What strategies can educators implement to prevent or address challenging behaviors?
Page 5: High-Probability Requests
High-probability (or high-p) requests is a strategy that teachers can use to encourage students to complete an undesired task or activity. This involves giving a student a sequence of high-p requests (i.e., easy requests that a student is very likely to follow), immediately followed by a low-probability or low-p request (i.e., a request a student infrequently or never follows). By asking a student to complete a series of desired tasks, the teacher builds behavioral momentum, which increases the likelihood that the student will complete the undesired task. In other words, students are more likely to follow teacher directives if they are already engaged in a pattern of following directions. This strategy is particularly beneficial for students who engage in challenging behaviors to escape from or avoid a task or activity.
Research Shows
- High-p requests can be used to support academic, social, and communication outcomes.
(Common, Bross, Oakes, Cantwell, Lane, & Germer, 2019) - High-p requests are effective for students with a range of disabilities, including developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, and emotional and behavioral disorders.
(Maag, 2019; Cowan, Abel, & Candel, 2017; Davis, Reichle, & Southard, 2000) - High-p requests are effective when used by teachers and paraeducators to increase compliance and follow-through of tasks across age groups.
(Maag, 2019) - High-p requests are more effective when combined with positive reinforcement.
(Lipschultz & Wilder, 2017)
Using the Strategy
High-p requests should be used with individual students and should be appropriate for the student’s age, developmental level, and skill sets. To help educators prevent or address challenging behavior, the table below describes the steps to implement high-p requests and provides an example.
| Steps | Description | Example |
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Consider an instructional or behavioral request that a student infrequently (i.e., less than 40% of the time) or never follows. |
The teacher identifies an undesired task that leads to Danya’s challenging behavior. Challenging behavior: Danya typically refuses to work with a partner during Spanish II class. Low-p request: Communicate with a partner in Spanish. |
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Identify several (e.g., five to seven) high-probability requests—those that the student follows 80% to 100% of the time—that relate to the context of the low-p request. |
The teacher identifies several requests that Danya is likely to follow. High-p requests:
|
|
Deliver high-p requests
Deliver low-p request
|
The teacher delivers the following high-p requests followed by a low-p request. As soon as Danya responds to one, the teacher immediately delivers the next request. High-p requests
Low-p request “Turn to your partner and have a conversation using the two questions you wrote down.” [student response, teacher praise] |
In addition to the three steps listed above, the five actions below can be helpful when implementing this practice.
Make sure each high-p request in the sequence relates directly to the low-p request. For example, a high-p request like “Choose your favorite color highlighter” might be appropriate to help a student start the momentum necessary to complete a close reading annotation activity (low-p request). However, this same high-p request might not be appropriate to encourage a student to write a narrative story (low-p request).
All requests, whether high-p or low-p, must be requests that students are capable of completing independently. Because of this, the lists of high-p and low-p requests that teachers create will vary from student to student. Consider creating a list of potential high-p requests to avoid repeating the same high-p sequence.
Once a student has begun to follow a low-p request more often, the teacher should begin to reduce the number of high-p requests in the sequence. For example, if the teacher starts by issuing four high-p requests before the low-p request, she should reduce that over time until no high-p request is required.
For some students, verbal praise in response to the completion of high-p requests may not be sufficient. Instead, these students may need to be given a tangible reinforcer (e.g., preferred item, token), which should be faded over time.
Consider asking students what types of praise or reinforcement they find motivating.
Listen as Kathleen Lane explains how to implement a high-p request strategy and shares an example of when she implemented this strategy with a student (time: 2:04).
Kathleen Lane, PhD, BCBA-D
Professor, Department of Special Education
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research
University of Kansas
Transcript: Kathleen Lane, PhD, BCBA-D
What you’re trying to do in a high-probability request sequence is typically you would ask the student to do three things that they’re very likely to do. “Okay, go ahead and take out your piece, paper. Great job. Go ahead and write your name in upper right-hand corner. Awesome. I see you got that done. All right. Go ahead and mark an X on the first box where you’re going to just write this first response.” And then you deliver a request that they are less likely to want to do. And basically, the goal is, if I’m building this momentum, I ask, they respond, I ask, they respond, I ask, they respond. And now I’m going to [laughs] ask you to do something that you’re less likely to want to do initially, but after those three high-probability requests, you’re more likely to do it.
I remember the first time I ever tried this. I had a student [laughs] who was really difficult. He just had a lot of really non-compliant behavior. He had missed a ton of school and sometimes he didn’t know if he was even capable of doing the task at hand. So oftentimes he didn’t want to start any activity. Cause he just assumed that every activity is going to be difficult for him. So this one day I said, “Hey, can you come up here for one second?” and he said “Sure.” And then he came forward. That was one. And then I said, “Would you mind passing these papers out to everybody?” And he passed out papers to everybody in the class. And I said, “Awesome, thanks so much for doing that.” That was two. And then I said, “Would you mind go ahead and put these extra copies on my desk?” And then he did that as well. And I said, “Awesome, terrific. Could you go ahead and start on your first 3 problems?” And he sat down and did them right away. And normally he would have kind of tried to engage me in an argument or push back about having to start his assignments. But right away he went and started the first three problems, and then he looked up at me. He’s like, [gasp] “You tricked me into doing this!” And I said, “You’re capable of doing this. It’s totally fine.” The upside of doing something like high-probability requests is that you’re not delivering any aversive. You’re not telling them things that went wrong. It’s a positive experience. So it’s a way of getting the students to do what needs to be done and demonstrate behaviors that you want to see more of in a really respectful way.
Tier 2 Support
Although high-p requests can be used as a Tier 1 strategy, it can also be used as a Tier 2 support for students with moderate levels of externalizing or internalizing behaviors. The steps are the same as when used as a Tier 1 support, but for Tier 2 the educator implements high-p requests with greater intensity (e.g., more frequently). To determine if the strategy is effective, the educator collects and analyzes the data using the following steps:
- Identify the student behavior to be addressed (e.g., student refuses to complete independent activities) during an instructional period in which the behavior typically occurs (e.g., science, math).
- Collect baseline data on the student behavior for a designated timeframe (e.g., first 20 minutes of class) during the identified instructional period. Collect this data across several days (e.g., 3 to 5 days) to see how often this behavior occurs or how long each episode lasts.
- Implement or intensify high-p requests and continue to collect data (e.g., same instructional period, same length of time) for 3 to 5 days to determine whether the student’s behavior changes.
- Evaluate the effect of high-p requests. Compare the implementation data to the baseline data to evaluate whether the strategy has had the desired effect on the student’s behavior.
To make sure you are using this strategy with fidelity, download this high-p requests implementation checklist. To view our IRIS Fundamental Skill Sheet on high-probability requests, click on the title below. |
