Effects of High‐probability Requests on the Latency to Initiate Academic Tasks

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a high-probability request sequence on the latency to and duration of compliance to a request for completion of an independent math assignment. The participant was an elementary-school student with learning disabilities who exhibited noncompliance during math instruction. The results showed that high-probability requests were effective in reducing the latency to compliance but only minimally affected duration of engagement.DESCRIPTORS: high-probability request sequence, behavioral momentum, compliance, academic instruction The refusal to initiate or complete a requested task within a specified period of time is a commonly reported characteristic among children with academic and behavior problems. One strategy that has been used for treating task noncompliance is the highprobability (high-p) request sequence (Mace et al., 1988). Briefly, this technique involves preceding a request, to which a student has a history of noncompliance (low-probability or low-p requests), with a series of requests with which a student has a history of compliance (high-p requests). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a high-p request sequence with an elementary-school student on the latency to and duration of compliance following a request for completion of math assignments.Preparation of this article was funded in part by the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education (Grant H023N30025). The article does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the funding agency, and no official endorsement by them should be inferred. We acknowledge the assistance of Kim Dennis in completion of this study.Address correspondence to Joseph H. Wehby, Department of Special Education, Box 328, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37202. METHODParticipant and Setting. The participant was Meg, a 13-year-old girl functioning in the normal range of intellect (Standford-Binet full scale ϭ 92) who had been identified by the local school district as learning disabled in math and written language. The authors and Meg's teacher generated a list of potential high-p requests that were topically related to math assignments and that were confirmed through direct observation as highly probable to result in immediate compliance (at least 85% of total observed instances).Data collection. Data were collected during math class for (a) occurrence of the lowp requests, high-p requests, and praise by the teacher; (b) latency to the onset of engagement after the low-p requests; (c) compliance to the high-p request; and (d) termination of engagement to the low-p request (discontinuation of engagement for 10 consecutive s). Data were collected during daily 20-min sessions using the MOOSES software program on a laptop computer (Tapp, Wehby, & Ellis, 1995). These sessions were conducted Monday through Friday for a to-

Behavioral momentum in academics: Using embedded high‐p sequences to increase academic productivity

“…Ardoin, Martens, and Wolfe (1999), for example, found that a series of high-p requests reduced transition time from one instructional activity to another for a group of typical children in a general education setting. Similarly, Wehby and Hollahan (2000) found that high-p request sequences increased compliance to begin math tasks for a student with a learning disability. In addition to assessing latency to begin a math task, Wehby and Hollahan (2000) also examined student academic engagement.…”

“…Similarly, Wehby and Hollahan (2000) found that high-p request sequences increased compliance to begin math tasks for a student with a learning disability. In addition to assessing latency to begin a math task, Wehby and Hollahan (2000) also examined student academic engagement. These researchers found that the high-p sequence increased task engagement, but only for about 3 minutes after delivery of the sequence.…”

Effects of Planning and Goal Setting on Reducing Latency to Task Engagement for Struggling Readers in Middle School

“…One common characteristic of students with academic and behavior problems is failure to engage in requested tasks promptly (Allday et al 2011;Wehby and Hollahan 2000). Students who repeatedly exhibit non-compliance or excessive delays in engagement are at risk for spending less time engaged in academic tasks (Good and Beckerman 1978;Maag and Anderson 2007).…”

“…For students who struggle academically, reducing latency to task engagement is one approach that may lead to more time devoted to academic tasks and thereby increase the potential for academic growth (Allday et al 2011;Wehby and Hollahan 2000). There is presently a growing body of work examining the use of interventions to reduce delays in classroom transitions and task compliance.…”

“…Many of these interventions, applied at the classroom level, require little training and minimal disruption to established classroom routines and procedures. Examples include high-probability (high-p) request sequences (Wehby and Hollahan 2000), teacher greetings (Allday et al 2011), and the use of sound field amplification (SFA; Maag and Anderson 2007). Though effective, these approaches, along with other similar strategies, have notable limitations.…”