How To: Reduce Time-Outs With Active Response Beads

Students with behavioral disorders or ingrained patterns of non-compliant or defiant behaviors may receive in-class or out-of-class time-out as a disciplinary consequence. However, use of time-out (from reinforcement) has the serious drawback that students miss instruction while in time-out. Furthermore, because students are often directed to time-out when emotionally upset, there is a significant likelihood that they will resist the time-out placement, thus creating the potential for teacher-student power-struggles, classwide disruptions, and other negative outcomes.

Active-Response Beads-Time Out (ARB-TO: Grskovic et al., 2004) is an intervention to replace in-class time-out that is easy to use. It promotes students' use of calm-down strategies when upset, enhances behavioral self-management skills, and minimizes exclusion from academic activities.

Preparation. The teacher makes a sufficient number of  sets of Active Response Beads (ARBs) to use in this intervention--depending on whether the strategy is to be used with one student, a small group, or the entire class.

The materials needed to create a single Active Response Bead set are:

• ten 3/4-inch/1.9-cm beads with hole drilled through middle
• A 38-cm/15-inch length of cord

To make a set of Active Response Beads, the teacher strings the 10 beads on the cord and ties a knot at each end.

Training. The teacher meets for at least 2 sessions with the student(s) who will be using the Active Response Beads-Time Out strategy. The teacher introduces ARB-TO as a way to self-manage emotions and classroom behaviors to increase classroom success and reduce number of time-outs. In each training session, the teacher and student practice steps of the ARB-TO procedure (outlined below). Training concludes when student(s) demonstrate understanding and compliance with the procedure.

Procedure. The ARB-TO can be used whenever the student displays defiant, non-compliant, acting-out, or escalating behaviors (e.g., refuses to engage in classwork, leaves seat without permission, talks out, makes rude or inappropriate comments or gestures, or engages in less-serious acts of aggression or property destruction).  NOTE: Educators should be aware that the teacher's role in providing prompts, feedback, and praise to the student throughout the ARB steps is crucial to the intervention's success.

Here are the 4 ARB-TO steps:

Adaptations.  Here are two adaptations of the ARB-TO procedure to increase convenience and extend student skills:

• Replace Beads With 'Desk Dots'. Teachers may want to use the student self-directed calm-down strategy represented by ARB-TO but also wish to avoid managing sets of beads or having emotionally upset students leave their seats to retrieve bead sets. A low-key adaptation of the ARB-TO is the substitution for the beads of a series of 10 dots numbered in descending order printed on a slip of paper and affixed to the student's desk. The student is then trained, when directed by the teacher, to apply the ARB-TO count-down/calm-down procedure using dots.

• Train Students to Self-Manage Use of ARB-TO. As students become familiar with, and comfortable using, Active Response Beads-Time Out, the teacher can give those students their own bead sets. Students would then be encouraged to monitor their own emotional states and use the beads (or Desk Dots) when needed as a calming device--without teacher prompting.