Mini Training Series: Ep 5 How to use "Timeout" effectively in the classroom

Hi, this is Sasha from The Autism Helper, and this is episode 5 of our mini video training series. Today I want to talk about timeout, which can be a touchy subject because I think sometimes this intervention gets a bad rap, but could actually be a very effective strategy for looking at attention behaviors. The theme of this whole video is timeout only works when time in is awesome. These are going to be strategies that you use for attention behaviors. That means that the child is getting something awesome out of the environment. They're getting attention, whether it's from peers or from you. Their inappropriate behavior is resulting in that awesome attention, and they want more of it. I want you to change your idea of this old-school timeout. The kind of timeout where we say, however many— however old the student is, that's how many minutes you use for timeout. That old-school idea, that is not a real thing. And it's not this special chair that has this big preconceived negative idea. Timeout is really just a time away from reinforcement, a time away from something awesome. And some school districts might have specific rules in place on how you utilize timeout, but again, I want you to rethink— it's not this old-school timeout. You're— it's just time away from reinforcement. So first up, you want to be approaching any behavior intervention from the place of why. You first need to know why a student is engaging in a disruptive behavior. That's called the function. What are they getting out of this behavior? So before you jump in and utilize any strategies, you need to do a thorough analysis— sounds fancy, but it's not— of the problem behavior. I have a lot of blog posts about taking ABC data, about looking at why behaviors are occurring, and really taking the time to figure that out. If you miss that step, it can really throw your whole behavior plan or your whole approach to reducing the problem behavior off completely because you might be picking an intervention that's actually making the problem behavior worse. Timeout only is going to work for attention-maintained behaviors. So timeout is removing that awesome attention that a student is getting from their disrupt— disruptive behavior. So you want to make sure that you're only using this for attention behaviors. Now I mentioned and kind of harped on the importance of taking that ABC data and analyzing the function, because if you don't take the time to really look at the whole picture, you might be missing out on what the function is. Two behaviors might actually look exactly the same on first observation. Maybe a student is doing a work task and they throw the work task to the floor. You don't know right then if it's an attention behavior or an escape behavior. Maybe the student wants you to come help them and talk to them and they just want some attention, or maybe they don't want to do that work task. You need to take that ABC data to figure it out because timeout for an escape behavior is actually completely counterproductive and might cause that behavior to increase. Because if you think about it, timeout is really just a break. So if the student that throws that work task to the floor and then gets sent to timeout, they're like, "Cool, I didn't want to do that anyways. I get to go chill in timeout." So make sure that you're only using timeout for attention-maintained behaviors. So timeout works because it's a time away from reinforcement. So like we said, we're only utilizing timeout with attention behaviors, and it's going to remove the reinforcing aspects of the environment. It's going to remove attention from peers, attention from teachers. So that's what timeout really is going to do. It doesn't have to look any specific way. Like I said, change your preconceived notions of timeout. It's not this specific timeout chair. It doesn't have to be this horribly aversive or ostracizing situation. You can really just be removing all attention. That can look like you turning away from the student, you walking away, you look— going to another table, you taking the group to another table. Because again, you just want to remove the attention. Sometimes I talk to teachers and they say that it's really hard to get a student to the timeout spot. Don't get in that power struggle because you're gonna give more attention getting over to that timeout spot. So if that's the case for you that like, "Oh man, I can't have a timeout spot or a certain like calm down area because I could never get the student there," that's fine. Wherever the student is, just remove those reinforcing aspects, that attention, from the student right there. Timeout only works when time in is awesome. You want your classroom to be a place that your kids want to be. My mantra in August and September is be a chocolate chip cookie. Everyone loves a chocolate chip cookie. Everyone wants to be around. I would eat a chocolate chip cookie every day if I could. Make your classroom this great, amazing place that your kids want to be in so badly. When just one little aspect of that is removed just a tiny bit, even for a few minutes, it's aversive. It's going to cause a decrease in that disruptive, maladaptive behavior. Just a little bit removing some of that attention can be really powerful when your classroom is an awesome place to be. No one wants to go take a break. No one wants— cares if they're away from something that's boring or they don't want to do. If I was sitting doing long pages of long division, and someone offered me a break, I'd be like, "Cool, I want to get away from this." Versus if I was at a really fun party eating pizza and watching my favorite show, I don't want to take a break from that. So make your classroom a place that your kids don't want to take a break from. It'll make timeout really, really effective. The most important thing that you need to consider with all of this is having a replacement behavior. When I do PDs on behaviors, this is something that I repeat so many times that I swear the audience gets annoyed about. But none of these strategies work without a replacement behavior. You have to teach an appropriate way for your child or for your student to get what they want. If they want attention, if they want a break, if they want help, you need to teach them an appropriate way. What they were doing— aggression, self-injury, throwing items, disruption, property destruction— those things aren't functional. But you need to teach them and give them a functional way, a communicative pro-social way to get that same thing, to get attention from you. So when you're utilizing timeout, it must, must, must be paired with teaching a replacement behavior. I have a ton of posts on replacement behaviors and kind of the specifics on how to do that and make that really powerful, so make sure you don't forget that. Attention-maintained behaviors can be tricky to deal with in a classroom, especially when there's a lot of adults and a lot of different kids. Peer attention can be really powerful. So for some students, timeout might be a strategy that can really work. And again, think of it as time away from reinforcement. It's not some old-school mean thing that you're doing. It's just removing the reinforcing aspect of that negative behavior and no longer giving the student what they want. And again, you're teaching that appropriate communicative pro-social replacement behavior that's going to be so much more effective for them in the long run. If you need a refresher on ABC data or replacement behaviors, check out the behavior tab in my blog. I have a lot of different blog posts on those to kind of brush up on those subjects if you need a little update on those. This was episode 5 of the mini video training series from theautismhelper.com.