Various problematic behaviors of handicapped students in critical condition have been expressed in schools and communities, and this has been recognized as the main factor that militates against their success in integration and learning. Therefore, th...
Various problematic behaviors of handicapped students in critical condition have been expressed in schools and communities, and this has been recognized as the main factor that militates against their success in integration and learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve difficult situations that happen after behavioral intervention or that are not successfully intervened by the traditional way of correcting behaviors through intervening habitual problematic behaviors such as grinding one’s teeth and biting one’s hands in the aspect of positive behavioral support.
The objects of this study are three second grade students in Special School for Mentally Retarded Children who have problems in positively interacting with other students and disturb other students’learning through habitual problematic behaviors such as grinding their teeth or biting their hands; a check-list and an observation form are used to record their problematic behaviors effectively. These two kindsof forms are designed to understand preceding conditions and following results related to problematic behaviors, and to know the rate of occurrence and non-occurrence of problematic behaviors according to the number of problematic behaviors. After 2-week’s data is analyzed, the period when problematic behaviors occur most frequently is set as the period of intervention and observation; according to the subject of this study, grinding one’s teeth and biting one’s hands are the only behaviors that are observed. Also, to support the objects of this study, beads, boxes for beads, and behavior agreement are used.
This study is directed to understand the effects of positive behavioral support in school on habitual problematic behaviors of mentally retarded students in critical condition. The conclusions from this study are the followings.
Firstly, positive behavior and intervention support in school is effective for improving habitual problematic behavior, grinding one’s teeth, of mentally retarded students. The students observed in this study usually grind their teeth to attract teachers’ attention, to make teachers lose interestsin them, and not to do assigned homework which they do not want to do. When these conditions are altered, students grind their teeth much less. Therefore, rather than understanding this kind of behavior as a simple problematic behavior that needs to be corrected, it is more important to eradicate the main cause of this problematic behavior through applying a systematic education program which fits students.
Secondly, positive behavior and intervention support in school is effective for improving habitual problematic behavior, biting one’s hands, of mentally retarded students. The students observed in this study usually bite their hands to attract teachers’ attention and to avoid any activities thatthey do not want to do. When teachers show proper interest in the students and provide activities that they are willing to do, this kind of problematic behavior does not happen frequently. Therefore, in the case of mentally retarded students in critical condition who are not able to interact freely with others, analyzing the cause of the problematic behavior and coping with it properly will be helpful to reduce and prevent the problematic behavior.