Prevention of problem behavior by teaching functional communication and self-control skills to preschoolers.
A quick classroom BST package that teaches preschoolers to ask and to wait prevents later problem behavior.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Peters et al. (2013) ran a short classroom program called Preschool Life Skills (PLS).
They taught preschoolers how to ask for items and how to wait for them.
The team used a multiple-baseline design across kids to show the teaching caused the change.
What they found
Kids learned to request and to tolerate short delays without tantrums.
Problem behavior stayed low six weeks later, even though no extra teaching happened.
How this fits with other research
Fahmie et al. (2018) later reviewed ten years of PLS work and found the same pattern keeps repeating: teach the skills early, behavior drops.
Lee et al. (2024) moved the same lessons online. Parents ran PLS at home through Zoom and still saw skill gains and fewer tantrums.
Donahoe et al. (2000) first showed that adding tiny wait-times during FCT stops problem behavior. Peters et al. (2013) folded that idea into a whole-class package for three-year-olds.
Why it matters
You can stop many referrals before they start. Spend two weeks teaching every child to say "my turn please" and to wait thirty seconds. The class runs smoother, and you write fewer behavior plans. Try it during circle time next week.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We evaluated the effects of the preschool life skills program (PLS; Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007) on the acquisition and maintenance of functional communication and self-control skills, as well as its effect on problem behavior, of small groups of preschoolers at risk for school failure. Six children were taught to request teacher attention, teacher assistance, and preferred materials, and to tolerate delays to and denial of those events during child-led, small-group activities. Teaching strategies included instruction, modeling, role play, and differential reinforcement. Six additional children randomly assigned to similarly sized control groups participated in small-group activities but did not experience the PLS program. Within-subject and between-groups designs showed that the PLS teaching procedures were functionally related to the improvements and maintenance of the skills and prevention of problem behavior. Stakeholder responses on a social acceptability questionnaire indicated that they were satisfied with the form of the targeted social skills, the improvements in the children's performance, and the teaching strategies.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2013 · doi:10.1002/jaba.44