefore, intervention was based on the positive reinforcement hypothesis, resulting in a substantial reduction of tantrums for both subjects.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1994 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-21