In preschool settings, the majority of interventions are individualized for children at high risk for challenging behavior. However, a few early childhood sites have begun to conceptualize and implement prevention and intervention initiatives modeled after the principles and key features associated with school-wide positive behavior support. In preschool settings, these efforts are referred to as program-wide positive behavior support (PWPBS). This article presents the findings of a descriptive evaluation in which 62 key stakeholders participated in focus group interviews to assess the social validity of a PWPBS initiative in the 1st year of implementation and to provide recommendations for how to improve the implementation effort. Other data sources included teacher surveys and classroom observations related to PWPBS goals and procedures, conducted intentionally to contextualize the social validity data gathered through the interviews. Results suggest that key stakeholders enthusiastically support the goals of the approach; perspectives about the procedures and outcomes varied considerably. Classroom observation and teacher survey data augment the qualitative data. Implications for model conceptualization and technical assistance efforts are discussed.
To explore the accessibility of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (SWPBIS) for students with severe disabilities, we conducted a survey of 179 schools implementing SWPBIS during the 2015-2016 school year. Personnel from each school reported the frequency and level of importance of SWPBIS implementation across Likert-type scale items related to the domains of systems procedures, practices, and data collection procedures applicable to students with severe disabilities. Personnel from each school also responded to open-ended items to report barriers to and strategies for including students with severe disabilities in SWPBIS. Overall, school personnel reported high levels of implementation and importance across these SWPBIS domains and a range of barriers and strategies related to SWPBIS accessibility. School characteristics related to grade level, tiers of SWPBIS implementation, and the percentage of students included in general education settings for a majority of the school day contributed to statistically significant differences in ratings of frequency and importance for some aspects of the SWPBIS domains.
Teaching in a public school is a demanding job as the multiple dynamics of a classroom can be a challenge. In addition to addressing the challenging behaviors that many students without disabilities exhibit, more and more students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are being included in the general education classroom. Effective instruction and the development of effective instructional environments have been demonstrated to decrease problem behaviors in students with histories of failure in school. Positive behavior support (PBS) provides a framework for considering development of instructional environments that increase the teacher's ability to deliver effective instruction to all students, thereby increasing success rates and reducing negative behavior across the school. The same PBS features: prediction, prevention, consistency, and evaluation apply in the classroom to decrease the number of problem behaviors and increase academic and social success. This paper presents a description of the key features of effective classroom PBS and demonstrates each via the use of case examples. The premise of PBS is that the more effectively the environment is designed, more effective it can be in facilitating classrooms that run smoothly and efficiently, allowing teachers to recognize, assess, and plan for students with special needs.
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