Selecting effective intervention strategies for escape-maintained academic-performance problems: Consider giving 'em a break!

This study compared consequence-and antecedent-based strategies to determine which treatments or combination of treatments produced the strongest improvements in math computation fluency with four elementary-aged students whose math computation was under the control of an escape contingency. Functional analyses were conducted to identify elementary-school students whose academic responding was under a negative-reinforcement contingency. A multielement design was then used to examine the impact of four treatments (DNRA, DRA, task choice, and task choice plus DRA) on each student's rate of correct digits per min. All four treatments increased rate of responding. Differentiated results were obtained for all participants, indicating a reliable effect. Yet, participants responded differently to the treatments, illustrating the need to investigate and adapt interventions for escape-motivated behavior on a case-by-case basis. Results are also discussed in terms of the effectiveness of choice relative to reinforcement procedures, whether there were additional benefits to combining treatments, and which type of reinforcement procedures (DRA or DNRA) appears to be more effective for students whose behavior is under the control of an escape contingency.