Effects of Tactile Prompting and Self-Monitoring on Teachers’ Use of Behavior-Specific Praise

Effectively managing a classroom is crucial in promoting positive student outcomes. Behavior-specific praise is an empirically supported strategy to reinforce desirable student behaviors. Following a review of the literature, we identified tactile prompting and self-monitoring as effective methods to increase teachers’ use of behavior-specific praise while sustaining intervention long enough until teachers contacted natural maintaining contingencies. We created electronic tactile awareness prompting with self-monitoring (eTAPS) by combining two applications on an Apple Watch. Using a multiple-baseline-across-participants design, this study primarily investigated the effects of eTAPS on special education teachers’ use of behavior-specific praise. Secondarily, this study investigated the impact that behavior-specific praise would have on the on-task behaviors of targeted students with disabilities demonstrating frequent off-task behaviors. Results indicated that eTAPS was effective in increasing and maintaining behavior-specific praise rates. Furthermore, significant increases in student on-task behavior occurred. Implications of results and future research are discussed.