Sometimes, even a Natural Contingency is Not Enough

As I have talked about before, if we care about the child maintaining the skills that he or she has learned, we better think about making the reinforcement natural. That means that no one has to plan anything to make reinforcement happen. This is incredibly hard to do in many practical settings.

Not only is creating natural contingencies hard, but today I want to talk about the fact that even if you succeed, it might not be enough.

I was once working with a 3^rd grader with autism and minor behavior problems. We developed an extremely successful intervention based on the recruiting literature. Specifically, we taught him to:

Check his work and make sure it was correct
Raise his hand and be patient for the teacher to call on him.
Accept a redirection if the teacher told him it was not a good time
When the teacher called on him, he would say “Can you check my work?”
He would politely thank the teacher.
If the teacher said something unexpected like, “I can’t right now.” Or “you have to correct these errors.” He responded politely.

The intervention was a big success. The student learned the skills to obtain appropriate attention, which was sufficient to reduce the mild behavior problems that were bothering the teacher. The best part is that it was meeting a natural contingency. The teacher just acted as she naturally would. We didn’t do any training for the teacher or implement any sort of “behavior plan.” That’s the ideal–natural contingencies of reinforcement like this are what we need to get the long-term success that everyone wants!

Fast forward to 4^th grade. The student started using the same strategy as we had taught in him 3^rd grade. Unfortunately, the 4^th grade teacher had a system where she came around to check the work of each individual child. If kids raised their hands, she would yell “Put your hands down! I will come to you!” The behavior problems started to increase again, and intervention was again required in 4^th grade.

I think the lesson here is that, of course, we have to shoot for natural contingencies, which is incredibly hard. As frustrating as it is, even if you complete that difficult task, often it is not sufficient. We also have to teach our students to be flexible enough to change if the contingencies change. There are limited studies to help guide practitioners through this problem. It is a big challenge for all of us to Poogi in this area.

Behavior analytic services should only be delivered in the context of a professional relationship. Nothing written in this blog should be considered advice for any specific individual. The purpose of the blog is to share my experience, not to provide treatment. Please get advice from a professional before making changes to behavior analytic services being delivered. Nothing in this blog including comments or correspondence should be considered an agreement for Dr. Barry D. Morgenstern to provide services or establish a professional relationship outside of a formal agreement to do so. I attempt to write this blog in “plain English” and avoid technical jargon whenever possible. But all statements are meant to be consistent with behavior analytic literature, practice, and the professional code of ethics. If, for whatever reason, you think I’ve failed in the endeavor, let me know and I’ll consider your comments and make revisions, if appropriate. Feedback is always appreciated as I’m always trying to POOGI.