Questions about Setting up the DRC

There are multiple behaviors that could be addressed with the DRC. How do I know which to select?

A: Below are guidelines for choosing DRC target behaviors. Also see Step 2 of the DRC Creation Wizard for guidance in making this decision.

First, consider any behaviors that are dangerous to the child or others. Safety is important, so make any dangerous behaviors a top priority.
Second, consider behaviors that trigger other problem behaviors and have the greatest influence on the student’s behavior. For example, if a student is often out of their seat during math and not getting their work done, you can target math work completion. You will witness improvements in academic productivity, and the child will likely stay in their seat (without even having that behavior on the daily report card).
Third, consider behaviors that occur most frequently, as these are often the most disruptive to other students and stressful to teachers.
Fourth, consider behaviors that are most impairing to the student’s functioning. Behaviors can be impairing in several domains, including academic performance, social competence, self-esteem, the student’s relationship with you, and the overall functioning of your classroom.
Fifth, consider behaviors that are the most stressful to you. Behaviors that are stressful can negatively impact the student-teacher relationship, and targeting these behaviors can help improve your relationship with this student and the interactions you have with them.
Finally, consider behaviors that lead to building skills and competencies in the student (rather than simply extinguishing negative behaviors). For example, a situation in which a student is disruptive and bothering other students during the morning routine: rather than targeting and reducing disruptions, you can use the daily report card to teach the student the skill of completing their morning routine. The target behavior could be stated as “completes # of # steps of the morning routine” or “completes # of # steps of the morning routine without disrupting others”.

The student has difficulty paying attention, and the only option for children with these problems requires me to ask attention check questions. Why do I have to do this?

A: The purpose of attention check questions is to gauge whether the child is actively listening and attending to a lesson or set of instructions. This includes both formal instructional time (i.e., when the teacher is talking), as well as individual or small group work. Sometimes teachers would prefer to track each instance they see the child being off-task, but telling whether or not a student is off-task is hard to reliably assess. While in some situation students are more obviously off-task, in other situations students may seem to be paying attention (for example, looking out the window and still listening, so they are able to repeat what the teacher is saying). Thus, we use these simple and brief questions throughout a lesson to get an idea of how often a child is paying attention.

Consider whether a target such as work completion or accuracy would be a better goal to have, since technically a student must be on task to reach these goals. The advantage of work completion/accuracy goals is that they can address multiple behaviors (e.g., off-task, out of seat, bothering others) because the student cannot perform these behaviors if they are on-task and working to meet the completion/accuracy goal. A similar target that might serve as a substitute is a goal of completion of a routine, as this focuses on increasing the number of tasks a student is completing during a defined period of time. If the student is completing these tasks, they are less likely to be off-task.

One of the days I tracked baseline data was a shortened day and may not be representative of the student’s typical behavior on a full day. Should I remove this data point and track one more day?

A: You can still count the shortened day. If you would like, you can estimate how many more behaviors you think the student would have exhibited had it been a full day and instead enter your estimate (using the calendar function on the dashboard). Alternatively, you can enter the data as it was recorded and factor this information into your decision when setting goals. If the student’s data should have had more violations in it, you may want to set the goal a little easier than the suggested goal.