Behavior Management Strategies for Students with Multiple Disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine which behavior strategies would reduce problem behaviors and increase time on task with students with multiple disabilities in Aquatic Physical education. Students with disabilities depend on very strict structure, and when they come to physical education, they get some more freedom. In Aquatic Physical Education the water is great for helping the students who use wheelchairs to gain mobility and move with less strength needed; at the same time, the water provides the students with another sensory object to overcome so they stay on task. There are many researched methods for providing positive behavior interventions that may work in an aquatic setting with students with disabilities. For this study the focus was on a token economy system since some students were familiar with it in their classrooms. The study was a pretest-posttest design with data taken on off-task behaviors for seven days during the pretest and the posttest phases of the study. The results of the study show that the on-task behavior increased for most students while the off-task behavior decreased; however, the differences were not statistically significant. This shows that most students did respond to the token economy behavior management system in the aquatic physical education program in a positive manner. The research study showed a positive result, but for future studies, there should be a higher number of students in the sample to improve the chance of showing significance. The age range of students, from kindergarten to eleventh grade, should be limited in future studies to a small age group encompassing no more than two grade levels.