Issues Surrounding the Use of Self-Management Interventions in the Schools

The Effects of Self-Management in General Education Classrooms on the Organizational Skills of Adolescents With ADHD

Self-management procedures have been used in school settings to successfully reduce problem behaviors, as well as to reinforce appropriate behavior. A multiple-baseline across participants design was applied in this study to evaluate the effects of using a self-management procedure to enhance the classroom preparation skills of secondary school students with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Three male students enrolled in a public secondary school were selected for this study because teacher reports suggested that these students were insufficiently prepared for class and inconsistently completed assignments. The intervention involved training in self-management procedures focusing on the improvement of classroom preparation skills. Following the intervention, the training process was systematically faded. Results were consistent across the 3 participants in enhancing classroom preparation behaviors. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Teaching secondary students with learning disabilities to self-manage classroom survival skills

This multiple baseline study investigated the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral self-management training package on the consistent use of specific classroom survival skills. Participants were three adolescent males with learning disabilities in Grades 7 and 8. The training package involved a multicomponent strategy focused on the improvement, maintenance, and cross-classroom generalization of targeted classroom preparedness skills. Following intervention, the training procedures were systematically faded. Results demonstrated more consistent use of targeted classroom survival skills by all three students in both learning support and mainstream generalization settings. Long-term maintenance of the intervention effects was observed for two students in both settings. Three social validity measures revealed positive results. Implications for self-management in secondary education settings are discussed.

Generalization and maintenance of treatment gains using self-management procedures with behaviorally disordered adolescents

Using reversal design (A-B-A-B) we investigated the effectiveness of self-management strategies to reduce disruptive, off-task behavior for three students from a self-contained classroom for behaviorally disordered students. Two were boys (ages 13 yr., 2 mo. and 14 yr., 4 mo.) and one a girl (age 13 yr., 3 mo.). The study investigated the maintenance and generalizability of treatment gains in a regular education setting. Parallel changes of self-concept influenced by the self-management procedures were also measured. Results strongly support that self-management techniques reduce off-task behavior, generalize to regular education settings, and help maintain treatment gains. Also, behavioral self-concept was markedly improved to within normal limits with the implementation of self-management procedures.