Kah Ting's van shakin'

Kah Ting (KT) was a 15-year-old boy who attended the Society’s vocational center. He was a tough and strong boy for his age. I was at the Society for about 4 months. The vocational school was catered for teenagers. The society provided transportation for some of the students. This is a complicated case because I had not seen the event happened but only heard it from the other teachers.

On the journey back home from the Society, occasionally KT would throw a temper tantrum, and because he was such a strong guy, he would literally shake up the whole van. These occasions were scary for all on board. The driver would stop the van. The one teacher on the van and the driver would then try to get KT to calm down before continuing the journey. This would delay the trip and also stressed out everyone in the van. Although I didn’t see this happened, I have seen KT get aggressive to intimidate me to give him some food.

What would I have done now if I was in that situation?

I would conduct a functional behavior assessment to find out why KT is having the temper tantrums on the van. I have this hypothesis:
Perhaps the journey back home at around 4pm was long, hot and stuffy in the van and KT was getting uncomfortable. If I remember correctly, he would sometimes get to sit in the front passenger seat and he would be OK during the trip. So the behavior was probably to escape sitting at the back of the van where it’s hot and stuffy and to gain the front passenger seat where it is cooler and more comfortable.

So the dilemma is whether to let KT always have the front passenger seat and prevent any tantrums during the journey or put some intervention in place to prevent any tantruming from happening while KT sits in the back.

The first intervention is simple and would prevent any temper tantrums but then it would seem like we’re giving in to him and letting him have his way. I’m not sure if the other teachers would allow him to have the front passenger seat all the time. I’m not even sure if I’m comfortable with this, since I too have sat in the van but I didn’t act out when it was hot, neither did the other students. But if the intervention would be to let him have the front seat, I would incorporate some communication training such as having KT ask for permission to have the front passenger seat.

The second intervention would be more complicated. If the function of the tantrums is to escape from sitting in the back of the van, then I would request KT to sit in the front row instead of the last row of seats in the van, as it is cooler up front. I may also offer KT a bottle of ice water halfway through the journey to reduce the discomfort of the heat. But it’ll be offered to him before he starts any tantrums so he won’t think that by tantruming he’ll get the ice water. Or I could teach him to ask for the ice water when he wants it. I may also put in a consequence strategy, offering him a reward after a tantrum-free journey. And I may also put in place some sort of self-management strategy such as having a chart to monitor the KT’s behavior on the van. The chart may consists of a monthly calendar and KT will receive a star on the days he was tantrum-free in the van. I will review the chart with KT daily. As the reward schedule is slowly faded, KT will then be receiving a reward for 2 consecutive days of tantrum-free ride and so on.

Will the intervention work? I have no idea but the intervention looked do-able and it would not take a lot of time or money.

Buzzwords for this intervention:
Functional behavioral assessment (FBA)
Antecedent intervention
Self-management
Consequence strategy
Functional communication training (FCT)