Self-management within a classroom token economy for students with learning disabilities

Students with disabilities who are served in restrictive educational settings often display inappropriate behavior that serves to preclude their integration into the mainstream. One approach to managing difficult behavior is a levels system (Smith & Farrell, 1993), which typically consists of a hierarchy of levels in which students must meet increasingly demanding standards of behavior before advancing through the hierarchy. In the present study, two middle-school students with learning disabilities participated in a classroom-wide token economy based on a levels system. The levels system, which was used in a self-contained classroom, targeted the acquisition and maintenance of academic skills and social behaviors with the goal of integrating these students into an inclusive classroom. The two participants showed little or no progress within the levels system because of a very high rate of inappropriate verbalizations. Therefore, a self-management system that involved training on the accuracy of self-recording these verbalizations was added to the levels system for these students. In addition, the investigator discussed with these students the consequences of inappropriate behavior and socially appropriate behavioral alternatives. A multiple-baseline-across-subjects experimental design revealed that the intervention resulted in a substantive reduction in inappropriate verbalizations, as well as greater progress through the levels system. Implications of these findings for the use of self-recording within a token economy, the importance of students' accuracy of self-recording, and methodological issues are discussed.