The Effect of Responsibility on Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder

Abstract

On-task and appropriate behaviors have been shown to be vital both in school and the outside world, particularly for students with attention deficit hyperactive disorder. This study was conducted to determine whether the responsibility of a classroom job with monetary rewards would influence the level of on-task and off-task behaviors for students with ADHD within a Therapeutic Day School. Self-management techniques and self-monitoring techniques are reviewed, along with token economies as developed by Phillips, Phillips, Fixsen, and Wolf (1971). The childhood behavioral checklist was employed in order to set baseline data for each individual student and their most frequent on-task and off-task behavior, as seen by their parents, guardians, teachers, and aides. The adolescent students (N = 7) earned points for on-task behavior throughout the day and, if enough were earned, chose jobs to be completed at the end of their day. Participants remained on the same job assignment for the duration of the experiment, and continued to receive any medications they received before the study began. It was hypothesized that giving students a daily job with a financial incentive would encourage them to focus more on their school tasks and improve their behavior in order to receive the reward of completing the job, and therefore obtain the money.