As a behavior analyst, I have not used behavioral contracts much at all.
So today we are talking about a book, uh, called Let's Make a Contract, and it's a short excerpt
from an interview I did with Dr. Bill Heward, who's very famous in the autism ABA world
and his wife, Dr. Jill Dardig, who is a seasoned professional as well.
They wrote a great book. It's very readable and actionable. So today I'm
sharing a little clip from that video blog, all about behavioral contracts.
Welcome back to another video blog. I'm Dr. Mary Barbera, autism mom, behavior analyst,
and bestselling author. Each week I'm bringing you some, some videos,
some short podcast snippets. Um, anything that I think you as a parent or professional
could use to learn how to turn things around in your life and the life of your child and clients.
I serve kids with autism, but also toddlers who are showing delays and differences, um, who are
delayed speaking, who are, um, having potentially excessive tantrums, having some, um, uh,
signs of autism, ADHD. So it doesn't matter if your child or clients are actually
diagnosed with autism. My materials can help. So today I am sharing a short excerpt from podcast
number 168 with Dr. Bill Heward and Dr. Jill Dardig. And, um, they wrote this really awesome
book and I read it before it came out in print and, um, hopefully you enjoy this short snippet.
So Bill, why don't you quickly give our listeners like one of the, like something specific like
you did from the book, like. Sure. Like what the, what the problem was, what the contract was,
what, what didn't work about the contract, maybe something related to a child with
autism or some developmental disability so that, you know, our listeners could,
um, you know, kind of put it together. In the morning contract and then, then the,
uh, homeschool. Okay.
Um, Let's talk about, uh, in the story is called By Myself,
uh, in the book. And this is, what page is that on? This is on page 77. Okay. And a single parent
Erika and her 10 year old son Connor, uh, with autism. Okay. And, um, here's how we introduced
the story. Each, each of these stories has a little kind of a well, a teaser or a trailer.
It says Connor, a fourth grader with autism is in the same class as Jeff Perry and Martina.
All these stories are tied together. The families and kids know one, another.
Connor has trouble getting ready for school, which makes mornings hectic and stressful for
him and his mom. Will a contract help get their days off to a better start?
And the opening illustration shows Erica and Connor. The mom and sitting next to her
is, um, Christa, we introduce in this chapter, the behavior analyst. We don't go into any
technical detail about what that entails, we just said, we say Christa, a behavior
analyst who helps kids with their behavior was visiting Connor and said, how are things going?
And then a mom says going pretty well, but mornings are,
are trouble, you know, he doesn't get ready in time and we end up both we're stressed and
days not off to a good start. And of course, Christa, the behavior analyst says, well, I
had success using contracts with a lot of the families and children I work with.
What do you think? And they talk about it and they come up with a, they really kind of end up with a,
you know, a task analysis, what would be the steps of getting ready? And they identify, uh, four
basic steps for Connor, um, getting dressed. Um, having this breakfast, cereal and milk, brushing
his teeth, washing his face and being at the door at 7:45 with his backpack on. Connor has some, um,
visual reading skills, but they, uh, he's also had success using some, uh, visual activity scanner,
schedules, talks about taking little photos of him. He can, he loves Legos. So the reward
is earning these little Lego characters and, um, he has a Lego that he can attach by Velcro
in the morning to keep, okay, I've gotten dressed, what do I do next and so forth.
And then, uh, down here, little Lego stickers, we call this a task record, a visual way to, uh,
to take data, really, to see both for the child and parent how's the contract, uh, going. And
that one works out pretty well. At the end of these,
uh, each story we have, what we call let's talk questions. And it's just three or four things,
kind of conversation starters to kickstart, a parent might discuss with their,
with their child. And here it says, what are your mornings? What are mornings like at your house?
Um, what were mornings like for Connor and his mom before the contract? Do you think the
photos on Connor's contract helped him? How did Connor feel when he got himself ready for school
and so forth. And then if I could do just one more. Our last story continues. This is a second
story with Connor and his mom. And now mom, Erika and behavior analyst, Christa are meeting with
Jenelle Gardener. These are fictional stories, but they're based on, you know, our experiences and,
you know, a conglomeration of many families we've had an opportunity to learn with and from, but
so we, we, I, uh, so the teachers there as well, and, and they talk about mom reports that Connor's
kind of sad. He comes home from school often and he says, I don't have friends. I wish I had more
friends. And so they, uh, the three adults, they talk about how they might help him with this.
And they identify having conversations with classmates, try to help him learn to initiate
and hold a conversation. And so again, in behavior analysis, special ed speak, it's
really a task analysis. There's no technical language whatsoever in the book, but what's
identified on the contract are these four things. So the task is talk to another student.
When do you do this? Each day at school, during lunch, recess,
free time or group activities. How well, this is a critical part of a behavior contract.
Helping both child and parent, uh, you know, agree on, um, what the task entails.
Practice three to five minutes with students selected by the teacher.
Start a conversation with another student. Tell Ms. Gardner, that's his teacher,
how the talks went. Take Ms. Gardner's note home to mom and report to mom.
So, what we've got here really is a homeschool contract where the teacher,
family, behavior analysts, all collaborating, um, uh, on this contract, uh, to help, uh, Connor,
the ultimate goal is to make friends, but as a step towards that to have, uh, have
conversations. And that story ends like a happy ending and he jumps off the bus
and mom's crying and he says says, oh, Perry invited me to his birthday party and
he likes baseball just like, I do. Yeah. Had to get baseball in there. Yeah. So, um, that's great.
I think that helps our, our listeners and a lot of people will just be listening,
but Bill is showing some examples from the book. So if you want to hop on and actually watch the
podcast or, uh, fast forward, so you can see what he's showing, that's helpful too sometimes,
but I think you did a good job of explaining. So even if people are riding in their car or
exercising, they'll be able to get the idea. So with all of your contracts, though, you do have
the child and the adults both sign, right? Um hum. Except we do have one chapter where the young boy
makes self contract. Oh ok, and he signs for both lines because he's the one who's
motivated. He wants to improve a skill, which is a mathematical skill. He's a fourth grader also.
And, um, that's the only case I think we have a self contract, but we're trying to show in the
book that it’s contracts are not only reserved for bad behaviors or problems. If you have a goal, a
behavioral goal, some skill you want to learn, you can use contract for that as well. Yeah. And I was
thinking as I was looking at the book, because you sent me a copy, which I appreciate that, you know,
on page 104, where you are talking about the, um, contract to, uh, make friends and to talk.
He’s checking off or somebody's checking off and x-ing off. And I was thinking this really goes
along with self-monitoring, which is another ABA technique that we really never discussed. But, you
know, basically if you are at the language ability and the cognitive ability that you can actually
mark off, you know, if you want to lose weight, writing down what you ate and checking it off and,
um, weighing and measuring your food or weighing and measuring yourself at, at a certain interval.
You know, if you set your mind to it, and I'm glad you mentioned the, the self contract, you could,
you could change your behavior, but it is going to rely. And if you don't write it down and you don't
measure it, it's not going to improve. One other question about that. I have a couple questions
is, um, I see this as like, uh, this contract, at least on this paper goes for like three weeks.
Is there, you know, I find that if it's just a contract forever, it's not going to work. So,
so what is the time limit and does that depend on the behavior and, the, and the
reinforcement. It depends on the behavior and the reinforcer, just as you're saying,
we don't see contracts as a permanent solution. They're not, it's a transition to get you from
point A where you're struggling, or you have a goal to point B where you're doing better.
You're doing well. And then the idea is to phase out the contract. So it's, it's a
relatively short-term solution to a problem, but will have greater effects that can be generalized
into the future for future gains. I hope you enjoyed that short, uh, excerpt from podcast
number 168, you can watch the whole podcast, um, or listen to it on any podcast app
and, uh, for more information to learn more about how you can turn things around with
our course and community, attend a free workshop at marybarbera.com/workshop.
If you like this video, I hope you comment, share it, give me a thumbs up and help me spread the
word to other parents and professionals. Have a good one. And I'll see you right here next week.