Individual behavior support in positive behavior support schools in Finland
Finnish PBS schools love CICO but reserve it for few young boys—start it sooner and broader.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Paananen et al. (2023) asked Finnish teachers how they use Check-in/Check-out. They sent a survey to every PBS primary school in one region. Teachers answered how often, for whom, and how well CICO works.
What they found
CICO got top marks for being fair, easy, and helpful. Yet only a handful of kids got it. Use dropped sharply after grade two. Staff liked it less when the child also needed academic help.
How this fits with other research
Meijers et al. (2024) shows kids with mixed needs can keep up with a twelve-minute active lesson. Their teachers hit 95% fidelity. Paananen finds the same kids get CICO only after trouble starts. The gap hints schools wait too long.
Pennington et al. (2017) warns the Good Behavior Game works only where you run it. CICO data fit that story: if teachers think it won't carry over to lessons, they skip it for pupils who struggle most.
Quilitch (1975) proved individual rewards can help the whole preschool class. Finnish staff seem to fear the opposite—that singling a child out will look unfair—so they under-use CICO despite its high social validity.
Why it matters
You can start CICO earlier and wider. The tool is already liked; you just need to sell its spill-over value. Run it in both academic and break contexts, as Pennington did with GBG. Show staff the Quilitch (1975) peer data to calm fairness worries. One short whole-staff meeting could triple your tier-2 reach next term.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
One objective in Finnish basic education is for pupils with disabilities or behavioral problems to be able to participate in mainstream education and ordinary classrooms. Positive behavior support (PBS) is an approach that offers multi-tiered behavior support for pupils. In addition to providing support at a universal level, educators need to have the necessary skills to provide more intensive individual support for pupils who need it. Check-in/Check-out (CICO) is a research-based individual support system that is widely used in PBS schools. The Finnish application of CICO includes an individual behavior assessment process for pupils with persistent challenging behaviors. In this article, we examined which pupils in Finnish PBS schools are provided CICO support, and in particular, how many have identified needs for specific pedagogical support or behavior-related disabilities, and whether educators find CICO to be an acceptable way of supporting behavior in an inclusive school setting. CICO support was found to be used the most in the first four grade levels, and support was offered mainly for boys. The number of pupils receiving CICO support in participating schools was much lower than expected, and CICO seemed to be secondary to other pedagogical supports. The social validity of CICO was equally high for all grade levels and pupil groups. The experienced effectiveness was somewhat lower among pupils with a need for pedagogical support in basic academic skills. The results suggest that Finnish schools may have a high threshold for starting structured behavior support despite its high acceptability. Implications for teacher education and the development of the Finnish version of CICO are discussed.
International Journal of Developmental Disabilities, 2023 · doi:10.1080/20473869.2022.2116236