Effects of Tactile Prompting and Self-Monitoring on Teachers' Use of Behavior-Specific Praise
Markelz, Andrew M.; Taylor, Jonte C.; Kitchen, Tom; Riccomini, Paul J.; Catherine Scheeler, Mary; McNaughton, David B. (2019). Exceptional Children, v85 n4 p471-489. Retrieved from: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1219129
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examining3Students, grades2-4
Practice Guide
Review Details
Reviewed: February 2024
- Practice Guide (findings for Behavior-specific praise with electronic tactile awareness prompting - Markelz et al. (2019))
- Single Case Design
- Meets WWC standards without reservations
This review may not reflect the full body of research evidence for this intervention.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Findings
To view more detailed information about the study findings from this review, please download findings data here.
Evidence Tier rating based solely on this study. This intervention may achieve a higher tier when combined with the full body of evidence.
Sample Characteristics
Characteristics of study sample as reported by study author.
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Urban
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Northeast
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Race Other or unknown 100% -
Ethnicity Other or unknown 100% -
Eligible for Free and Reduced Price Lunch Other or unknown 100%
Study Details
Setting
The study took place in three self-contained classrooms in an urban elementary school in the Northeastern United States.
Study sample
Two students (Aiden and Brett) were in self-contained emotional support classrooms and one student (Carter) was in a self-contained classroom for children with autism. Aiden was an 8-year-old male in grade 2 with an emotional disturbance; Brett was a 10-year-old-male in grade 4 and had an intellectual disability; and Carter was an 8-year-old male in grade 3 and had autism.
Intervention Group
Behavior-specific praise is the practice of providing positive feedback to students that names specific, desirable social or academic activities. Tactile prompting is the practice of providing regular cues for a desirable behavior, such as a device that vibrates at a regular interval worn or carried by a teacher. In this study, the researchers used reminders on a smart watch to prompt teachers to provide behavior-specific praise on a regular basis. The length of the intervention condition varied by teacher/student dyad. The intervention phase lasted 9 sessions for the Ms. Alexa/Aiden dyad, 14 sessions for the Ms. Blain/Brett dyad, and 9 sessions for the Ms. Cooper/Carter dyad. Sessions lasted 20 minutes, and teacher prompts were gradually reduced from 12 to 6 to 0 prompts after three sessions of meeting their goals for providing behavior-specific praise. Because she did not meet her goals, Ms. Blain was given a booster training and the intervention phase was restarted. The maintenance phase lasted 5 sessions for all three dyads.
Comparison Group
There is no comparison group for single-case designs. During the baseline phase, teachers wore their smart watches without the tactile prompting active and continued their business-as-usual practices. Each teacher remained in the baseline phase until a stable baseline was established with at least five data points. The baseline phase lasted 5 sessions for the Ms. Alexa/Aiden dyad, 8 sessions for the Ms. Blain/Brett dyad, and 11 sessions for the Ms. Cooper/Carter dyad.
Support for implementation
All teachers received training prior to the start of the intervention, and teachers who did not reach their goals of providing behavior-specific praise were retrained.
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Study findings for this report.
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