Using the behavior trap to teach students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

​Students diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder have characteristics that may help with the behavior trap being an effective way of working on skills or behaviors. The behavior trap focuses on “bait” or special area of interest to engage the student in the lesson, either academic or behavioral. Students with ASD obsess over a specific thing or content (Heward et al., 2017, p. 229). The obsession can be a range of things or content such as animals, the planets, toys, pencils, and anything that exists. This one obsession can be used as the “bait” with the behavior trap to work on every aspect of the student's life from learning how to write to learning social skills.
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The behavior trap has “four essential features” (Heward et al., 2017, p. G-2):

First: Find the bait or special area of interest. “They are “baited” with virtually irresistible reinforcers that “lure” the student to the trap” (Heward et al., 2017, G-2).
The student had created his own superhero named Green Langry based off the DC Comics Lanterns. He had his sister draw the character and stated one day he would be Green Lantern. 

The “bait” would be the character Green Langry. Though there weren’t any books for Green Langry the DC Comics linked to the character could be incorporated. The student was struggling with writing, and the teacher felt the character could help motivate him to write about him and increase his writing skills.

Second: To enter the trap, one must choose something that would need a low-effort response and is already skills or behaviors the student has or uses (Heward et al., 2017, G-2). 
The teacher asked the student if he would like to write a story about his character Green Langry. The student was very excited and could not wait to get started. The Teacher first started with speech to text with typing the information for the student in a word document. She then had him use speech to text technology. He would speak into a headset and it would type as he spoke. She then had him writing with pencil and paper. She worked on parts of speech, developing a draft, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. 

​Third: Once inside the trap, the student is motivated by things that connect and are dependent on reinforcement to get, extend, and keep the “targeted academic and/or social skills” (Heward et al., 2017, G-2). 
The teacher continued using Green Langy to help the student develop social skills. Once he completed his story he got to read it in front of his peers. They had drawing competitions to see who could draw the best rainbow. The students started playing as super heroes during recess. 

Fourth: “They can remain effective for a long time because students show few, if any, satiation effects” or become tired of the special area of interest (Heward et al., 2017, G-2).
The teacher continued to use the student area of interest which was Green Langry the entire school year. He was able to use his interest in all areas of his learning including in the cafeteria setting and specials classrooms. The teacher made a reminder card for him to be able to sit in the cafeteria. He did not like the smells and noises in the cafeteria but with his reminder card of Green Langry he was reminded he was strong and safe and no longer ran out of the cafeteria but instead sat and waited for his peers to finish their meals. It was used as an encouragement to complete art task he was not interested in by relating the art to Green Langry. He started doing all physical education activities because he wanted to be strong like Green Langry. He had no issues completing computer task because the teacher gave him earned computer time at the end of class to research DC Comics Lanterns. He did not become bored of this “bait” it continued to grow throughout the school year and the teacher continued to learn different ways to incorporate into the students learning to increase his academic and social skills. 

References:
​Heward, W., Alber-Morgan, S., & Konrad, M. (2017). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson.