Behavioral strategies for students with developmental disabilities in a virtual classroom

The shift to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to swiftly develop strategies for virtual settings to ensure students received effective instruction. Antecedent- and consequence-based interventions have been shown to be effective in classrooms; however, to our best knowledge, there have been no reports on the effects of these interventions when used in virtual classrooms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of noncontingent attention (NCA) and differential negative reinforcement of other behavior (DNRO) on the levels of on-task behavior, camera off, and inappropriate vocalizations in three students with developmental disabilities in a self-contained virtual classroom. Results indicated that NCA effectively decreased inappropriate vocalizations for two students and improved class participation for one student. For the other two students, DNRO was necessary to promote significant behavior change. These results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing NCA and DNRO for group instruction in a virtual classroom.