Momentary Impacts of Opportunities to Respond and Praise for Students With Persistent Challenging Behavior

Measuring moment-to-moment interactions between teachers and students with persistent challenging behavior can help explain broader behavioral patterns in the classroom and identify ways to initiate change in teacher–student interaction cycles. In this U.S. descriptive observational study, we conducted a series of classroom observations for each of 20 students referred for individualized behavior support. We collected timed-event count data on teacher opportunities to respond (OTRs), teacher praise, student challenging behavior, and student active responding. Using sequential analysis and multilevel modeling to account for observations nested within student, we tested a series of hypotheses on whether and how certain behaviors impacted the momentary likelihood of others. Among other findings, results showed teacher OTRs decreased the momentary likelihood of student challenging behavior; student challenging behavior decreased the momentary likelihood of teacher OTRs; and student active responding increased the momentary likelihood of subsequent OTRs and praise. Our findings extend the literature on teacher OTRs to students with persistent challenging behavior and contribute evidence to recently developed sequential analysis methods designed to better control for base rates and chance sequencing of behaviors.