Modifying Artending-to-Work Behavior of a Learning Disabled Child

Abstract

A token reinforcement system was used to modify the attending-to-work behavior of a 9-year-old boy selected as the subject from a special classroom for the learning disabled. During Phase A, the baseline phase, he was attending to his work for an average of 60 percent of the time during a 30-minute period. (Data were taken at 10-second intervals.) During Phase B, when reinforcement for attending to work was instituted, the boy attended to his work an average of 88 percent of the 30-minute time period. The reversal phase showed the boy's rate for attention to work to drop to an average of 67 percent. To earn a token, the boy had to attend to his work consistently for five minutes, and was notified of earning a token by a light signal. Five tokens were needed to purchase one of the back-up reinforcers. In this study, attending-to-work behavior of a learning disabled child was amenable to the modification procedure of token reinforcement.