A Review of The Tough Kid On-Task in a Box

Abstract

Leary (1980) asked the simple question, which is more beneficial for children, pills or skills, he would sound an alarm that would motivate behavioral researchers to search out effective programs that could serve as reasonable alternatives to the rush to medical intervention? Thirty-five years later, despite decades of well-documented behavioral research into effective interventions, we appear no closer to resolving this question than we were when O'Leary postulated it. Although behavior therapy is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, evidence suggests a lack within the medical community of recommended psychological options (Visser et al. 2015). As noted by Visser et al., as of 2015, 43 % of the 6.4 million children diagnosed with ADHD are currently treated with medication, as compared with 13 % of those diagnosed with ADHD being treated with behavior therapy.We might ask ourselves why, with guarded sentiment directed towards medicating children, is the common route to treating the most severe symptoms of ADHD still so squarely in the medical realm? As operators within the common human species, educators and practitioners find themselves governed by many of the same contingencies impacting their clients and students. Behavior often takes the easiest and least intrusive path towards the desired outcome. When the expectation is to build an effective intervention for a very tough child with a shortage of resources available, the medical intervention might be seen as the path of least resistance. However, within this process, the attainment of critical skills might be overlooked. The need for user-friendly behavioral options for teachers and other providers of educational programs for school-age children is still apparent.Jenson and a variety of colleagues have made it a focus to provide practitioners with easy-to-use tools designed to be helpful across a variety of settings to effectively remediate problems encountered by those working with children having very challenging behavior problems. We will review the most recent addition to the Tough Kid compendium, On-Task in a Box. Program RationaleThe Tough Kid On-Task in a Box (Jensen and Sprick 2014) is presented in an easy-to-understand format, is designed for immediate implementation within the school setting, and can be used with an individual student, two students, or with an entire class. It is set up in four sections each with multiple subsections describing specific uses and activities. On-Task in a Box is designed to be a comprehensive evidence-based intervention kit providing on-task training through a behavior intervention program for school-aged children meeting thresholds for frequency of off-task behaviors in the classroom setting. On-Task in a Box utilizes self-monitoring and selfgraphing, peer modeling with optional self-modeling, frequent positive reinforcement, and a reward system for meeting goals. The intervention presented in the facilitator's manual is organized into four sections: A Bprogram overview^that outlines the importance ...