Creating a Behavioral Intervention Plan for Students with ADHD

The Need for Intervention Plans

When the student’s IEP (Individualized Education Plan) team convenes to add a Behavioral Intervention Plan as an addendum to the IEP, it is due to diagnostic data that has been provided and recorded by teachers, instructional assistants and other staff members that the student is in contact with on a daily basis. The plan will include student verification information that includes name, academic courses and teachers, grade level, date and the listing of IEP members who are part of the meeting. For students with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and Hyperactivity, intervention plans can be more the norm of IEP addendums and not the exceptions in student files.

The case manager of the student’s IEP team will facilitate the meeting and present a compilation of information solicited and unsolicited from the student’s teachers on observed behavioral issues and concerns in the classroom. When a student’s behavior impacts their learning along with the learning environment of other classmates and effective teacher instruction, the red flag is raised and the student is referred to their case manager and IEP team for behavioral intervention and an intervention plan.

Components of the Intervention Plan

The “Behavioral Modification Plan” is composed of identified behaviors and corrected interventions individualized for each student. The components of the plan will contain specific behaviors that have been identified as interfering with a student’s ability to perform academically and behaviorally in the classroom along with specific interventions that will be used to address the behaviors. The plan contains the following components of behaviors and interventions.

Specific Behaviors and Interventions

• Classroom disruptions -Teachers and Instructional Assistants will monitor and chart each time a student disrupts the classroom and misbehaves. The teacher or instructional assistant will provide a defined signal to cue the student on the behavior and on the desired redirection of the disrupted behavior. The teacher can use visual tallies, points, or stars to provide the student with a visual when they have successfully redirected their behavior. If the student fails to redirect the behavior, the chart will reflect the loss of visual reinforcers and a possible consequence of spending extra time with the teacher or loss of a desired activity (i.e. recess, gym or a club activity).

• Rewards and Privileges - When a student sees their daily progress on a chart attached to rewards and privileges for good behavior and completion of assignments each week, the student may work harder to accomplish the expected behavioral goals.

• Structure of Independent Work - Students will be given an academic toolkit that contains a weekly calendar, packet of homework assignments for the class or classes in which they are having the most academic difficulty in completing work and additional instructional assistance to organize and meet work completion goals each week. Teachers will work with parents to add additional academic assignments for the student to complete at home.

• Classroom Arrangement - Students can be given a designed working area that may be a study cubicle to help them focus and avoid classroom disruptions. A student can be paired with a buddy for a pair share experience where a high performing student can provide peer assistance on work completion and learning focus in the classroom.

• Evaluation - Teachers and Instructional Assistants will keep a detailed log of completed academic work and student behavior in class to ascertain whether the interventions have been effective or need to be readjusted to provide additional structure and support.

Further Input

The various components of the student’s “Behavioral Intervention Plan” may include additional resource staff observations (i.e. nurse, psychologists, counselor, case manager) to assure that the student is benefiting from the plan and increasing learning outcomes and behavioral expectations in the classroom. If medication is being used to help the student behave effectively, the nurse’s evaluation is important in working with the student’s physician on medication effects that may provide additional data impacting a student’s classroom performance.

For students with “Behavioral Plans,” the IEP team collaboration and communication with parents provides an effective safety net of intervention and prevention if the monitoring and data collection are consistent and evaluated on a weekly basis and adjusted accordingly to maximize student behavioral and academic success.