Selective Use of Attention Handout

Classroom Interventions for Children with

Attention Deficit Disorder

Selective use of Teacher Attention

Description

The selective use of teacher attention is a positive reinforcement strategy for building up and maintaining appropriate classroom performance and behavior. It involves increased monitoring of students’ behavior, systematically attending to appropriate behavior, and ignoring inappropriate attention-seeking behavior. The selective use of teacher attention should be the mainstay of a teacher’s classroom management strategy.

Attention is highly valued by children. A teacher’s smile, praise, hand on the shoulder, encouragement, acknowledgment, and silence can have a significant effect on children’s behavior (O’Leary & O’Leary, 1977). Teachers need to be aware of the effect of their attention on maintaining appropriate and inappropriate behavior. If a child is called on and praised for raising her hand appropriately, the child will be more likely to raise her hand than to blurt out. Praising and encouraging a child for working attentively on his math worksheet will increase his on-task behavior and work completion.

Attention also can increase negative classroom behaviors. Disruptive behaviors can be inadvertently rewarded through negative teacher attention. Responding to negative behaviors with a scowl, reprimand, or some other form of negative teacher attention can be rewarding to some children.

Advantages

Using attention selectively in the classroom takes less time and effort than more complex positive reinforcement programs. One study found that after the teacher had altered her pattern of attention, she spent 25% less time attending to social behaviors than she had initially, and the children displayed 70% less disruptive behavior (Madsen, Becker, & Thomas, 1977). Another study demonstrated that systematically attending to the behavior of children with problems did not adversely affect other children in the class. Rather, it resulted in better behavior in the rest of the class and improved relations between the child with problems and her peers (Drabman & Lahey, 1977). Results such as these demonstrate that using attention selectively in the classroom can be efficient and effective.

Limitations

There are some limitations to using selective attention with children with ADD. First, attention can be less powerful than a positive reinforcement program that uses tangible rewards and privileges. For children with at least moderate ADD symptoms, a more powerful reward system may be needed. Second, behavior change resulting from the selective use of attention is slower than that typically seen with punishment or more powerful reward programs. It may take weeks of consistently ignoring inappropriate behavior and praising appropriate behavior before significant change is seen in a child with ADD. Third, while studies support that a combination of praising appropriate behavior and ignoring inappropriate behavior can successfully reduce classroom disruptiveness, studies of the classroom management of children with ADD suggest that some level of mild punishment for inappropriate behavior will be needed for effective classroom management (Pfiffner, Rosen, & O’Leary 1985; Rosen, O’Leary, Joyce, Conway, & Pfiffner, 1984).

Implementation

Using attention effectively in the classroom requires strategic timing and selective use. One problem with discussing the use of attention and ignoring is that it sounds so obvious and simple. Most teachers attend to and ignore behavior to various degrees, and most will acknowledge that positive attention should be a part of any educational strategy. However, the systematic use of attention and ignoring requires great skill.

Using attention systematically involves noticing appropriate behavior and immediately rewarding it with efficient social attention, while selectively ignoring negative attention-seeking behavior. Again, the timing and selective use of attention is critical.

Using attention in a systematic and selective way does not necessarily mean that teachers will have to spend more time interacting with students. It is not the time spent interacting as much as it is the pattern of teacher-child interactions. Most teachers already spend a great deal of time reacting to disruptive behavior. It becomes a problem, however, when the ratio of attention to negative behaviors exceeds attention to positive behaviors.

The component skills of attending, ignoring, and monitoring children’s behavior are described below.

Attending to Appropriate Behavior

The skills involved in attending to appropriate behavior are praising, nonverbal attention (e.g., smiling), and positive physical contact (e.g., placing a hand on the shoulder, patting, or hugging). Praising is a powerful form of social attention. Several suggestions can be made to maximize the effectiveness of praising.

	Deliver in a warm tone of voice In trying to increase the frequency of praise, particularly with a child who is displaying a high rate of negative behaviors, attempts may feel somewhat awkward and artificial. In order for praise to be effective, it must be perceived by the child as being genuine. To accomplish this, the praise should be delivered in a warm tone of voice.
	Vary the content of the praise When increasing the frequency of praise, the teacher will need to be aware of behaviors and situations that can be praised. Teachers will have to "catch’em being good." In looking for behaviors to praise, the teacher can praise specific behaviors ("That is a very nice drawing!"), attributes of the child ("Boy, that is a great drawing, you are very creative!"), and aspects of the situation in general ("You sure are cooperating with your classmates!").
	Specify the behavior Praise will be more powerful if the behavior being praised is specified. A statement should be added to the praise which tells the child what was liked about the behavior. For example, "Thanks for picking up the paper like I asked, that was good minding! I like that!"
	Give close in time to the behavior The effectiveness of praise can be enhanced by giving it close in time to the behavior. The principle of immediacy states that the closer the consequence is to the behavior, the more powerful it will be. Do not wait to praise appropriate behavior, do it immediately.
	Praise often Behavior change through using social attention is relatively slow. A one-time praise will have little effect. Praise needs to occur often before it will result in significant change, maybe as many as 50 to 100 times.

Ignoring Inappropriate Attention-Seeking Behavior

If attention is a reward that increases or strengthens behavior, then withholding attention or ignoring can be effective in decreasing or weakening behavior through the behavioral principle of extinction (previously rewarded behavior that ceases to be rewarded will decrease over time). Teachers can increase appropriate classroom behavior by systematically attending to appropriate behavior, while simultaneously decreasing inappropriate behavior through withholding attention or ignoring.

Ignoring is a useful strategy for reducing some inappropriate behaviors. There are several reasons why you should consider ignoring.

Many times, negative attention is a reward to children.
Attending to negative attention-seeking behavior, through reprimands or scowls, can inadvertently reward that behavior.
Ignoring behaviors that are being maintained by teacher attention decreases the behaviors through the principle of extinction.
Simultaneously ignoring inappropriate behavior and attending to appropriate behavior helps the child notice the difference between your responses to appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.

Ignoring is a useful strategy for decreasing annoying attention-seeking behaviors. Ignoring will be ineffective if the behaviors are not maintained by teacher attention. For example, some behaviors are maintained by peer attention, or have their own reward, such as not having to complete work. In these cases, other techniques for reducing behavior should be used. In addition, unacceptable behaviors should not be ignored, such as noncompliance to teacher requests or classroom rules and aggression. These should be reduced through punishment.

Several suggestions can be made to maximize the effectiveness of ignoring.

	Complete withdrawal of verbal and nonverbal attention In order to use ignoring effectively, all verbal and nonverbal attention must be completely withdrawn. This involves physically turning away from the child and not interacting.
	Ignore only as long as the child is engaging in the inappropriate behavior Once ignoring is begun, the child’s behavior should be privately monitored. When the inappropriate behavior is stopped, attention should be returned. For example, if a child purposely falls out of his desk, the teacher could ignore the behavior, but privately monitor the child, waiting for appropriate seating behavior. The teacher could even praise another child nearby that is sitting appropriately, as a model. The teacher should quickly attend to the child, once he seats himself appropriately.
	Praise behaviors which are incompatible with the ignored behavior Ignoring inappropriate behavior without attending to appropriate behavior will not be effective. Appropriate behavior should be built up with positive attention.
	Be consistent Consistently ignoring negative attention-seeking behavior can be very difficult. Since the behaviors are annoying, sometimes they are inadvertently reinforced by forgetting to ignore or by attending to the behavior with eye contact or verbal attention. Behavior that is ignored inconsistently would be on a variable schedule of reinforcement, which is resistant to extinction. That is, if you are less than consistent, the ignored behavior will likely persist despite attempts to ignore. To effectively use ignoring, you must use it consistently. This requires skill, careful monitoring of behavior, and awareness of the subtle interplay between attention and ignoring.
	Expect the ignored behavior to initially increase before decreasing
	Expect change to be relatively slow

Monitoring Students’ Behavior

In order to effectively use attention, teachers need to increase their monitoring of children’s behavior. Teachers must be aware of both appropriate and inappropriate behavior, and their response to these behaviors. The challenge for teachers is to be very aware of children’s behavior and respond appropriately while simultaneously carrying on the lesson plan.

Becoming more aware of children’s behavior and teacher response to children’s behavior will require practice. There are several methods that teachers can use to practice the use of selective attention.

	Smilely Cards Teachers can place several "smilely faces" at prominent locations in the room (e.g., next to clock, back of room, etc.). When the teacher notices these visual reminders, the teacher can quickly scan the room and notice the behavior of the target child. If the child’s behavior is appropriate, the teacher can reward the child with teacher attention (e.g., praise, smile, pat on shoulder).
	Beans in Pocket This method involves placing beans in one pocket and transferring one bean to the other pocket each time a praise is used with a target child. For example, a teacher set of goal of giving 15 praises to a target child in a one hour period. The teacher placed 15 beans in one pocket and transferred one bean to the other pocket for each praise that was given. At the end of the hour, the teacher was able to receive feedback about her performance by counting the number of beans transferred. The advantage of this method is that it provides for practice with feedback. Practice with feedback is a more powerful method of behavior change than practice without feedback. By setting the goal high, the teacher is challenged to "catch’em being good."
	Taped Cues Teachers can make an audio tape that has brief, soft tones that sound at variable intervals. Make the intervals no closer than once every 5 minutes. Have the intervals vary between 5 minutes and 10 minutes. When the tone goes off, the teacher is reminded to scan and attend to the behavior of the target child.

References

Drabman, R. S., & Lahey, B. B. (1977). Feedback in classroom behavior modification: Effects on the target and her classmates. In K. O’Leary & S. O’Leary (Eds.), Classroom management: The successful use of behavior modification (pp. 95-107). New York: Pergamon Press.

Madsen, C. H., Becker, W. C., & Thomas, D. R. (1977). Rule, praise, and ignoring: Elements of elementary classroom control. In K. O’Leary & S. O’Leary (Eds.), Classroom management: The successful use of behavior modification (pp. 63-84). New York: Pergamon Press.

O’Leary, K., & O’Leary, S. (1977). Teacher attention. In K. O’Leary & S. O’Leary (Eds.), Classroom management: The successful use of behavior modification (pp. 55-61). New York: Pergamon Press.

Pfiffner, L, Rosen, L., & O’Leary, S. (1985). The efficacy of an all-positive approach to classroom management. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 18 (3), 257-271.

Rosen, L, O’Leary, S., Joyce, S., Conway, G., & Pfiffner, L. (1984). The importance of prudent negative consequences for maintaining the appropriate behavior of hyperactive students. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 12 (4), 581-604.