Chandler McAlister

October 10, 2015

Behavior Change Project

Observations:
I spent the first few days of school observing different students and their behaviors. One
student that stood out to me was student D. I began to observe his strengths and weaknesses. His
observed strengths in the preschool classroom include the following: he is good at playing with
other children his age, he will initiate conversations with others, he uses clear speech that I am
able to understand, and he enjoys being a part of the classroom community. His observed
weaknesses in the preschool classroom include the following: he speaks in short phrases of 2-3
words, he is unable to recognize social cues or facial expressions, he requires constant reminders
from adults for acceptable behavior and directions, he sucks his thumb, he is consistently
touching others, and he talks out of turn and at inappropriate times.
The one behavior that got my attention was his thumb sucking. Throughout the day I
noticed he was sucking his thumb a majority of the time. The thumb sucking occurred during
circle time when he was not actively doing things with his hands, during any wait time, and then
again at various times during the day. The teacher also noticed this as a behavior issue and would
tell him to put his hand in his lap. Sometimes the teacher or one of the aides would pull his arm
down from his mouth as well. This intervention did not seem to be working.
Before I continued in the project I wanted to make sure that the behavior needed to be
changed. He is 4 years old and I thought that thumb sucking could possibly be a behavior that is
age appropriate since I have seen many children do this before. I also wanted to know if the
behavior would possibly resolve overtime without intervention. So, I conducted light research on
thumb-sucking. The majority of the research I read said that parents should not worry about
thumb-sucking until children were older than 5 or 6 if the behavior was occurring during a

Chandler McAlister
October 10, 2015

typical time, such as bedtime. In student Ds case, the thumb-sucking is not confined to
appropriate times such as bedtime, so I decided that this would be a good behavior to work on.
While he is sucking his thumb he is not participating in the preschool classroom. With his
finger in his mouth he is not able to sing songs, do hand motions, or communicate effectively.
Because of this he will not gain as much from school if he is sucking his thumb.
The behavior of thumb-sucking has to be replaced with something else more socially
appropriate before he goes to Kindergarten. Without intervention the behavior will lead to
teasing, and it will become a distraction that will hinder his learning.

Brainstorming:
Operational Definition: Student D sucks his thumb.
ABC: What happens before and after the behavior occurs?
Antecedent
Students are sitting on the
carpet on their spot for
circle time.

Behavior
Consequence
Student D sticks his thumb The teacher tells student D
in his mouth.
hand down or someone
moves his hand out of his
mouth.

Function: Oral Sensory/Security

Appropriate Intervention: To replace the behavior of thumb-sucking, which acts as a
security blanket, the child will hold a weighted animal in his lap during circle time.

Implementation:
The intervention chosen to replace his thumb-sucking behavior was a lap buddy
(weighted animal) to provide a sense of comfort and security (see picture below).

Chandler McAlister
October 10, 2015

On October 7, 2015, prior to circle time, D was introduced to the animal. I used this
script to introduce him to the lap buddy: Hi, D. I have this turtle and I really need someone to
take care of him for me during circle time. You have to sit on your bottom and hold him in your
lap. Do you think you can do that for me? Lets go sit down on the carpet and then I will put him
in your lap. Take good care of him. He sat down on his spot on the carpet and I placed the turtle
in his lap. I had to redirect the other children immediately to not touch the turtle. This is
something I could have done before I handed him the turtle. I could have introduced the turtle to
the whole class rather than just D so that they knew that he was going to hold him for me and to
give my expectations for the rest of the class. Despite this, the turtle was a distraction for only a
few moments. Once the children were engaged in circle time they forgot about the turtle. During
this time, D required a lot of redirection. Ms. B and I reminded him multiple times that the turtle
had to stay in his lap. We noticed without any data that his thumb sucking was decreased and he
was participating more. He stuck the turtles nose in his mouth a total of 9 times. The time the
turtle was in his mouth was minimal. He would bang on the turtles back and talk to him
occasionally, but overall he was attentive.

Chandler McAlister
October 10, 2015

Data/Implementation:
With a stopwatch I took the time in seconds that D was found sucking his thumb over a period of
time during circle time activities. Below are the results.
Without Intervention: September 30, 2015 during Circle time.
Start time: 8:43 AM
End time: 9:08 AM
Total time (seconds): 1,500 seconds (25 minutes)
Total time behavior occurred (seconds): 943.75 seconds
Percentage of time behavior occurred: 62%
Time (Seconds)
3.08
22.51
45.17
20.07
28.14
15.10
11:53
3.13
46.69
5.15
65.96
42.68
8.22
104.03
37.85
38.08
7.07
27.67
133.01

Time behavior occurred.

8:43
8:44
8:45
8:45
8:46
8:46
8:46
8:47
8:48
8:48
8:49
8:50
8:51
8:51
8:53
8:53
8:54
8:55
8:57

87.00
10.55
19.49
15.40
10.21
34.75
13.65

9:00
9:01
9:01
9:02
9:03
9:04
9:05

What was the class doing?

Waiting to start
Waiting to start
Waiting to start
Waiting to start
Waiting to start
Waiting to start
Waiting to start
Good morning song
Good morning song
Good morning song
Wait time
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
(his turn to the board)
Who came to school today?
Calendar
Calendar
Calendar
Calendar
Calendar
Calendar (He was the weather
helper)

Chandler McAlister
October 10, 2015

7.18
21.82
10.38
9.85
29.78
8.55

9:05
9:05
9:06
9:07
9:08
9:08

Weather
Weather
Weather
Weather
Weather
Weather

With Intervention: October 7, 2015 during Circle Time.

Start time: 8:49 AM
End time: 9:12 AM
Total time spent at circle time (seconds): 1,380 seconds (23 minutes)
Total time behavior occurred: 261.35 seconds
Percentage of time behavior occurred: 18%
*Amount of times the turtle went in his mouth: 9 times
Time (Seconds)
10.92
8.0
42.32
12.35
22.29
8.47
45.67
5.87
16.12
10.00
9.02
10.65
3.38
4.91

Time behavior occurred.

8:50
8:53
8:54
8:58
8:58
8:59
8:59
9:00
9:01
9:03
9:03
9:04
9:04
9:05

9.72
4.18
2.68
16.59
9.72
6.18
2.31

9:07
9:08
9:08
9:09
9:10
9:11
9:12

What was the class doing?

Waiting to begin
Good morning song
Good morning song
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
Who came to school today?
(His turn to go to the board)
Calendar
Calendar
Calendar
Calendar
Weather
Weather
Weather

Chandler McAlister
October 10, 2015

Data Interpretation/Reflection:
The frequency of student Ds thumb-sucking was decreased by 44%. Without
intervention he sucked his thumb 62% of the time spent in circle time. With intervention he
sucked his thumb 18% of the time spent in circle time. He stuck the intervention item (lap
buddy) in his mouth 9 times. The time was not counted as thumb-sucking behavior.
During the weeks prior to the project the intervention to the behavior used in the
classroom was to tell him to put his hand down or for the teacher to come tap his arm, removing
his hand from his mouth. This implementation was not working because he would take his thumb
out for a few seconds and then put it right back. This intervention was also time-consuming; it
took away instructional time. When the teacher said hands in your lap, to him it drew the other
students attention away from what they were learning, lowering the overall level of engagement
in the classroom. The intervention technique needed to change to help the teacher increase her
instructional time.
The intervention used in this project required little attention from the teacher to
implement. The first day I found there was some necessary redirection to teach the child how to
hold the toy. Next time I will do a better job explaining expectations to the child and to the rest
of the class before giving him the lap buddy. Next time I would use this script and introduce the
lap buddy to D first and then to the whole group. My whole group script would be: Hello
everyone. I would like to introduce you to my friend. This is my turtle. Today I am going to let D
hold him in his lap during circle time. When D is holding him in his lap I need for you to stay
seated on your bottom and keep your hands in your lap. It is Ds turn to hold him today and only
one person can be touching him. If more than one person touches him he may get scared. So,
please sit criss-cross and keep your hands in your lap. Thanks. This is the script I would use with

Chandler McAlister
October 10, 2015

D: Hello, D. Today I am going to give you a special job during circle time. I want you to take
care of my turtle. To take care of him you have to sit on your bottom criss-cross with your hands
in your lap. He cant sit on the floor by himself so you have to hold him the whole time. You cant
throw him or hit him. Do you think you can take good care of him today for me? Setting these
expectations beforehand will help to create a smoother transition to using the implementation.
The data shows that D participated in thumb-sucking behavior mainly during times when
he was not actively involved. For example, the majority of the time the behavior occurred on the
first observation day was during wait time and the Who Came to School Today? song. During
the song he was not actively involved the entire time so he was found to be sucking his thumb.
During wait time to start he was not actively involved in any activity so he was found to be
sucking his thumb. While the behavior occurs during other times this was an observation I made
from the data that could be important. Student D needs highly engaging activities where he can
move around or hold and touch manipulatives to stay on task. While this isnt always possible, it
is important as a teacher to realize his learning style and what works best to keep him engaged.
This project shows that D was most likely sucking his thumb for security/calming
reasons. When he was given a different kind of security blanket the behavior decreased.
However, the thumb-sucking behavior did not completely go away. Therefore, the behavior may
also be due to oral sensory needs. To extend this project student D should be given a socially
appropriate object to chew on to fulfil his oral sensory need. New data could be taken with this
the oral sensory chew toy alone and then again with the oral sensory chew toy and the lap buddy.
The turtle helped fix another behavior that I did not anticipate. D stayed in his spot the
majority of the time. He didnt sit criss-cross much but he stayed in his spot without distracting

Chandler McAlister
October 10, 2015

other students. The day the intervention data was collected; the turtle was somewhat distracting,
which could also be related to why the frequency of thumb-sucking decreased.
In class we have learned about replacing behaviors with more socially accepted behaviors
through a process called Function Based Thinking, or FBA. Rather than nagging or trying any
other behavior management in my classroom I will always try to use some form of function
based thinking. From the results of this project I can see that FBA works. To permanently change
a behavior you have to replace the behavior. Without a replacement new behaviors will emerge
and they may not be positive/wanted behaviors.