Disruptive Behavior Case Study

An immediate intervention that could be used to mitigate Joey’s disruptive behavior is to establish a reward system. Joey’s disruptive behavior is motivated by a need for adult attention that manifests in the form of talking out of turn, loudly and off topic. The antecedents include: interrupting when the teacher gives attention to his classmates, talking louder if he feels he is being ignored, and off topic outbursts when he is disengaged or bored. Since this behavior persists all throughout the day, a reward system that focuses on reducing the frequency of his behavior would be most successful. The potential to spend one-on-one time with the teacher would be a reward that would eliminate the antecedents of this behavior, facilitate his need for adult attention, and have intrinsic value to Joey so that he is motivated to self-monitor his behavior. This intervention strategy is focused on reducing the frequency of outbursts so the reward is not immediate, but the teacher does have an immediate reaction to mitigate the behavior. When Joey is being disruptive, the teacher can use verbal …show more content…
Bandura’s theory suggests that a student’s belief in their ability to complete a task and the internal reward of the outcome will determine the effort they expend on it (Tollefson, 2000, p.67). Joey would expend great effort on this reward system because the internal reward is a desire for positive adult attention, and, he would feel capable of being successful because it is based on elimination through reduction. Bandura’s theory further supports this intervention because, “When students master a task, their expectation that they will master similar tasks in the future increases” (Tollefson, 2000, p.68). This will allow Joey to be successful as the teacher gradually reduces the frequency of outbursts allowed for the reward as Joey’s behavior