PSYED 2524 Behavioral Interventions for Children and Adolescents

Syllabus PSYED 2524 Behavioral Interventions for Children and Adolescents Spring, 2014

Dr. Mary Margaret Kerr, Instructor

Overview: This course will help you respond to the needs of students with emotional and behavioral problems in school settings. These problems include disruptive, oppositional, and aggressive behaviors, limited interpersonal and study skills, and behaviors caused by learning difficulties, mental illness, and stressful life events. The emphasis of the course is on research-based positive behavioral supports and interventions. In addition, you will learn consulting strategies to assist those who teach or counsel challenging youth. You will learn how to:  discern the meaning and function of a student’s behaviors, using direct observations, interviews, and record reviews to create a functional behavioral assessment (FBA).  engage the student, staff, and family in creating an individual positive behavior plan (BIP).  gather and analyze school data to improve classroom-wide and school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS).  share strategies with school teams to build capacity for including students in curricular as well as co-curricular experiences.  respond to behavior and discipline requirements under federal and state special education laws.  Identify research-backed resources you can use for ongoing coaching and support, as you assist and inspire faculty, students, and parents.

A special focus of this semester’s course is developing resources to support K-12 students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). If your major project meets the criteria, it will be published on our website (www.sbbh.pitt.edu) as a resource for families and those working in the field.

Note: This course meets one of the requirements for the School-based Behavioral Health concentration in Applied Developmental Psychology at the graduate level. The course is also open to students in other departments. Additionally, this course provides evidence-based opportunities that align with the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine’s license requirements for behavioral specialists.

In-class sessions will include discussion and active learning, with an emphasis on concepts and ideas that you can put to use in your work. To illustrate these essential ideas, we will incorporate videos about what it takes to create a school that welcomes struggling students. While most of our classes will be in person, we will also use Courseweb, the Blackboard on-line program, to facilitate our work together, for some on-line class sessions.

Location and Time: The class meets on Tuesday evenings from 4:30 p.m. to 7:10 p.m. on Pitt’s main campus. Our room is 5405 Wesley W. Posvar Hall. The first class is on January 6; the last (and required) is April 21. Please make every effort to be on time.

1 On-line sessions: To help you with gas mileage, bad weather, and to introduce you to some other learning formats, a few classes will take place on-line, using the Courseweb site. We will alert you ahead of time about those off-campus sessions. During an on-line week, you will have assignments and deadlines. Class is not cancelled, so play close attention. You will not have to log on at a particular time or day, so this gives you some flexibility.

Office Hours: By appointment. Call 412-648-7205 or email [email protected]. You may call or come to my office in 5911 WWPH.

How to Prepare for the Course Order your textbook: Kerr, M.M. & Nelson, C.M. (2010) Strategies for addressing behavior problems in the classroom, 6th Edition. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company. ISBN-13: 978-0-13- 604524-3. Be sure that you purchase the 6 th edition of this textbook, not an earlier edition.

Familiarize yourself with Courseweb: This course uses a web site (sometimes called “Blackboard,” the name of the software) provided through the University. To access, go to www.my.pitt.edu and access the Courseweb site there. For help logging onto the course, call 412-624-HELP. This help is available 24/7. The instructors cannot assist you with log-on problems.

Use the right internet browser: To access the Courseweb site, please use Mozilla Firefox (a free downloadable browser available at www.mozilla.com). This browser is most compatible with Courseweb. If you choose a different browser such as Internet Explorer, you may run into problems with opening files, cutting and pasting documents, and uploading assignments.

Let us know about disabilities: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Services, 140 William Pitt Union, 412-648-7890/412-624-3346 (Fax), as early as possible in the term. Disability Resources and Services will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. For more information, visit www.studentaffairs.pitt.edu/drsabout.

Plan Your Time: According to the University’s definition of a credit hour, a one-credit course should have 14 contact hours, where a contact hour is 50 minutes of instruction. Thus a 3-credit course should have 2100 minutes of instruction (50 minutes/hour x 14 hours x 3 credits = 35 hours). In addition, students are expected to spend 1.5 hours outside of class for each in-class hour. This includes reading, completing weekly exercises, and working on graded assignments.

Pay Attention to How You Submit Work: You will use the assignment tool on the Courseweb site to submit your drafts and graded assignments. Please follow these guidelines.  Unless specifically requested, do not email drafts or assignments directly to your instructors. If you are not sure about the instructions for an assignment, you are welcome to e-mail us.  If you are uploading files to your Courseweb course (for example assignment postings, discussion boards, wikis, blogs, journals, etc.) please remember to check your file names. File names should not include special characters such as “#” “$” or “!” and, ideally, do

2 not include spaces. Courseweb is a UNIX-based system and handles files differently than a Windows or a Macintosh PC. The only allowable separation characters are the hyphen “-“ and the underscore “_”.  Please label your files with your last name. topic, date: allenm.annotatedbib.03012015  If you encounter trouble uploading an assignment through Courseweb, you need to call the HELP desk (412-624-HELP) for assistance. This helpdesk answers 24/7.

How We Will Communicate Sending emails: You can email directly from the Courseweb site or from your [email protected] email. I do not answer e-mails that are not from a pitt.edu address, because of spam. Please be careful about this.  Tell me who you are and help me figure out what you need: In the subject line, it helps if you mention what you need, so we can look it up and respond faster.  I cannot memorize all your monograms, so please sign all emails with your name!

Here is the University’s policy on e-mail, which we will follow for the success of this course: “Each student is issued a University e-mail address ([email protected]) upon admittance. This e-mail address may be used by the University for official communication with students. Students are expected to read e-mail sent to this account on a regular basis. Failure to read and react to University communications in a timely manner does not absolve the student from knowing and complying with the content of the communications. The University provides an e-mail forwarding service that allows students to read their e-mail via other service providers (e.g., Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo). Students that choose to forward their e-mail from their pitt.edu address to another address do so at their own risk. If e-mail is lost as a result of forwarding, it does not absolve the student from responding to official communications sent to their University e-mail address.”

Getting an email response: I want to give you the individual feedback you need. Here are the guidelines that allow you to receive feedback and help in a timely manner.  Schedule: I answer e-mails Monday through Friday, 8 am-6 pm Eastern Time, throughout the course. I generally do not answer e-mails on weekends, holidays, or after hours, so do not put off preparing for your assignments until the weekend.  Response time: You can expect a response within 24 hours of your e-mail, as long as you follow the course guidelines. If you do not hear from me, please wait 24 hours and then send another e-mail, in case yours did not reach me.  Telephone Calls: You may need to have a conversation about something in the course, when e- mail communication does not suffice. I will arrange such “office hours” on an as-needed basis. To arrange a call, just e-mail your available time/days. I will be glad to schedule a call to you between 8 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday, at a mutually convenient time.

3 How Your Work Will Be Evaluated and Graded Once your work is received, it will be processed through the anti-plagiarism checking system and then graded. You will receive written feedback and a score on writing assignments. Some assignments will have a rubric that you will receive in advance. Each assignment will have the total points possible indicated.

You will have complete access to your own grades through the Courseweb Grade Center. Total points possible for the course = 450. Grades will be assigned as follows: Standard grading procedures will be followed: The percentage of points you earn will determine your grade as follows: Letter Grade Points

A 400-450

B 360-399

C 315-359

D 270-314

F 269 or below

Incomplete course grades will be given only in emergencies, with requested documentation such as a note from a physician. If you receive an incomplete grade, you will have one calendar year to complete all remaining assignments before your incomplete grade converts to an F for the course, under University policy.

Course Requirements Homework: Following each class, you must log on to the Courseweb site. For each week, you may find general information, video clips, readings, slide presentations, and homework exercises. Random Five: This course is a flipped classroom format. This means that we do background reading before class so we can use class time to do application exercises. The outside-of-class time focuses on critical readings in the field of child and adolescent emotional and behavior disorders. With that in mind, we need to be working together to discuss the readings and case studies. What happens in a flipped classroom when students do not complete the readings? A few people talk and the others “pretend” they understand the discussion. The discussions never reach real depth, because not everyone is familiar with the terms and concepts. Misunderstandings about important strategies happen. These can affect our practice. What are our choices for ensuring that everyone is reading? Pop quizzes are one we’ve rejected! On the other hand, research has shown that note taking is one of our most effective strategies for learning new content. Therefore, each week, the instructor will select five students whose notes will be graded. These notes are on the assigned reading. Have your notes typed or written legibly and printed for

4 these “Random Five” checks. Alternatively, you can email your notes to me immediately after the class (not the next day) when your number is picked. Your notes will be evaluated on: a) how well you demonstrate that you have read the entire chapter and understood the major ideas; b) your notes about points new to you or that you found interesting as well as c) questions you pose. You may write in an outline or in paragraphs. The format is up to you. We are learning together in this course. One of the ways we "talk" with one another is through the notes you submit. Here are some tips to make that activity more meaningful: I would like to see evidence of your thinking as you are studying each chapter. You can show that by posing questions, making your own connections and observations, or relating your reading to something in your own work or school experience. Writing notes for yourself about just what the chapter says is essential, too. So it is a combination of taking notes and reflecting/questioning/relating. Every chapter becomes more specialized and therefore more challenging to understand. I am looking forward to "talking" with you via your notes. With that in mind, consider typing them and emailing them to me right after class. That way I can comment directly in the document and learn more about what you are thinking. Total Points = 50 Attendance: We will have wonderful discussions if everyone is present. Please do not skip classes! If you are not attending classes, this will lower your grade as follows: second unexcused absence reduces your grade by 10%; subsequent unexcused absences reduce your grade by 5% each absence. If you have an emergency that will result in your being late or absent, please email me before class at [email protected]. I will let you know whether each absence is excused or not.

Class Participation: As a graduate student, you must show that you are participating in the course exercises and discussions. Participation is defined as being prepared for class, asking and answering meaningful questions during class, respecting others by listening and showing your attention to them while they are speaking, offering resources and help to others, and actively participating in small group exercises or in on-line discussions. Please use person-first language in your discussions. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/pdf/DisabilityPoster_Photos.pdf You may earn 10 points per class for participation, for 10 classes. Total Points = 100 Major Project Guidelines: Because this is a graduate course in a professional school, all of your major assignments are designed to address needs in the field of children’s mental health. Previous classes have made significant contributions to the field, through their publications on the www.sbbh.pitt.edu web site. I encourage you to study their work. This course’s major project allows you the opportunity to improve practice in the field of school mental health through the creation of resources for those who support students with special needs in inclusive settings both in and out of school. Specifically, you will review relevant best practices and information found in the peer-reviewed published literature, summarize what you found in an annotated bibliography, and create a discussion guide for teachers or other adults to facilitate a group discussion about a child’s emotional or behavioral disorder (EBD) or special situation. The goal is to help other youth understand the issues the child may face, through a respectful, sensitive, and informative presentation.

5 To ensure that your public contributions to the field are the best they can be, I do not give full grades on your first submissions, which I refer to as “drafts.” I review drafts that you turn in by the specified deadline. Late drafts are not accepted or read. You are welcome to submit drafts before the deadline if you want more time to work with feedback. Drafts and the review process serve two purposes: (a) to provide you with flexibility in your schedule of working on these projects and (b) to provide you with ample feedback so that you can improve your final submission. You will notice that your assignments below build on one another. They are an annotated bibliography, presentation, and “recommended children’s literature” list. You will submit drafts roughly each four weeks. Part 1, Annotated Bibliography: You are responsible for conducting a small literature review on a topic assigned to you. You will need at least ten articles in your bibliography, which means you will need to read the abstracts of 25 or so to make the best selections. You bibliography is in two parts. The first part is for adults (educators and parents). These articles must be from peer-reviewed journals published within the past 10 years. Limit your searches in EBSCO host databases to "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals." For other journal titles to seek approval from your instructor for use. Some examples of such journals include: . Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association . Elementary School Guidance & Counseling . Beyond Behavior . Behavioral Disorders . Journal of Counseling & Development . Journal of Mental Health Counseling . Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development . School Counselor . Advances in School Mental Health Promotion . School Mental Health . Preventing School Failure . Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions . Education and Treatment of Children . Reclaiming Children and Youth . Exceptional Children . Teaching Exceptional Children . Journal of Special Education . School Psychology Review . Intercultural Education

6 . International Review of Psychiatry . Any APA journal . Any American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry journal . Any conference proceeding or report from the Council for Exceptional Children The second part of your bibliography is for children and youth. You will choose these readings from a University Library database chose by our colleague, reference librarian Clare Withers. On January 13, Ms. Withers will instruct you on how to find and use this database on children’s literature. You will receive a rubric to guide your writing of your annotated bibliography. A rubric is a scoring guide that shows the criteria for satisfactory, poor, and excellent work. Your deadlines are on Monday nights as follows:  Reference list (with one annotation) is due on no later than 11:59 p.m. on February 2, 2015;  Annotated bibliography (draft) is due no later than 11:59 p.m. on February 23, 2015;  Final annotated bibliography (submitted within final project is due no later than 11:59 p.m. on April 20, 2015; Total Points: 100 points

Part 2, Discussion Guide through Power Point slides Your discussion guide will take the form of a Power Point presentation with speaker’s notes for the adult who facilitates the discussion. Here are the requirements for this guide.

 Design it to be no more than 40 minutes (the length of an average class period) for one session. If you have a follow-up activity such as a reading, that should be planned for another day or as homework.  Allow children to participate actively through discussion questions, “think-pair-share” activities, small group work, or other activities that prevent it from being merely a lecture. Directions for these activities must be included in a handout or on a slide.  Convey the point of view of a child and be in child-friendly language.  Include at least one handout for adults and one for children.  Include children’s literature.

Comprehensive draft is due no later than 11:59 p.m. on March 23, 2015. Final is due no later than 11:59 p.m. on April 20, 2015; Presentation of project will take place during the last class. Total Points: 200

Summary of Assignments Due Date Points Submit

Reference List including one Feb 2 25 Courseweb Portal annotation

Draft of Annotated Bibliography Feb 23 0 Courseweb Portal

7 Draft of Project Mar 23 50 Courseweb Portal

Final Annotated Bibliography Apr 20 75 Courseweb Portal

Final Project Apr 20 150 Courseweb Portal

Random 5 Random 50 In class or emailed during class

Participation 10 randomly 100 selected classes

TOTAL 450 points

General Written Assignment Guidelines: All written assignments must be typed in 12-point font. Please limit font usage to Times New Roman, Arial, Palatino Linotype, Courier, Cambria, or Georgia. Please double space and use one-inch margins. You must use APA style in your bibliography. The instructor will not correct your APA style for you. Any work produced by others must be cited and referenced. If you did not write it, cite it!

Academic Integrity: All students in the School of Education are required to sign a statement of student responsibilities with respect to academic integrity. Yours is on Courseweb and is due before the second class. http://www.english.pitt.edu/resources/plagiarism.html offers assistance in preventing plagiarism.

Turnitin Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of Turnitin.com page service is subject to the Usage Policy and Privacy Pledge posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Disability Accommodations: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and the Office of Disability Resources and Services, 140 William Pitt Union, 412-648-7890/412-624-3346 (Fax), as early as possible in the term. Disability Resources and Services will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. For more information, visit www.studentaffairs.pitt.edu/drsabout.

Classroom Recording: To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can be used solely for the student’s own private use.

8 Departmental Grievance Procedures: The purpose of grievance procedures is to ensure the rights and responsibilities of faculty and students in their relationships with each other. When a student in a PSYED course believes that a faculty member has not met his or her obligations (as an instructor or in another capacity) as described in the Academic Integrity Guidelines, the student should follow the procedure described in the Guidelines (See below) by (1) first trying to resolve the matter with the faculty member directly; (2) then, if needed, attempting to resolve the matter through conversations with the chair/associate chair of the department; (3) if needed, next talking to the associate dean of the school; and (4) if needed, filing a written statement of charges with the school-level academic integrity officer.

The more specific procedure for student grievances within PSYED is as follows:

1. The student should talk to the faculty member to attempt to resolve the matter. 2. If the matter cannot be resolved at that level, the student should talk to his or her advisor. 3. If the matter remains unresolved, the student should talk to the chair of PSYED (Dr. Suzanne Lane). 4. If needed, the student should next talk to the SOE Associate Dean (Dr. Michael Gunzenhauser). If the matter remains unresolved, the student should file a written statement of charges with the dean’s designated Academic Integrity Administrative Officer (Dr. Michael Gunzenhauser).

Internet Access: In order to succeed in this course, you need fast Internet access. The University has many fine computing labs available for your use. Here is the Web site where you can locate the labs and their operating schedules. http://technology.pitt.edu/Students.aspx. You have a free printing allocation every term. You can even set your home computer to send a print job to a campus lab. Call the HELP desk to learn how.

The School of Education also offers its students special computer labs. Here is the Web site for more information on these labs and their schedules: http://www.education.pitt.edu/technology/

Hardware and Software: You will need to use Microsoft Office software (especially Word and PowerPoint readers) for this course. You need to be able to open Adobe PDF files. The software is in the labs on campus. In addition, the complete Microsoft Office suite is available free to full-time students. For more information on how to download your software go to a University computing lab with your ID or go to: http://software.pitt.edu/ [For help with your id card, go to Panther Central in the Towers. http://www.pc.pitt.edu/card/photoid.html]

Part-time and non-degree students receive free Microsoft Office readers, Adobe reader and anti-virus software. You also can download the Adobe Reader free from www.adobe.com

Course Outline [Note: This outline may change as we work through the term and need more time on some topics. Please use Courseweb for the most updated outlines!]

January 6, 2015 After completing this week's work, you should be able to:

9 . Describe the course expectations, goals, and assignments. . Navigate the companion textbook Web site for the textbook and submit weekly assignments. . Navigate the Courseweb site, locate weekly outline, find your grades, and locate the discussion board. . Call four classmates by name and introduce them to others.

After completing Chapter 1 readings this week, you should be able to . Describe the process of determining students' needs for behavioral support and educational services, including the assessment data that should be collected and the decisions that should be made. . Describe the continuum of positive behavior support for students and indicate how decisions should be made regarding which students require what levels of intervention. . Explain the importance of using evidence-based practices to address student behavior, and the basis for determining that practices are based on research evidence. . Describe litigation affecting the education of students with emotional or behavioral disorders, including the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education improvement Act of 2004, (IDEA 2004), that affect school disciplinary practices for students with disabilities. . Indicate what a definition of behavioral disorders should accomplish and indicate weaknesses of the current federal definition. . Discuss the role of school-based teams with regard to addressing the needs of students for positive behavior support and for reducing the need to identify, label, and serve students in special education programs. . Give a rationale for creating systemic changes in schools as a basis for preventing and responding more effectively to challenging student behaviors. [Chapter 1]

NOTE: Student forms (academic integrity and student information) are due at the first class.

January 13, 2015 After completing this week’s class and readings, you should be able to  Call eight classmates by name.

January 20, 2015 After completing this week's work, you should be able to  Call all classmates by name.  Identify and define the critical features of SWPBS: outcomes, data, practices, and systems.  Describe the three tiers of SWPBS intervention: primary (or universal), secondary (or targeted group), and tertiary (or intensive individualized).  Articulate the steps schools take to implement the universal tier of SWPBS.  Describe how schools support students who do not respond to universal tier interventions by implementing targeted and intensive tier interventions.  Describe the empirical evidence that supports each tier of SWPBS. [Chapter 2] . Describe six principles of applied behavior analysis and give examples from school situations. . Describe professional, legal, and ethical guidelines affecting the use of behavioral interventions.

10 . Locate and use information systems and Internet services that provide intervention-planning resources for your first and second project.  Identify appropriate and inappropriate intervention alternatives for given behaviors and circumstances, and provide a rationale for each decision. [Chapter 3]

January 27, 2015 After completing this week's work, you should be able to  Describe the process and procedures for conducting behavioral assessments.  Describe issues that should be considered when identifying behaviors for intervention.  Explain the steps for conducting a functional behavioral assessment.  Given descriptions of recurring sequences of behavior in specific contexts, develop hypotheses describing functional relationships.  Given the function of behavior and other assessment data, identify components of a behavior intervention plan.  Given descriptions of target behaviors, write terminal intervention objectives and analyze these objectives by breaking them down into three to five task steps. [Chapter 4]

February 3 and 10, 2015 After completing these two weeks’ work, you should be able to  Select alternate ways to measure targeted behaviors that take into consideration the characteristics of the behavior, the setting, constraints on data collection, and the person collecting the data.  Explain and illustrate the following measurement strategies so that a parent or paraprofessional could use them: permanent product recording, event recording, trials to criterion recording, duration and response latency recording, interval recording, and time sampling.  Design an appropriate recording strategy for two or more target behaviors, or for monitoring multiple students who are exhibiting similar target behaviors.  Given event or interval data collected simultaneously by two observers, select the appropriate formula for calculating inter-observer agreement and calculate inter-observer agreement correctly. [Chapter 5]

February 17, 2015 After completing this week's work, you should be able to  Summarize and graph or chart data using techniques appropriate for the data.  Visually analyze graphed data and write data decision rules.  Identify the major types of single subject research designs and give the uses and imitations of each. [Chapter 6]

February 24, 2015 After completing this week’s work, you should be able to . Describe the criteria for identifying a universal intervention as effective (research-based) and list several examples.

11  Understand and give examples and non-examples of systematic preparation of students for their learning environment.  Analyze a classroom environment and modify it to maximize structure and predictability.  Conduct several activities that engage students in a classroom community.  Develop, post, monitor, and reinforce classroom expectations that reduce the likelihood of problem behaviors.  Self-monitor your verbal and non-verbal interactions with your students. . Assess and modify the strategies you use to engage students actively in learning (e.g., differentiated instruction). [Chapter 7]

March 3, 2015 After completing this week’s work, you should be able to  Explain and give examples of targeted and intensive interventions for annoying and disruptive behaviors.  Select the best intervention for an individual student’s disruptive behavior.  Design and carry out a self-monitoring procedure. [Chapter 8, individual interventions]

March 10, 2015 [SPRING BREAK]

March 17, 2015 After completing this week's work, you should be able to  Select the best interventions for a group of students who exhibit disruptive behavior.  Design and implement a token economy.  Design and carry out a group contingency. [Chapter 8, group interventions]

March 24-31, 2015 After completing these two weeks’ work, you should be able to  Offer four reasons why students engage in antisocial behavior.  Conduct a functional analysis of aggressive behavior.  Identify alternatives to verbal confrontations with students.  Implement three interventions for students with aggression. [Chapter 9]

April 7, 2015  Define the various types of self-stimulatory and self-injurious behavior.  Assist in conducting a functional analysis of a self-stimulatory and self-injurious behavior.  Discuss the theoretical concepts underlying self-stimulatory and self-injurious behavior.  Identify an effective intervention for self-stimulatory and self-injurious behavior.  Discuss the ethical issues in carrying out aversive and restrictive interventions.  Assist in conducting a sensory extinction intervention. [Chapter 10]

April 14, 2015 After completing this week's work, you should be able to

12  Describe the relationship between the restrictiveness of treatment settings and the extent to which intervention effects generalize to other environments.  Identify and describe obstacles to the maintenance and generalization of treatment effects.  Describe strategies for achieving the maintenance and generalization of specific target behaviors.  Describe procedures for assessing the expectations and tolerances of less restrictive settings for desired and maladaptive behaviors.  Indicate factors to consider when planning for the transition of students to other environments.  Suggest strategies for accomplishing the successful transition of students to these other settings.  Explain the role of the special education teacher in working with families and other professionals. [Chapter 12]

April 21, 2015 This week we will: . Review and celebrate our accomplishments. . Share our work with our University colleagues and school personnel.

NOTE: Presentations will take place on April 21 at our final gathering. Attendance is required.