Extinction

1: Description of Strategy  a) The goal of extinction is the extinguishing of problem behaviors by withholding reinforcement that students typically received following the behavior, such as attention from teachers or from students, preferred treatment or access to tangibles. A typical case of extinction will resemble the ignoring of the target behavior, but it is not merely avoidance of addressing the behavior; extinction needs to be carefully planned and executed in order to be effective.

[|www.txautism.net/docs/Guide/Interventions/**Extinction**.pdf]

[]  b) This method is most widely applied to individuals with autism spectrum disorders, but can be effective with nearly all students who exhibit problem behaviors, such as a class clown, or students with a history of receiving attention for inappropriate behavior. The only caveat is that the target behavior is not part of an anger response, and that it interferes with the learning goal, or is simply meant to annoy (the teacher or peers).  c) No specific qualifications are needed; however, to manage behavior with extinction, the practitioner needs to have a plan and a method, and needs to apply it consistently. Otherwise there is the risk of reinforcing the problem behavior at a higher level as well as reinforcing persistence in this behavior, making it much more difficult to change behaviors in the future.  d) This method has no tangible cost, but requires considerable time, effort, and patience in order to be effective. Extinction can take from two to eight weeks, and often the behavior gets worse before it gets better, a process known as “extinction burst.”  e) The risk in the extinction method is that the student’s persistence may outlast the teacher’s. If this is the case, the subject’s problem behaviors will be reinforced at a higher level, as well as their resistance to behavior management in the future. It may also be difficult to coach your other students to ignore the student’s behavior; they may not have as much self-control as the teacher, who must rely on their cooperation for the intervention to be effective.  f) Influencing a change in a student’s behavior is the main advantage to this method. This, like other behavior management strategies, addresses the reinforcing factors of a behavior in order to make a change. When a teacher chooses to manage behavior instead of simply writing an office referral for students who are disruptive, students are given the opportunity to grow and change on their own instead of simply being punished (which rarely leads to a change in behavior, only attitude).  g) This method is appropriate for general education and special education classrooms, in large or small groups, even in the home. The only real condition for its use is that the behavior be judged to be attention-seeking, which in turn means that it should follow a Functional Behavior Analysis.  h) Attitudes toward this method are very positive. Extinction fits into the framework of Applied Behavior Analysis, a research-based, data-driven technique for managing behavior.  2: Research Study Waters, M.B., Lerman, D.C., & Hovanetz, A. N. (2009). Separate and Combined Effects of Visual Schedules and Extinction Plus Differential Reinforcement on Problem Behavior Occasioned by Transitions. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42(2), 309-313.  a) Subjects of this study were two 6-year-old boys diagnosed with autism, who engaged in problem behavior during transitions. The behaviors were different, but were able to be categorized in the same way: the first subject’s behavior was characterized as “aggression,” and the second’s was characterized as “disruption.”  b) This research was designed according to the principles of applied behavioral analysis. This functional analysis of transition-related problem behavior was completed in three stages: a baseline, the use of visual schedules alone, the use of extinction and differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO), and combination of visual schedules, extinction, and DRO.  c) The dependent variable was “problem behavior during transitions,” characterized as “aggression” for the first student, and “disruption” for the second. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> d) The treatment focused on the separate and combined effects of visual schedules and extinction with DRO. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> e) The baseline evaluation showed both subjects exhibiting problem behavior during 100% of transitions; high levels persisted with the visual-schedules-only condition. In the extinction and DRO condition, incidence of problem behavior was greatly reduced; this effect increased when paired with visual schedules. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> The authors conclude that extinction is “likely a necessary component of treatment,” and that, when used in combination with DRO, may reduce the incidence of extinction burst (or response burst).