Telehealth consultation in a self-contained classroom for behavior: A pilot study

Students with challenging behavior severe enough to warrant placement in a self-contained special education classroom statistically have poor school and post-school outcomes compared to typical peers. Teachers in these classrooms often lack sufficient training to meet student needs. This pilot study investigated the use of a telehealth consultation model to increase selected teaching behaviors (i.e., praise, prompts/precorrections, and student opportunities to respond) and reduce the presence of challenging child behaviors in a self-contained special education classroom. Overall results demonstrated increased targeted positive teaching behaviors and a substantial decrease of student challenging behavior upon the introduction of the first intervention phase. Although findings in phase two and three were less conclusive, challenging behavior remained low throughout the intervention. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.