Behavior Change

Project
Sharing
Jenna Koehn

Jenna Koehn
Guiding Child Behavior

Behavior Change Project

Overview
Maddy is the daughter of a friend of mine. She is 6 years old and in first grade.
Through some general observations based on previous experiences with Maddy I have noticed
that she has a hard time sharing her things. After talking with her mother, I have found that this is
a reoccurring problem when other children come over and play with Maddy. Maddy does not
seem to have this issue at school; it occurs mostly at home with her personal belongings. This
behavior often occurs when a child begins to play with a toy of Maddys. It is not always the
same toy, and doesnt occur at the same times. Often times when Maddy does not share toys the
other child trying to play with her will become upset. Usually a fight with break out, tattling
happens and both of the children will become angry and frustrated. Maddy does have some
underlying social/emotional problems and will become enraged and very upset when she does
not get her way. She will often shut down, shake, and breathe heavily when she throws one of
these tantrums. As a result the other child will not want to play with Maddy and Maddy will
become even more upset.
SMART Objective
S Maddy will not take a toy away from a friend more than once during a one hour playtime by
December 6th, 2014.
M Only takes a toy away once in a one hour period.
A One toy can be taken away during this period.
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Guiding Child Behavior

R I still allot for that fact that Maddy is a single child not used to sharing personal belongings. I
am allowing her to still refuse to share at least once during a period of time.
T By December 6th, 2014.
Data Recording Method
For the observation of Maddy, I somewhat combined a few methods of data recording. I
did this because I felt that it suited me better and allowed me to focus on the main behavior issue
I was observing in Maddy. What I did was make a chart. On the chart I made a place for date and
location of the observation. Then underneath that I had one column for time and another column
for the observation/behavior that occurred at that time. I also put a section at the bottom for
additional notes. I used both a combination of anecdotal record and a running account. I wrote
information down as it occurred in the style of a running account, but I did not write down
everything. I only wrote the things down that I felt pertained to the issue of sharing.
At times it was hard to write things down as the occurred (for instance while I was
playing with Maddy I didnt want to distract her or myself from the lesson I was trying to teach)
so I would write it down after the fact, kind of in an anecdotal method. Again I wouldnt write
down everything only things that I felt pertained to the behavior issue. Also I interviewed
Maddys mother and wrote down information and episodes that occurred previous to my
observations of Maddy.
Strategy/Plan
My plan for Maddy from the beginning was to observe Maddy in both her home and my
home to see if there was a difference in her behavior. I chose to do this because of the fact that

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Guiding Child Behavior

her mother told me that the issue of grabbing toys from children and not sharing isnt an issue at
school more so at home with her personal belongings.
After these initial observations I planned on modeling appropriate behavior with Maddy.
I wanted to take the time and show her how sharing personal toys is more fun than keeping them
to ourselves and having no friends to play with. I wanted to do this modeling one on one without
other children around so that we could focus on sharing. I also wanted to make sure I noted
which toys Maddy really liked to play with so that I could use similar toys from my daughter
while modeling sharing with Maddy.
After modeling appropriate behavior I wanted to make sure Maddy would remember
what she had learned with me. Before playing with my daughter I wanted to remind Maddy
about sharing and friends. I wanted to use a reminder to prevent the negative behavior and see
how that worked.
Implementation of the Plan
As I had planned my first meeting with Maddy was simply observation. I went over to
her home on a Thursday night with my daughter Melina who is 5 and plays with Maddy
regularly. Both girls were happy to see each other as always and ran off to play right away. About
a half an hour into playing Melina took a unicorn out of Maddys toy box (they had built a fort
and were putting animals inside of it). When Maddy saw Melina with the unicorn she
immediately ran over and grabbed it out of her hands and told her she could not play with it. My
daughter having two sisters is very used to sharing and is also very easy going. I dont think she
really though anything about it. I did not want to intervene at this point. Five minutes after
grabbing the unicorn she grabbed a wand out of Melinas hands and put it on top of her bed
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Guiding Child Behavior

(which is a small loft style bed). Melina again didnt say anything. The girls continue playing
until Melina tries to take the wand off of Maddys bed and play with it. At this point Melina
seemed a little frustrated and came and told me that Maddy wouldnt share her princess wand.
Maddy appeared upset when Melina came and told me she wouldnt share, I told Melina just to
find another toy and continue playing. Overall I noted besides the few smaller incidents both
girls played reasonably well together that night.
Two days later Melina and I went back on a Saturday afternoon. I wanted to observe
again, but decided if any problem behavior occurred I may interject myself and ask questions.
Again the girls were excited to see each other; Maddy showed Melina a new doll she had just
received as a present from her Aunt Em. The girls played well with each other for the first 35
minutes. At this point Maddy grabbed a Barbie princess doll out of Melinas hand and told her
she couldnt play with that doll. I asked Maddy why it was that Melina couldnt play with that
doll even though she wasnt playing with it. Maddy said she couldnt play with it because it was
hers and that she wanted to play with it. I asked her if Melina could play with it when she was
done playing with it. Maddy kind of glared at me and said no because she needs her hair done. It
seemed to me that Maddy just came up with an excuse for Melina not to play with the doll. After
this Maddy ignored further questions from me in regards to the doll so I continued to let them
play. 20 minutes later Maddy told Melina she could not wear a dress up dress even though she
didnt want to wear it, Melina seemed frustrated. 10 minutes after that Maddy told Melina she
could not play with a vampire doll and Melina came to me and tattled. Again Maddy came up
with the excuse that she needed to dress the doll and didnt seem to respond well to further
questioning on my part.

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Guiding Child Behavior

A few days later I had Maddy come over to my house. Her and her mother arrive in the
evening. Right away the girls run off into my daughters room and begin to play. Before they
arrived I had set aside some special toys that I knew Maddy would really like to play with.
They consisted of 2 Barbies, a Monster High doll a Monster bracelet and a doll brush. I let the
girls play for about 15 minutes and then go and sit on the floor with my bag of special toys. Both
girls notice me right away and come over but I continued to play with the dolls. I told them they
are my favorite dolls and ask them if they want to play with me. We all played together for about
15 minutes before I left them and let them play on their own. There were no incidents of Maddy
grabbing toys or not sharing that night.
The next night I went over to Maddys house without my daughter. I brought the special
toys that we had played with the night before. I played with Maddy for about an hour the whole
while trying to model the behavior of sharing with her. I offered her my toys and asked to play
with some of hers. I think one of the important questions I asked Maddy was: Even though this
is MY toy, do you think I should share it with you?. She said yes and I asked her why. She told
me we were playing together and she wanted to play with my Monster High doll. I asked her if it
was more fun to play with toys together with our friends, or alone. She told me it was more fun
to play with friends together. I also asked her why she didnt want to share her toys sometimes,
but she didnt seem to want to respond to that question. I asked her again but she kind of ignored
me so I let it go.
The next Sunday Maddy came over to my house again to play. Before the girls could start
playing together though I pulled Maddy aside and showed her my bag of special toys again. I
reminded Maddy of the time we had spent together and what we had talked about sharing. After
this reminder I let Maddy go play with Melina and my younger daughter Adrienne. The girls
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played really well together; there was only one incident where Maddy took a purse that went to a
Monster High doll. Melina confronted Maddy and told her she needed to give it back because
she was playing with it. Maddy argued back and I reminded her of how I shared with her and
Melina was playing with it. Maddy did give the purse back to Melina, but seemed somewhat
distant after the incident. She did get over it eventually though when the girls changed activities
and eventually went to go watch a movie.
On Thursday night Melina and I went over to Maddys house. I had Melina put together a
bag of toys that she wanted to play with and bring. We arrived in the evening and I gave Melina
her bag of toys; the girls were excited to see each other again. I asked Melina if she wanted to
offer Maddy a doll to play with. She let Maddy pick out one of her dolls. I made a big deal about
Melina sharing asking Maddy, Wasnt it nice that Melina shared one of her dolls with you?.
Maddy said yes but when I asked her if it was more fun to share she kind of scooted around the
question pointing out that she had dolls too. During the play with these dolls Maddy did offer
Melina a Monster High doll. Shortly after Maddy gave Melina a tiara to wear. I made a point to
act very excited and happy that Maddy offered something to Melina. About 10 minutes later
however Melina was playing with a stuffed unicorn and Maddy grabbed it out of Melinas hands.
I asked her why she did that and she replied that the unicorn needed to go in her house. I told her
Melina was playing with it and she was not. I could tell by her face she was getting upset. I
reminded her of how Melina shared her dolls with her. Maddy didnt respond to my questions for
a few minutes. Finally I asked her if she could share Glitter the unicorn with Melina and she
said no. I told her that that made Melina and I very sad and she handed Melina the unicorn. I
acted very happy, but Maddy seemed more reserved and possibly angry/upset. For the next 5
minutes Maddy kind of sat on the floor not interacting as much as she was before. Then I asked
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Guiding Child Behavior

Melina if now Maddy could have a turn with Glitter. Melina gave Maddy the unicorn and she
seemed a little less upset. Maddy eventually shook it off and the girls continued playing nicely,
but I did notice Maddy at one point put certain Barbie dolls on top of her bed so that Melina
could not play with them. Whenever I saw one of the girls share something or offer something I
would make sure they knew that I noticed and was happy about it.
My last meeting with Maddy was Saturday afternoon. I brought Melina over to Maddys
house. Maddy was watching cartoons when we arrived and Melina joined her. When the cartoon
was over the girls went to go play in Maddys room. Once again before they started to play I took
out my special toys and reminded Maddy of sharing. I asked Maddy if she was going to share
and she said, Yes, because its fun. I became really excited and praised Maddy. The girls play
well and it wasnt until about a half hour later that an issue arose. Maddy took out a Doc
McStuffins puzzle and was putting it together, Melina came over and took a piece and Maddie
immediately grabbed it out of her hand. I asked her if Melina could help her put the puzzle
together, at first she said no because she was playing with it but when I asked her again if Melina
could help she said yes. About 15 minutes later I noticed Maddy put a My Little Pony on top of
her bed. I asked Maddy why she put the pony up there and she insisted that that was where the
pony was going to sleep. I asked her if Melina could play with the pony and she said no because
she was sleeping. I asked again if we could share with Melina and she didnt answer. Finally I
asked if we could all play horse castle together and have fun she said yes and took the pony
down off the bed. The girls played together and Maddy didnt seem as shut down as previous
when she shared a toy.

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Guiding Child Behavior

Analysis
Overall I noticed a few things while working with Maddy. First I noticed that primarily
the issue of sharing and grabbing toys out of kids hands occurred mostly at home with her own
personal belongings. I think she feels she has the say about her things and who can play with
them. I also think she believes she can take them from other children because they are her things.
Only once did she take something from my daughter while we were at our home, playing with
my daughters toys.
I did not see a huge improvement in Maddys behavior during the time that I spent with
her. On our meeting on December 6 th, she did only grab a toy from my daughter once during a
one hour period so our goal was achieved that day, but she does display other signs of not
wanting to share. We can see this in the way she tries to prevent others from playing with things
by putting them up in her bed even though she is not playing with them and has no intention of
playing with them. She simply does not want someone else playing with them.
I think that the way I went about trying to fix the problem behavior was a good method,
however, more time would be needed to achieve the goal on a more reliant basis. By modeling
good behavior and praising incidents of sharing I think Maddy realized sharing was something
everyone had to do and it was positive thing to do. I know my time spent with Maddy had an
effect on her because she did say to me that she was going to share because it was more fun to
share with friends than to play alone. I saw an improvement in the way Maddy reacted to certain
sharing situations. At the beginning Maddy would ignore my questions, or come up with
excuses. She would seem very upset, glare at me, or sit and pout on the floor. However, the last
incident involving taking a toy did not end with Maddy secluding herself, pouting or shutting

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Guiding Child Behavior

down. She simply let Melina put the puzzle together with her. Also on the last day together she
did take the pony down off of the bed for us to play with, even though I know she didnt want to.
It is also important to remember that Maddy does have social/emotional problems that
have not yet been diagnosed. It is because of this I didnt want to push Maddy too far. I didnt
want her to get to the point of throwing a full out tantrum, I let a lot of things go that I possibly
could have pushed further in a child that did not have underlying issues. I also believe that
children have a right to their personal things. I did not want to force Maddy to give up things to
Melina that she may have been currently playing with. Instead I noted and concerned myself
only with things that she was not playing with or didnt notice until Melina started playing with
them.
I think my method of observation worked well for me. I was able to observe and write
things down, and interact and write things down shortly after. I dont think time of the day was a
factor on how Maddy acted, but I wanted to note the time in my observations to make sure and to
have a nice sequencing of events when I looked back at my notes. Perhaps some of the draw
backs are I didnt write down some of the things that happened prior to Maddy grabbing a toy, or
hiding a toy. While I dont think there was anything that may have triggered Maddy to grab a toy
it would be nice to look back and see if there were some similarities. I just felt that writing down
every single thing that happened while observing wasnt necessary.
In conclusion I feel that my behavior change project went well. I feel if more time was
spent with Maddy the issue of sharing her toys could be handled. It was a good experience and I
think I made a little difference in the way that Maddy plays with others. I think with continued

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Guiding Child Behavior

behavior modeling and praising positive behavior Maddy will be able to share her toys better
with her friends that come over to play.

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