Introduction:
 I supervise an after school program in Harlem that caters to children with special needs (district 75). I meet with my coordinator twice a week to discuss the progress of the children and their activities.
Problem/Challenge
      Once a week I meet with my service coordinator to discuss any issues, problems or concerns that are arising in our after school program. She told me that Jason (not his real name) has a tendency to touch other children’s hair. Jason is an 8 year-old boy with mild Mental Retardation. She mentioned that at first she did not pay much attention to it. Every time he touched someone’s hair, she told him to stop and he did. Now she constantly has to ask him to stop. She has put him in time out, taken away treats and has mentioned this behavior to his mother. The mother told me that he constantly touches her hair too and the daytime teacher has mentioned it to her. The mother even got him a doll’s head with a full head of hair that he can comb and stoke. She admitted that giving him the doll’s head was not a good idea, because it increased his fixation on hair. The mother told my program coordinator that she does not know what to do.

 Goal
  Upon listening to the story I remembered of a behavior change plan called Differential Reinforcement of lower Rates of Behavior (DRL). I decided to introduce DRL to Jason. I believed that Jason is so fixated on touching hair that simply stopping would be very difficult. So explained the concept of DRL to my coordinator. DRL measures the number of times the behavior occurs within a set period of time. Then the student is told that that he/she can continue the behavior but needs to decrease the occurrence of the behavior by one. For example, if he touches hair 10 times within one hour, then we would give him a chance to touch a person’s hair 9 times within an hour the next day. This system gives him the chance to touch people’s hair, but decreases the occurrence day by day.  I am hopeful that the behavior decreases and eventually stops. I also told her that this behavior would be we supported with rewards that he likes. Jason likes action figure cards, so we decided to give him an action figure card when he stays on task. Meaning that he does not touch other student’s hair more then the amount told to him within the set frame of time.
My program coordinator and I observed Jason and learned that from 3:00pm –4:00pm, he touched other students’ hair 11 times. At 4-4:30pm the students eat a late lunch, so he does not touch anyone’s hair. Then from 4:30-5:00pm he touched student’s hair 4 times. We told him that he could touch student’s hair 10 times within one hour. If he did not over touch he would get an action figure card. He liked the idea, but we needed to put a number of things in place before beginning. We told him that he had to ask the students if he could touch their hair, before touching it. If they said no he could not touch their hair. Then we told him he could not touch there hair for more then 3 seconds. We demonstrated by having him touch my hair and counting to 3. My program coordinator and I feared that he would stroke and touch hair for a long period of time, so we had to put a time restriction on him. Then we introduced a timer on her desk that we would set at one hour, and she made a chart that noted how many times he had touched a person hair. Hopefully by putting all of these systems in place we can achieve our goal to decrease this behavior.

Outcome/Results:
 My coordinator and I monitored Jason for one week. The staff was made aware of the plan and was supportive. They simply made the coordinator aware of the behavior. She then noted it and told him the amount of hair touching he did. The behavior decreased. I believe it was due to a combination of the rewards and the ability to continue touching people’s hair. I noticed that towards day 4 he seemed to be more aware of his actions. He wanted to touch but then realized if he touched one more person’s hair, he would not receive his reward. I noticed that we had to increase his rewards. He was having difficulties only touching hair 6 times within on hour. We also praised him throughout the day, encouraged him not to touch and displayed his reward on the desk so he could see what he was actually working towards. His behavior has decreased, but has not totally stopped. The lowest he achieved was 4 times within one hour.

What would I do in the future?
 My program coordinator and I are still working with Jason to stop the behavior. The behavior has decreased and the mother is certainly pleased. I believe DRL is effective in decreasing behaviors from occurring. Jason is more aware of his actions and the staff continues to encourage him not to touch hair any more, then 4 times within the first hour of the program. Just the other day, my coordinator told me that he went down to two times within one hour. There are days we need to increase his reward and even change it to something he desires even more, for example a play station game. In the future I would use DRL and keep in mind that as the difficultly level increases, the rewards and praise may have to be increased as well. The behavior certainly was a difficult one to stop and Jason is a child with special needs. He possibly finds comfort in touching soft objects. I plan to introduce the topic of DRL to my program coordinator in Brooklyn to help any students who need to decrease a behavior. We plan to continue Jason on this program. I believe that in time with praise, encouragement and rewards he will stop.

Author: Alonzo Westbrook
Differential Reinforcement of Lower Rates of Behavior

Weeks 1 and 2
Almost everyday Jorge comes into class with his hat on. School policy, which we discussed in class, says he’s not supposed to wear his hat into the building. In fact, the hat should be put away, it’s not supposed to be displayed. As his teacher, but especially as dean of students, I have to enforce the rule. Further, if my superior comes by my classroom and sees Jorge with the hat, more than likely, he will reprimand me for not doing my job of enforcing the school hat policy. For all of these reasons I have asked Jorge not to bring his hat into my class. When I mention the hat to Jorge, he puts it away without a problem, but I need more: I need Jorge to stop openly displaying his hat in my classroom. I explain that by daily bringing the hat he is causing us to spend valuable class time on the same issue, an issue which he seems to understand, despite it being one with which he disagrees. He’s reluctant to put the hat in his book bag because he says, “the book bag will crush it.”

Week 3
Jorge continues to bring his hat. It’s frustrating. I want to scream at him stop bringing that  hat! I want to punish his non-compliance. Instead, I take a cue from Faber and Mazlish. I describe the problem. “The best part of using descriptive language is that it takes out the finger pointing and accusation, and helps everyone focus on what needs to be done (Faber, Adele, Mazlish, Elaine (2002). How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk. New York, NY: Quill, 2002:79).” Instead of telling Jorge: how many times do I have to tell you not to wear your hat in my classroom! I say to Jorge: you have your hat on. I recognize the former statement uses “you;” it is accusatory and could make Jorge defensive. By describing the problem Jorge responds positively and puts his hat in his bag. For the rest of the week I continue to describe the problem using a sentence or with a word by simply saying, “Jorge, hat.” It works to get Jorge to remove his hat from sight.

Week 4
Despite my using this less defensive approach that describes the problem Jorge continues to bring his hat to class. He defends the practice by saying, “I forgot.” After class I talk to him about possible consequences to me if I allow him to break the rule and to him if he continues to break the rule. I remind him he could be suspended 3-5 days for a hat infraction.

Week 5
To deal with his bringing the hat to class I attempt differential reinforcement of lower rates of behavior (DRL). “Instead of punishing the "bad behavior" to decrease it's occurrence, you get rid of it by using positive reinforcement in a structured manner (McIntyre, Thomas, Ph.D. Differential Reinforcement Procedures/DRL. Available Protocol: www.behavioradvisor.com).” I want to decrease the number of times Jorge brings his hat to class by rewarding appropriate behavior—the times he doesn’t bring the hat to class. Jorge is a special education student with a learning disability. He and I know he can’t afford to miss 3 or 5 days of school. The goal is to avoid punishing him by suspension and help him become responsible with his hat, thus motivate him to behave better. The first day I attempt to try DRL I can’t. I see Jorge with his hat. The next day before I saw his hat I said, “Thanks for not bringing your hat to school.” Jorge acknowledged my comment. But then, out of the corner of my eye, I see him sneaking to put the hat into his book bag. That was day one in trying to gain compliance using DRL.
Week 6
Monday: By now we know Jorge brings his hat 5 out of 5 times a week. I met with him to reveal this pattern of behavior. He wasn’t surprised and appeared nonchalant about the fact. However, he was surprised when I offered to reward him for not bringing his hat to school. I told him I would provide a positive reward for each day he didn’t bring his hat.
“What do you mean,” he asked? “What-chu gone give me?” By this response I knew he wasn’t completely attached to his hat and could be swayed into doing the right thing. From my time with Jorge I recognized he was vain. During one of our conversations he told me he wore his hat to “get the girls…plus, sometimes my hair be messed up, man.” From that conversation I knew what I could offer him, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to make the investment. But after weeks of non-compliance I thought ‘why not’. I offered to give Jorge a dollar each day he didn’t bring in his hat. I explained he could use the money to get a haircut; that by not bringing in the hat he could stay out of trouble, which would keep him in school so he could be with the girls and with a fresh haircut possibly ‘get the girls’. He laughed, “Are you for real, man?”
“Yes, I am,” I replied. “Okay,” he said with a bit of uncertainty. “It’s a deal, but I want my money, man.”
“You’ll get it,” I assured him. At that moment we detailed the particulars. I told him he
couldn’t bring the hat to school, not just my class. He agreed. I also stated for purposes of clarity that if he brought the hat to school he would not be rewarded for that day.

Contract is instituted
Tuesday, Day 1  Jorge didn’t bring in his hat or at least, I didn’t see it. I gave him one dollar.
Wednesday, Day 2  Jorge didn’t bring in his hat or at least, I didn’t see it. I gave him one dollar.
Thursday, Day 3  It so happens that I’d arrived in class early and had time to greet my students at the door. As I’m standing in the doorway I see Jorge coming down the hall stuffing his hat into his book bag. I explain that our agreement was based on the honor system and that what he was doing was cheating and unfair. He is complacent and seems to understand. I reiterate that the hat should not be brought to school. I ask him if he brought the hat on the days that I gave him money. He confesses he did and offers to give back the money. I ask him if he has it. He says he does. I instruct him to give it back to me. He does. I don’t reward him that day, but after class I tell him I still want what is best for him and that I’m doing this so he realizes how little importance the hat has. He hasn’t proven he can live without it.
Friday, Day 4  Jorge comes into class exclaiming, “Look, Mister, check my bag! See, I didn’t bring in my hat today! See, I told you I was not going to bring it in.” That’s not to say he didn’t bring in his hat. He could have given it to a friend to hold. But, fact is, I didn’t see the hat so I gave him a dollar.

Week 7
Week seven proved costly. Jorge didn’t bring in his hat or at least, I didn’t see it. I gave him $5 total.

The procedure for DRL is that as the student meets with success the teacher continues to lower the allowable amount of infractions until it reach an acceptable level. With a zero tolerance hat policy I had to modify the procedure to reflect  an immediate daily goal. It worked. Others now want me to pay for their haircuts. I don’t. Jorge now realizes the hat isn’t as important as he thought it was. What’s become more important now is looking good and having a fresh cut. DRL paid off...and I get to keep Jorge in class.

Use the "Back" button to return to the page on DRL