1. How to Handle Disruptive Behaviors
Written by Koji Takeshima, Summer 2002
Instructions don’t exhibit stimulus control over Pat’s behavior. He is relatively
high functioning when compared to other children in the classroom. He may play with
toys more appropriately and interact with people more naturally than the lower
functioning children. However, Pat also has a high frequency of tantrums, hitting,
kicking, pulling hair, crying, screaming, throwing, keeping materials away from tutors,
sliding down to the floor, saying, “No” to all questions, etc. His tutor is frustrated when
he attempts to conduct a Discrete Trial Training session because of these disruptive
behaviors.
At the time of entrance, most children engage in some sort of disruptive behaviors. Many
serious disruptive behaviors, including tantrums and crying, typically decrease in the first
couple of weeks after they enter the program. But, unfortunately, some children maintain
their disruptive behaviors, or may develop new types of disruptive behaviors, through
their interactions with tutors. No matter how challenging the behaviors are, changing
your performance can decrease them.
There are three possible reasons for the disruptive behavior.
1. The procedure is too difficult for your child: Your child either cannot easily do
what you ask, or the temporary relief from the task reinforces your child’s
disruptive and non-compliance behaviors.
2. You do not provide strong reinforcers for your child: Engaging in disruptive
behaviors can be more reinforcing than the reinforcers you provide.
3. You provide social reinforcement or attention following disruptive
behaviors: Your physical prompts, correction procedures, and instructions
following disruptive behaviors are also attention, which possibly reinforce
disruptive and non-compliance behaviors.
What can you do for your child?
1. Play actively: Imagine how important playing is for normal children in this age
group. Especially for children with many functional skills, playing should be a
stronger reinforcer than praising. Playing contingent on appropriate behaviors is
the key to make your child happy and decrease disruptive or any other problem
behaviors. Play with your child in the playroom. Does your child show any
disruptive behaviors? As long as your child enjoys playing with you (and your
playing follows appropriate behaviors), there should be a decrease in your child’s
disruptive behaviors. Make your Discrete Trial Training as fun as possible with
various types of play.
2. Limit attention for disruptive behaviors: Any type of attention following
inappropriate behavior could function as a reinforcer. For example, if your child
screams, many people may look at your child and may provide a comment of
concern. This attention may be the reinforcer that maintains the screaming
behavior.

2. Do’s and Don’ts for decreasing your child’s disruptive behaviors
Do Don’t
 Use easy instructions in between  Pay unnecessary attention after the
difficult instructions disruptive behaviors
 Check pacing  Show reinforcers to motivate and ask,
 Provide reinforcers when your child is “What do you want to work for?” after
good (play and have fun after good disruptive behaviors (show reinforcers
behavior) only when your child is good)
 Dress in a way that your child cannot  Let your child escape from the tasks
easily grab your clothes and hair (it is
reinforcing to grab someone’s hair and
clothes!)
 Work through the procedure and block
any attempts at disruptive behaviors
NOTE: Saying “I have yet to find effective reinforcers today,” instead of, “Pat is
bored,” “Pat is frustrated,” “Pat is having a bad day,” “Pat doesn’t like me,” etc.
Once in a while, your child may engage in disruptive behaviors and may not follow your
instructions. You may say, “Pat is bored today.” How do you know Pat is bored? Because
Pat is engaging in disruptive behaviors and not following instructions. It is a circular
explanation. You should say, “I did not find strong reinforcers today.” How do you know
you did not find strong reinforcers? Because items or activity you provided after good
behaviors today did not increase the good behaviors. This, at least, is not circular.
Top 5 Helpful Hints
1. Have fun and be a kid yourself
2. Any problems, call your TA over
3. Get excited about small improvements
4. Always provide reinforcers when your child is good
5. Don’t overreact to bad behaviors

3. How To Obtain Eye Contact
Buddy is a child who rarely pays attention to tutors. He is described as “spaced
out,” because he often gazes at an open space for a long period of time. Even if a tutor’s
face gets as close as an inch from Buddy’s face, he does not look at the tutor. Buddy
interacts with a very limited number of objects. He may play with toys, but often does so
in unnatural ways, such as just watching a mirror ball, blocks, dolls, or a pinwheel, while
he makes some nonsense words. He may smile when a tutor tickles or touches him on
some occasions, but he may not at other times. Instead of playing in “normal” ways,
Buddy displays self-stimulatory behaviors, such as flapping his hands, nonsense talk,
grinding his teeth, etc. His tutor may have to pinch a piece of candy between his eyes to
obtain his eye contact before every single trial.
At the time of entrance to the program, all the children in our classroom display
some of the characteristics that Buddy has. But they improve!!! By graduation, some of
the children may be able to look at a tutor’s face for more than 5 seconds, some may be
able to play with some toys in more natural ways, and others may display less self-
stimulatory behaviors. Even tiny bits of progress may benefit the children’s and the
parents’ lives.
What can you do for your child?
1. Play actively: Playing can be a very strong reinforcer. Assume your child is not
paying attention to your instructions. Look at any of your child’s good behaviors
(e.g., sitting nicely, being quiet, attending to you). After your child’s good
behavior, play with your child for about 15 seconds, then stop playing for a
second. If your child has really enjoyed playing with you, he will look at you right
after the pause. That is when you should deliver the next instruction. Do not
repeat phrases such as, “Stop throwing things” or, “Look at me” in order to calm
your child down or get your child’s eye contact. Remember, these instructions to
discontinue inappropriate behavior are also types of attention, which are equally
likely to maintain the child’s inappropriate behaviors.
An effective tutor knows how to play with his/her child. In addition, never
provide a toy without playing with it and the child. A toy can be a very powerful
reinforcer, especially when you play with it. If you don’t play with a toy, you are
not using it to the best of your ability.
Example of playing: Show a toy suddenly (make it a surprise), whisper in your
child’s ear, blow bubbles, make him count to 3 and then tickle him, read a book like
Sam, I Am, etc. If you have questions of how to make a certain toy interesting or how
to actively play, PLEASE ask a TA!
2. Provide frequent reinforcement: What is the motivating operation (MO) for
self-stimulatory behaviors? It may be the lack of contingencies for incompatible
behaviors. If your child has lots of contingencies for incompatible behaviors,
there may be a decrease in self-stimulatory behaviors. In order to decrease self-
stimulatory behaviors, you should always provide various kinds of stimuli

4. following your child’s appropriate behaviors. Such stimuli should incorporate
several of the child’s senses, such as praising him while you touch his shoulder
and show him the toy you will play with together. In addition, you should never
ignore your child for more than 15 seconds including the time you are taking data.
Between-procedure intervals are the time when your child often has nothing to do.
If you need to read instructions in the child’s book or you need to take data, give
your child a toy and play with it for 10 seconds before you start reading or taking
data. When your child plays appropriately or sits down nicely, you should always
praise him. Yes, it is effortful, but your efforts will make a big difference in
decreasing self-stimulatory behaviors.
3. Pair tangibles and social reinforcers: Social reinforcers are any type of
attention, such as praising and touching. Children can never be satiated on social
reinforcers. These social “reinforcers” may not actually function as reinforcers
for many of the children at the beginning of our program. However, through
thousands of pairings, social attention can become a strong reinforcer. So,
especially for the children who work on procedures in phase 1 (the most basic),
praise them and touch them every single time you provide tangible reinforcers!
You may not be able to get your child to progress each time, but it really makes
the difference in a long run. We promise!!
Do’s and Don’ts for obtaining your child’s eye contact
Do Don’t
 Catch your child looking at you, give  Ignore when your child looks at you
reinforcers, and make a big deal  Proceed with the procedure without
 Seek strong reinforcers (try various getting the child’s attention
ways to play) and provide them  Ask your child’s name over and over
frequently after good behaviors  Go straight to the full physical prompt
 Minimize distractions (changing the
child’s position may help)
 Pair tangible reinforcers with social
reinforcers
 Use the attention procedure in ELOs
 Follow the hierarchy of prompts and
keep physical contact to a minimum in
the correction procedure
NOTE: Don’t use non-behaviors
According to WoodsEdge policy, when you see your child’s inappropriate behavior, you
should always use an instruction that specifies a behavior that is incompatible with the
current behavior, rather than an instruction to discontinue the inappropriate one. For
example, when your child stands up when he/she should not, you should say, “Go back to
the chair,” instead of “Don’t stand up.”