Choice as an Antecedent Intervention
Study: Rispoli et al. (2013)

Describe how students were selected to participate in the study:

The students were selected if they met all of the following criteria: (1) Child was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, (B) teacher or parent report that the child engages in challenging behavior during instruction, (C) were indicated as have escape or demand function for their challenging behavior on the Questions about Behavioral Function (QABF) and (D) parent and child provided assent to participation in the study.

Describe how students were identified as being at risk for academic failure (AI) or as having emotional/behavioral difficulties (BI):

Students were identified as having needs by their diagnosis of autism, teacher or parent reports of challenging behavior during instruction, and Questions about Behavioral Function rating scale that provided information regarding the function of the behavior.

ACADEMIC INTERVENTION: What percentage of participants were at risk, as measured by one or more of the following criteria:

• below the 30th percentile on local or national norm, or
• identified disability related to the focus of the intervention?

%

BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION: What percentage of participants were at risk, as measured by one or more of the following criteria:

• emotional disability label,
• placed in an alternative school/classroom,
• non-responsive to Tiers 1 and 2, or
• designation of severe problem behaviors on a validated scale or through observation?

%

Please describe the study design:

This study used an ABAB reversal with an embedded alternating treatments design (to compare two different types of choice conditions. An ABABC design was used for one participant, with the C phase used to evaluate behavioral function.

Clarify and provide a detailed description of the treatment in the submitted program/intervention:

There were two different choice based intervention conditions, with both conditions starting off with a verbal task demand with the use of least to most prompting procedures to help the student complete the task. Minimum verbal praise was provided for completing the activity or every 5 minutes. After this, the participants were part of either "Across-Activity Choice" treatment condition or "Within-Activity Choice" treatment condition. In the "Across-Activity Choice" condition, students were provided either 2 or 4 choices to pick from and were praised for picking one. In the "Within-Activity Choice" condition, the interventionist chose the activity but the student was given a choice on how to complete the activity. In addition, for one student, a third treatment conditon of "Motivating Operation Analysis" was conducted. During this task, the student was either provided redirection or 10 second breaks from task demands.

Clarify what procedures occurred during the control/baseline condition (third, competing conditions are not considered; if you have a third, competing condition [e.g., multi-element single subject design with a third comparison condition], in addition to your control condition, identify what the competing condition is [data from this competing condition will not be used]):

During the baseline phase, no choices were provided to the students but praise was provided for correct responses. In addition, the demand was removed for 10 seconds during disruptive behavior and reintroduced if disruptive behavior stopped for 3 seconds. In addition, for one student, a third treatment conditon of "Motivatng Operation Analysis" was provided. During this task, the student was either provided redirection or 10 second breaks from task demands.

Please describe how replication of treatment effect was demonstrated (e.g., reversal or withdrawal of intervention, across participants, across settings)

The treatment effect was demonstrated through reversal design.

Please indicate whether (and how) the design contains at least three demonstrations of experimental control (e.g., ABAB design, multiple baseline across three or more participants).

The design of this study was an ABAB design.

If the study is a multiple baseline, is it concurrent or non-concurrent?

N/A

How was the program delivered?

Individually
Small Group
Classroom

Study measures are classified as targeted, broader, or administrative data according to the following definitions:

• Targeted measures
  Assess outcomes, such as competencies or skills, that the program was directly targeted to improve.
  • In the academic domain, targeted measures typically are not the very items taught but rather novel items structured similarly to the content addressed in the program. For example, if a program taught word-attack skills, a targeted measure would be decoding of pseudo words. If a program taught comprehension of cause-effect passages, a targeted measure would be answering questions about cause-effect passages structured similarly to those used during intervention, but not including the very passages used for intervention.
  • In the behavioral domain, targeted measures evaluate aspects of external or internal behavior the program was directly targeted to improve and are operationally defined.
• Broader measures
  Assess outcomes that are related to the competencies or skills targeted by the program but not directly taught in the program.
  • In the academic domain, if a program taught word-level reading skill, a broader measure would be answering questions about passages the student reads. If a program taught calculation skill, a broader measure would be solving word problems that require the same kinds of calculation skill taught in the program.
  • In the behavioral domain, if a program taught a specific skill like on-task behavior in one classroom, a broader measure would be on-task behavior in another setting.
• Administrative data measures apply only to behavioral intervention tools and are measures such as office discipline referrals (ODRs) and graduation rates, which do not have psychometric properties as do other, more traditional targeted or broader measures.

If you have excluded a variable or data that are reported in the study being submitted, explain the rationale for exclusion: