Self-monitoring of On-task Behaviors Using the MotivAider® by a Middle School Student with a Moderate Intellectual Disability

Boswell, M., Knight, V., & Spriggs, A. D. (2013). Self-monitoring of On-task Behaviors Using the MotivAider® by a Middle School Student with a Moderate Intellectual Disability. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 32(2), 23-30.

This article, Self-monitoring of On-task Behaviors Using the MotivAider® by a Middle School Student with a Moderate Intellectual Disability, presents a new option for keeping students with intellectual disabilities focused during a lesson or independent work time. The article argues that, in a general education setting, a paraprofessional may not always be the best option for students with moderate intellectual disabilities. Boswell and Knight (2013) argue that students with paraprofessionals can become too dependent on this support staff and may feel separated from their peers, often expressing "feelings of embarrassment, stigmatization, rejection, and disenfranchisement" (p. 23). One alternative to paraprofessionals in the classroom is teaching students with intellectual disabilities how to self-monitor, "in which a student observes and records his or her own target behavior" (Boswell and Knight, 2013, p. 23). Boswell and Knight tested this alternative on an 11 year old, sixth grade male student with a moderate intellectual disability named Sam using a MotivAider device. The MotivAider is a low cost, small electronic device that "looks similar to a pager and can be easily programmed to vibrate on a fixed or variable time schedule" (Boswell and Knight, 2013, p. 24). Boswell and Knight set Sam's MotivAider to go off every three minutes as Sam completed math activities in the classroom. When the device would go off, Sam would fill out his self-recording form by circling yes or no to the question "Am I Working?" An instructional assistant would verify Sam's response and, if correct, give him a small edible reinforcer. Sam's responses were accurate 98 percent of the time and, after the initial session, Sam remained on-task 100 percent of the time while using the MotivAider. Once the MotivAider was removed, Sam's on-task behavior decreased significantly, falling to 33 percent (Boswell and Knight, 2013, p. 28). Boswell and Knight (2013) also found that Sam's Math fluency greatly increased while using the MotivAider, jumping from 1.5 CDM to 3.0 CDM, an 100 percent increase (p. 28). 

I found this article and the use of the MotivAider to be very interesting as a strategy for helping students with intellectual disabilities be more independent in a general education classroom. In my classroom, we have used similar methods to help our students gain independence from staff. Some of our ambulatory students carry small alarms with them that go off when the students have to leave for different activities, such as lunch or a therapy. When the alarm goes off, the students know to get a hall pass and leave for said activity. The alarm is small and discrete, not interrupting the rest of the class but still acts as cue or reminder for the student. While I haven't seen the alarms used during lessons as a way of self-monitoring, I have seen how successful they can be in giving students with intellectual disabilities independence from their paraprofessionals and other staff. Although it is a tactile cue instead of visual, I found the use of the alarm to be very similar in concept to many of the visual supports that were demonstrated in our autism module. 

I thought this article was extremely practical and useful and I could definitely see the MotivAider, or a similar device, being used in a general education classroom to help students with intellectual disabilities stay focused while also teaching important self-monitoring skills. As a paraprofessional myself, I believe that some students can greatly benefit from having a one on one aide and that extra support throughout their day. However, if the student is becoming too dependent on their support staff and becoming ostracized from their peers, looking into other options for at least part of the day may be beneficial. I believe this MotivAider could be a viable option for many students with mild or moderate intellectual disabilities during class time or, if the student needs more support, possibly just during a homeroom or resource period. After the initial training and some practice, the student would not need a paraprofessional standing near them, reminding them to stay on-task, with the alarm would act as the reminder. The MotivAider is fairly affordable, about 40 dollars, and could be a great investment for the classroom. Habit Change, the company that created MotivAider, has also come out with a MotivAider app for the iPhone and Androids which only costs $1.99, making it much less expensive if the student already has a smartphone or the classroom already has a tablet or iPad. The article suggests many other uses for the MotivAider that could be beneficial in the classroom, such as using it to "signal break time for a student who is easily frustrated by a difficult task," "as a prompt for a student on a toileting schedule," or even as "a prompt for a teacher who wants to deliver verbal praise orcheck on a student at regular intervals" (Boswell and Knight, 2013, p. 29). 

I would be very interested in seeing future studies using the MotivAider, or a similar device, with a larger group of students or testing the variety of different uses that the device could have in the classroom.