EXAMINING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN INTERVENTION PACKAGE THAT COMBINES BEHAVIOR CONTRACT AND TOKEN ECONOMY IN DECREASING OUT-OF-SEAT BEHAVIORS IN STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often exhibit disruptive behaviors in classroom, including out-of-seat behaviors, which have been found to negatively affect their overall academic achievement and social interactions and relationships with parents, typically developing peers and teachers, and increase the likelihood of being suspended or dropping out of school. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an intervention package that included behavior contract and token economy on out-of-seat behaviors in three elementary school students with EBD (aged 7 and 8) in Saudi Arabia, where the effects of this intervention package has not been studied previously. A multiple baseline across participants research design was used to collect data in this study. Results showed that the intervention package was effective in decreasing out-of-seat behaviors in all three participants. The study was limited by the small number of participants and involved only children of similar socioeconomic status in a single geographic region of Saudi Arabia attending the same school. More future studies should be conducted to examine the effects of such an intervention package on managing distractive classroom behavior involving a larger number of participants with more diverse backgrounds across various regions of Saudi Arabia in the public-school setting.