Academic Choice for Included Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Students with emotional disturbances present with behavioral and academic deficits that often limit their participation in general education settings. As an antecedent intervention, academic choice provides multiple choices surrounding academic work promoting academic and behavioral gains. The authors examined the effects of assignment choice with a single-subject reversal design for 5 students with or at risk for emotional disturbance in an inclusive setting. Results indicated a functional relation between the presentation of choice and improvements to student task engagement and academic performance. Academic choice may have played a role in decreasing the perceived aversive nature of assignment completion, thus promoting a decrease in student escape-maintained inappropriate behavior. The authors offer study limitations and implications for practitioners as well as future directions.