Case Study Megan McAleer 1

Case Study
Megan McAleer
November 15th, 2021
Music Education
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Background
Student is female and in kindergarten. Student is five years old. She is of unknown ethnic
and racial origin, but has olive skin, dark hair, and dark eyes. According to her classroom,
teacher, she has displayed many strange social behaviors that do not align with the social
normative. She is behind her classmates in recognizing that a hand means permission to speak, or
when certain behaviors are considered appropriate. For example, the teacher has explained that
the student has inappropriately scratched private areas in class and has talked out of turn much
more frequently than her classmates. She is often found unfocused, humming, or singing other
songs that are not the ones we are learning about in class. I am unsure of how she is doing
academically. Socially, the other students often avoid her, as she tends to ignore personal space
and boundaries Even so, she seems to present kindness and interest in others. I am unsure as to
what her home life is like.
Target Behavior
Student displays a frequent amount of talking out without raising her hand. Often, the
subject of these callouts is not on target with what we are learning. Sometimes, she is singing
songs that are outside of our learning or talking about other things which do not seem to correlate
with anything happening in the classroom. The goal for this behavior is to minimize the amount
of callouts by replacing it with a raised hand waiting to be called on.
Data Collection
Due to our time with the student being so short, we took data on the intervals of time in
which the student called out; the four different quarters of class time. The student displayed
extensive calling out behaviors right at the beginning of class, but immediately dropped those
behaviors before any of the other three quarters. We found this unusual, as the student has
consistently talked all the way through class, not just the beginning. Here is the table we used.
Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4
|||| 0 0 0

Student called out five times within the first quarter of class. However, the student
stopped after the first quarter. To be noted, all these times were within the first five minutes of
class. She was also seen humming during the second quarter, but because that did not fit into my
criteria, I decided not to count it against her as “calling out”. This was significantly less than the
number of times that I had seen the behavior in the days prior to actually collecting the data. So
much so that I had my suspicions that she may have been put on a medication.
Intervention
Over the course of the next three days of music class (Approximately 3 ½ weeks on a 6-
day rotation), I worked with the student to narrow down the number of times the student called
out. I offered the incentive of a sticker chart. Her sticker chart had her name written on it and
four boxes, very similar to the chart for data collection. The goal was that, for every 10 minutes
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of class that she did not talk out, she would earn a sticker. If she earned 3 or more stickers out of
4, she would be given a reward. After asking what kind of reward she wanted, she suggested a
positive note home to her parents, and seemed quite excited.
The first day was October 19th, and she did very well. With how much of a turnaround
she had compared to before we started taking data, I had a very strong feeling at this point that
she may have been put on a medication. She only talked out once in the entire class, some time
during the third quarter. I did, however, forget my stickers in my other backpack, as I use sticker
charts for my private lesson students as well. Instead, she got smiley faces.

A positive note was sent home to her parents. I typed up the email, which was cleared by
my cooperating teacher, and she forwarded to her parents. I did not receive the response, but my
cooperating teacher said that her parents were thankful that I reached out.

The next time I saw her was October 27th. Apparently, the note home was very well
received, and she was happy to continue with our intervention. That day, she had no callouts at
all. The entire class, she was focused and attentive, raising her hand every time she had
something to say and never shouting out.
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Another positive note was sent home and she was thoroughly praised, though this time I
did not hear about a response from the student’s parents.

The following day that I was supposed to see her, I fell ill and was unable to execute the
final day of my intervention on the day it was supposed to happen. When I spoke to my
cooperating teacher, she told me that she was unsure of what the student’s behavior was like that
day, so I was worried I would have to start from scratch.
When I did return, she was still very excited. This time, I had something different for her.
I had heard from other students that she enjoyed fidget toys, and I had found some fidget cubes
at the store. I told her that if she did well in music class and finished up her sticker chart again, I
would give her the fidget cubes. I realize that I should have stayed more consistent with the plan
of sending positive notes home. However, I felt that the final sticker chart being completed
would be a great milestone for her and deserved something a little more memorable for her. I had
also brought my dinosaur stickers.
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Once again, she only had one callout at the very beginning of class, and that was it. She
got stickers for the remaining three quarters, and I gave her the fidget toy. I did tell her and her
teacher that she was to leave it in her bag, and it was not to be played with in class, only at home.
I did not receive any updates from the teacher or parents afterwards.
Results
At the end of the Case Study, I thought that the behavior was corrected. However, as
soon as she came in the following day that I saw her, she was back to talking out just like before.
I had to speak to her several times in class, and it was disruptive to the other students again. I do
not know if it was because I did not say anything to her at the beginning of class like I had been,
or if it was because of my assumption of her being on medication, but it was drastically different
than when we were working with the sticker charts. I will continue to look out for this behavior.
Conclusion
There are several things that I would have done differently. First off, I would have
remembered my stickers, so she had stickers on her sticker charts. I think she would have liked
seeing the stickers more than just smiley face drawings which could have helped in the incentive
process. Secondly, I should have been more consistent in general. Not only was I missing a day,
which absolutely could have been detrimental to her progress because my CT was not
implementing or keeping track of it, but I also changed what the incentive was at the end of the
case study. With me being inexperienced, I am unsure how the change in the incentive could
have changed the results of the case study, but I know that it is better for everyone involved to
remain consistent rather than deviating from what was decided on initially.
Personally, I think I may continue to offer these incentives for this student, whether that
be a different kind of privilege or otherwise. I will observe her over the next class to see if
anything changes. If she is still talking out, I will go back to utilizing the intervention tactics. If
she is not, I will resume as normal. I still believe that she may have been put on medication to
help her focus because of the sudden and drastic change in behavior right before I began my case
study.