Significant Disabilities
Pardon the Interruption
Enhancing Communication Skills for
Students With Intellectual Disability
Daniel A. Bayes, Amy K. Heath, Carol Williams, and Jennifer B. Ganz
Consider a student like Carina, whose
parents and teachers want to encour-
age her to communicate her wants and
needs more frequently. In class, prepar-
ing her favorite sandwich—peanut but-
ter and jelly—becomes the gateway to
better communication. And take a
look at Mateusz who struggled with
off-task behavior. His teacher and his
parents worked together to increase his
verbal communication through his love
for working with scissors and glue. For
another student who would benefit
personally from more peer interaction,
a teacher or parent can use the simple
steps involved in playing a game of
TEACHING Exceptional Children, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 64-70. Copyright 2013 CEC.
“Go Fish” to teach communication.
Working with students’ natural moti-
vation and rewards can boost needed
communication skills.
It is important for students with an
intellectual disability to be able to
appropriately communicate their wants
and needs. Such communication gives
students greater autonomy in their
environments and reduces challenging
behavior, such as aggression, self-
injury, and temper outbursts, which
might occur for lack of more effective
or conventional means of communica-
tion (Sigafoos, Arthur-Kelly, & Butter-
field, 2006). Communication skills,
however, are difficult to teach students
with disabilities, particularly those with
64 COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
moderate to severe disabilities (West-
ling & Fox, 2009).
The behavior chain interruption
strategy (BCIS) is a user-friendly, evi-
dence-based intervention that has
proven to be effective in teaching com-
munication skills to students with a
range of disabilities (Carter & Grunsell,
2001; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007;
Goetz, Gee, & Sailor, 1985; Lechago,
Carr, Grow, Love, & Almason, 2010). In
addition, teachers and parents can eas-
ily incorporate the BCIS into the con-
text of a student’s natural environ-
The behavior chain interruption strategy (BCIS) is a
user-friendly, evidence-based intervention that has proven
to be effective in teaching communication skills
ment—either home or school. Finally,
students who learned to communicate
using the BCIS were able to use (gener-
alize) these skills in other routines and
environments (Grunsell & Carter,
2002).
How BCIS Works
With BCIS, a parent or a teacher inter-
rupts a student who is engaged in a
multistep routine, such as preparing a
snack, washing hands, or playing with
a toy. The purpose of the interruption
is twofold. First, it creates an opportu-
nity to teach the student to make a
request for an object or ask for assis-
tance necessary to continue the task.
This instruction may take the form of a
verbal prompt, such as, “Say, ‘Help,
please!’” or, “What do you need?” It
may also involve a physical prompt
when targeting manual signing or pic-
torial communication systems. Second,
the natural desire to complete a task,
coupled with the mild distress caused
by the interruption, provides powerful
motivation for the student to communi-
cate. When the student does make the
targeted request, the adult grants the
request and encourages the student to
continue the activity. Consider the fol-
lowing example of using the BCIS with
Carina. While Carina prepares a peanut
butter-and-jelly sandwich, her teacher,
Mrs. Garcia, withholds the jar of jelly,
blocking Carina’s access to it. Carina is
thus given the opportunity to request
the jelly. If after a few seconds she
doesn’t make the request, Mrs. Garcia
prompts her to say, “Jelly, please!”
When Carina gives the correct
response, Mrs. Garcia gives her the
jelly, allowing her to continue prepar-
ing the sandwich.
Compared to communicative teach-
ing procedures that occur just before
an activity or in a massed practice for-
mat, the BCIS appears to have some
advantage. Because the flow of a rou-
tine already in progress is interrupted,
the natural consequence of getting to
complete the routine serves as rein-
forcement and provides the motivation
to communicate (Carter & Grunsell,
2001; Lechago et al., 2010).
Why BCIS Works
Researchers have suggested several
explanations for the effectiveness of
the BCIS, based in applied behavior
analytic theory. The momentary inter-
ruption in the routine seems to
enhance the value of the reinforcer
(i.e., being able to complete the task),
which boosts the student’s motivation
to communicate. Negative reinforce-
ment may also play a role in the effec-
tiveness of the BCIS (i.e., the distress
caused by the interruption in the rou-
tine is removed when the student gives
the target request; Carter & Grunsell,
2001). This behavioral explanation of
the BCIS is especially well suited for
students with autism who often engage
in repetitious behavior patterns and
prefer sameness in daily routines (Breg-
man, 2005). Being allowed to continue
with a routine when interrupted would
most likely represent a particularly
powerful reinforcer for a student with
autism and thus increase the student’s
motivation to communicate.
Benefits of BCIS
Some features that support the use of
BCIS for classroom, home, and com-
munity use are its versatility, ease of
implementation in the natural environ-
ment, and potential for generalized
outcomes. In addition to increasing
speech and oral requesting (Sigafoos &
Littlewood, 1999), BCIS has proven
effective in teaching and increasing the
frequency of requesting via augmenta-
TEACHING EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 冨 JAN/FEB 2013
tive and alternative communication
(AAC) such as manual signing (Romer,
Cullinan, & Shoenberg, 1994), pictorial
communication systems (Grunsell &
Carter, 2002), and electronic AAC
devices (Gee, Graham, Goetz, Oshima,
& Yoshioka, 1991). In addition, these
and other studies involved individuals
ranging in age and exceptionality
including adults with moderate to
severe intellectual disability (Romer et
al. 1994); adolescents with deafness
and a severe intellectual disability (Hall
& Sundberg, 1987); elementary students
with autism (Grunsell & Carter, 2002);
and preschool children with autism,
communication disorders, and develop-
mental delays (Lechago et al., 2010).
Although the research has focused
heavily on using the BCIS to teach var-
ious forms of requesting, it is suggest-
ed that teachers and other adults may
use BCIS to teach other functions of
communication, such as rejecting,
65
protesting, commenting, and question-
ing (Carter & Grunsell, 2001; Lechago
et al., 2010). For example, to teach
rejecting, you could hand a child an
obviously ridiculous item like a hair-
brush to eat his cereal, or you could
give him a food item that he strongly
dislikes during mealtime. To teach
commenting, you might present a stu-
dent an iPad with a dead battery; and
after being unable to turn it on, the
student could be taught to say,
“Broken,” or “It doesn’t work.” After
being given a puzzle with a piece miss-
ing, the student could be taught to ask
the question, “Where’s the piece?” A
second feature of BCIS is that teachers
can easily incorporate it into daily rou-
tines and natural environments.
Because BCIS is intended for use
within naturally occurring behavior
routines, it can be used throughout the
day and at home. Indeed, Sigafoos and
Littlewood (1999) suggested that these
sessions can result in a playful interac-
tion between the child and adults
involved. Further, research suggests
that when teachers incorporate com-
munication instruction into natural
routines, they can provide students
with an increase in motivation because
communicative responses are linked to
real-life reinforcements (Hunt & Goetz,
1988).
Finally, a third feature of BCIS is its
potential for generalized outcomes.
Communication learned through BCIS
has been shown to generalize from
taught to untaught routines. For exam-
ple, Raul learned to manually sign
“Help” during a behavior chain involv-
ing assembling a toy boat. Later when
unable to unzip his backpack to take
out his markers, he used his “Help”
sign again. Similarly, communication
skills learned through BCIS also gener-
alize to out-of-routine contexts, that is,
to routines completely different from
those in which the communication was
taught and without the implementation
of a planned interruption. BCIS was
used to teach Brandi to say, “Drink,
please!” while eating chips during
snack time. Later while running
around on the playground, Brandi
approached her teacher and said,
“Drink, please!”
66 COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
How to Implement BCIS
The following steps for implementing
BCIS are adapted from the research
conducted by Carter and Grunsell’s
(2001) review of the BCIS literature.
Step 1: Choose a Target Behavior
A collaborative team should determine
a specific communicative behavior to
teach using BCIS. This team may con-
sist of teachers, paraprofessionals,
speech therapists, and parents. The
target behavior may be determined by
educational assessments such as the
Communication Programming Inven-
tory (Sternberg & McNerney, 1988) or
the Communication Matrix (Rowland,
2004); chosen from a student’s indi-
vidualized education program (IEP)
learner objectives; or identified by
collecting data during observations.
Because BCIS has proven effective in
teaching both the acquisition of new
communicative behaviors, as well as
increasing the rate of an existing com-
municative behavior, just one of these
areas should be chosen as the inter-
vention focus.
Step 2: Identify a Fitting
Behavior Chain or Routine
Next, the team should identify a
behavior chain or routine that could be
easily interrupted to teach the target
behavior. Ideally, the behavior chain
should have multiple steps, occur
daily, be part of the student’s existing
classroom or home routine, and the
student should be able to complete or
at least initiate the steps of the behav-
ior chain independently. Some exam-
ples of behavior routines that could be
used are making a simple snack, play-
ing with a toy, putting on a coat, play-
ing on the playground, or taking out
the garbage (see box “Sample Behavior
Chain Interruption Strategy (BCIS)
Routines”).
To determine where to insert the
interruption, many teams find it help-
ful to task analyze the routine, that is,
break the routine down into a list of
sequential steps (see box, ”Sample
Task Analysis of a Behavior Chain:
Preparing Lemonade From Mix”).
Once the team has completed the
task analysis, they need to choose a
method of interruption, along with
determining at what point in the
behavior chain the interruption will
occur (see box, “Methods of
Interrupting the Behavior Chain”).
Step 3: Collect Baseline Data
For the baseline phase of the interven-
tion, the teacher or other adult should
interrupt the student at a predeter-
mined step during the behavior chain,
wait for a short period of time (e.g.,
5 or 10 seconds), and record occur-
rences or nonoccurrences of the target
behavior. The teacher should take
baseline data until a stable trend or
pattern of behavior is established.
The purpose of the baseline data is to
determine the performance level of a
student before the intervention for
comparison purposes after the inter-
vention. Teachers can collect the data
in various ways, such as using an
anecdotal report or taking frequency
data on various attempts to communi-
cate. Alberto and Troutman (2006) pro-
vide a detailed description of how to
employ these and other observational
recording systems.
The purpose of the
baseline data is to determine
the performance level of a
student before the intervention
for comparison purposes.
Step 4: Implement BCIS and
Collect Intervention Data
During the intervention phase, the
teacher or other adults should interrupt
the student during the behavior chain,
but rather than waiting for a response,
the teachers should provide an imme-
diate prompt, showing the student how
to make the target request or to com-
municate a need. For example a
prompt might be, “Say, ‘More, please,’”
or a physical prompt to get the student
to sign “Help!” When the student
makes an appropriate response, the
teacher should grant the student’s
request, allowing the student to con-
tinue with the behavior chain. As the

Sample Behavior Chain Interruption Strategy (BCIS) Routines
• Hanging up a backpack
• Getting food in the lunch line
• Swinging on a swing at the playground
• Brushing hair
• Vacuuming the classroom
• Preparing lemonade from mix
• Coloring a picture
• Playing on a slide at the playground
• Putting clothes from the washer into the dryer
• Making the bed
student begins to demonstrate the tar-
get request independently, the teacher
should gradually and systematically
stop giving prompts. Prompt fading is
the system of gradually reducing
prompts as the student begins to
demonstrate mastery of an objective.
Alternately, teachers may use time
delays to incrementally increase the
wait time for the target response before
providing a prompt (e.g., 5 seconds, 8
seconds, 12 seconds). This process
allows time for the student to inde-
pendently make the request. Alberto
and Troutman (2006) provide detailed
information on how to use the various
fading techniques such as decreasing
assistance and time delay.
Step 5: Address Generalization to
Novel Routines and Vocabulary
To promote generalization to untaught
routines, the teacher should provide
the student the opportunity to make
the target request in behavior chains
other than those used in the initial ses-
sions. Teachers or other adults need to
plan these opportunities in advance.
Further, to encourage generalization
across signs, symbols, or words, the
student should have opportunities to
request additional items or activities
other than those used in the initial
sessions.
The following section provides sev-
eral fictional examples of BCIS use in
the classroom. The examples involve
using BCIS to teach various modes of
communication to learners of diverse
ages and abilities.
BCIS Case Examples
Fourth-Grader With Cognitive
and Linguistic Delay: Mateusz
Mateusz was a 10-year-old boy with
severe cognitive and linguistic delay.
Although he infrequently spoke sponta-
neously, he did make one- to three-
word utterances when prompted. He
often wandered around the room,
climbing furniture, getting into closets,
rummaging through the desk of his
teacher, Mr. Sharp, without permission.
His behavior often distracted other stu-
dents and resulted in a lot of off-task
behavior. Because Mateusz had some
verbal communication skills but rarely
used them spontaneously, Mr. Sharp,
along with Mateusz’s parents, decided
to use BCIS to increase his sponta-
neous verbal requesting.
Mateusz’s academic work often
required the use of scissors and glue.
To obtain these items, Mateusz needed
to leave his seat to get them from the
supply boxes. Because Mateusz typi-
cally used scissors and glue two or
three times throughout the day, Mr.
Sharp decided to implement a BCIS
Sample Task Analysis of a Behavior Chain: Preparing
Lemonade From Mix
• Take out a pitcher, wooden spoon, and can of lemonade mix.
• Pour two scoops of powder into the pitcher using the scooper in the can.
• Fill up the pitcher with water from the sink.
• Stir the lemonade with the wooden
spoon until powder has dissolved.
• Put ice cubes in a cup.
• Pour in the lemonade and enjoy!
TEACHING EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 冨 JAN/FEB 2013
during routines involving scissors and
glue. Mr. Sharp gave Mateusz his
assignment and instructed him to
begin working. This step involved
completing the written section, going
to the supply closet to get the scissors
and glue to begin the next section, and
returning to his seat to continue work-
ing. To provide an opportunity for
Mateusz to request help, Mr. Sharp
locked the supply closet containing the
scissors and glue before beginning the
routine. The locked closet served as the
interruption to the routine.
Mr. Sharp collected baseline data
over a period of 2 days, consisting of
three sessions per day. In these ses-
sions, Mr. Sharp recorded occurrences
of Mateusz verbally asking for help
or requesting the scissors and glue.
During the six sessions of the base-
line phase, Mateusz never requested
help or asked for materials. Instead,
Mateusz pulled on the closet door mul-
tiple times while groaning. He then
returned to his seat and rocked until
Mr. Sharp supplied him with the scis-
sors and glue.
Mr. Sharp began using BCIS with
the same procedures as the baseline
phase. However, at the point of inter-
ruption he used verbal and gestural
prompts. After Mateusz attempted to
open the closet the first time, Mr.
Sharp approached him, pointed to a
picture of scissors and glue posted on
the closet door, and said, “Scissors and
glue, please!” Initially, Mateusz
responded with the word, “Scissors!”
at which time the teacher delivered the
scissors, gave the verbal prompt,
“Glue, please!” and waited 5 seconds
for Mateusz to respond. When Mateusz
began to make the complete request
with verbal prompting, the verbal
67
 juice box, Ms. Keith immediately physi-
Methods of Interrupting the Behavior Chain cally prompted Destiny to sign “Help”
• Blocking student from performing the task (e.g., gently holding child and then helped her slide the straw out
from behind as he tries to climb on the jungle gym). of the wrapper and insert it in the hole.
• Delaying presentation of an item needed to continue a task (e.g., Since Destiny was able to perform the
withholding the soap dispenser while a student attempts to wash hands). sign for help independently before the
• Placing a necessary item out of reach (e.g., placing laundry detergent on intervention, the physical prompting
a shelf above the washing machine where the child needs assistance to was quickly faded to a modeled “Help”
reach it). sign. The teacher also introduced a
time delay after several sessions. Ms.
• Removing an item needed for task completion (e.g., hiding the
Keith waited 5 seconds and then 10
dice needed for a student to play a board game).
seconds. Eventually all prompts were
• Allowing for naturally occurring interruptions (e.g.,
faded as Destiny began to independent-
when making toast, using an unopened jar of jam that
ly sign for help.
would be difficult for a child to open independently).
To provide more instructional
opportunities during the day, as well as
prompting was discontinued and Mr. trying to guess what she wanted by generalization to new routines, the
Sharp only pointed at the picture. The holding various things up and asking, teacher used BCIS with several other
picture was also faded as Mateusz “Is this what you want?” To provide a behavior chains. These included play-
began to independently and verbally more appropriate means of requesting ing with play-dough where Destiny
request the scissors and glue. assistance, her treatment team decided needed help opening the containers,
For generalization to untaught rou- to implement BCIS to teach Destiny to and preparing to leave each day where
tines, the BCIS was used in the lunch- spontaneously sign “Help.” Destiny needed help zipping her back-
room. Mateusz loved catsup and often During lunch each day, Destiny pack. The teacher incorporated other
put it on his food. The packets of cat- needed adult assistance to open up her signs from Destiny’s existing repertoire
sup were put out of reach, giving fruit juice drink box. The steps into BCIS interventions, such as the
Mateusz an opportunity to request involved for this routine were as fol- sign for “More” during snack times
them. In the gym, Mateusz always lows. She had to take the box in her and the sign for “Play” during struc-
chose to play basketball. To insert an hands, pull the straw from the box, tured play times.
interruption, the basketballs were slide the straw out of the wrapper, put
locked in the equipment chest, requir- the straw into the hole in the box, and Older High School Student
ing Mateusz to verbally request them. drink from it. Because Destiny required With Autism: Solomon
help with taking the straw from the Solomon was a 17-year-old student
Preschool Student With wrapper and inserting it into the hole, with autism. He was verbal, but mostly
Autism: Destiny this step of the routine was used for used his speech to make repetitive out-
Destiny was a 4-year-old female with the interruption. Typically, when of-context comments or to script movie
autism and severe language disorder. Destiny pulled the straw from the box, lines. He could make meaningful
She participated in an early interven- if an adult was not standing nearby requests, but only when prompted
tion program for children with autism. she would whine and begin banging with questions, such as, “What do you
Her school day involved various activi- the straw on the table with her fist want?” Solomon was able to read and
ties, including preacademic instruction, until an adult provided assistance. write at the fifth-grade level. He attend-
life skills, mealtime, and structured During the baseline phase of BCIS, ed a prevocational class that was
play times. Destiny was in a classroom Ms. Keith positioned herself near preparing him to perform various
with six to eight other classmates; her Destiny as she began the routine of duties, such as assisting with mass
teacher, Ms. Jefferson; and two para- drinking from her juice box. When she mailings, filing, making copies, and
professionals, Mrs. Nguyen and Ms. took the straw off and began banging restocking of office supplies, for a local
Keith. Destiny demonstrated no verbal the straw on the table, Ms. Keith insurance agency where he was an
speech except occasional grunting, recorded any attempts to sign for help. intern twice a week. The class was
whining, and squealing. She knew how If Destiny made no attempts within 10 taught in a self-contained classroom at
to perform a few simple manual signs, seconds, Ms. Keith assisted Destiny the local high school.
such as “More,” “Eat, “Drink,” and with the juice box. Baseline measures Although Solomon was able to carry
“Help,” but she rarely used these signs were taken for 5 days, during which out the steps of his prevocational tasks
spontaneously. Instead, when she time there were no occurrences of the independently, he did not request more
wanted something she would often go target signing behavior. The conditions materials once he finished with the
to nearby adults and pull on their arms of the BCIS intervention phase were task at hand or if he was missing mate-
or whine and jump up and down. The similar to baseline, except that as soon rials at his workstation. Instead, he sat
adults would walk around with her, as Destiny pulled the straw off the at his desk staring straight ahead and

68 COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

often engaged in rocking and repetitive
muttering until he was given another
task. Therefore, his teacher, Mr.
Ramirez, and his job coach, Mrs.
Haney, chose to implement BCIS plus a
written script to teach Solomon to
request more materials as needed
while working on a task. One of
Solomon’s jobs was to prepare the
monthly newsletter for mailing. On
average, the agency mailed out 50 to
60 newsletters each month, so stuffing
envelopes was selected as the behavior
chain to teach the skill of requesting
more materials. The behavior chain
included the following steps. While
seated at his workstation, Solomon
would take a newsletter, trifold it, put
it in an envelope, seal the envelope,
and place it in a box.
The teacher collected baseline data
for 1 week with three trials per daily
session. Mr. Ramirez ensured that dur-
ing each session there were more
newsletters than envelopes. During this
phase of instruction, Mr. Ramirez
observed Solomon for 15 seconds after
he ran out of envelopes to see if
Solomon would initiate a request for
more. After 15 seconds, Solomon was
provided with the additional materials.
The data collected for Solomon during
baseline sessions showed no requests
for additional materials. During the
implementation phase, Mrs. Haney pro-
vided a script on a sticky note that was
adhered to a small stand in front of
Solomon’s workstation. The sticky note
had the words, “More envelopes,
please.” written on it. When Solomon
ran out of envelopes, Mrs. Haney
pointed to or tapped the note to
prompt Solomon to request more
envelopes. Because he could read flu-
ently, Solomon read the script aloud
when prompted. The gestural prompt
was slowly faded until Solomon inde-
pendently requested more envelopes.
Next the written prompt was faded by
lightening the print on the sticky note
until it could no longer be seen.
To promote generalization, the
teacher and the job coach used similar
interruptions during other prevocation-
al tasks, including making copies (the
machine ran out of paper) and filing
papers (Solomon ran out of file folders
or labels). Once Solomon began to
independently request more materials
for a variety of tasks in his classroom,
he was introduced to each task at the
insurance agency to begin his job
placement.
A Teenager With Autism, Mild
Intellectual Disability, and Severe
Behavior Disorders: Chad
Chad was a 14-year-old male with
autism, mild intellectual disability, and
severe communication disorder. He
lived and attended school in a residen-
tial treatment center for children with
severe behavior disorders. Chad was
nonverbal but was able to operate a
Vantage Lite communication device. He
occasionally used his communication
device to make simple requests such
as, “Cheese” (a request for goldfish
crackers), “play” (a request for a
leisure activity, usually a puzzle), and
“ball” (a request for basketball time in
the gym). Although he could use his
communication device, he more fre-
quently communicated requests by
pointing and waving his hands, while
grunting and saying, “buh, buh, buh.”
Because these attempts to communi-
cate were often unclear to staff work-
ing with Chad, he became angry and
attempted to hit and bite staff and
bang on his desk with his fists.
Chad’s teacher, Mrs. Govett, and his
speech therapist, Mrs. Pearl, decided to
use BCIS to teach Chad to make more
specific requests using his communica-
tion device. The initial routine targeted
for intervention was Chad’s leisure
time routine. After Chad completed an
academic task, he was allowed to
choose a leisure activity to work on for
a few minutes before his next task.
Typically, he would point at the shelf
where the activities and games were or
he would use his communication
device to say, “Play” repeatedly until
his teacher told him he could go get an
activity. Chad typically chose to work
on puzzles. To teach him to request
puzzles specifically, rather than just
say, “Play,” the boxes of puzzles were
placed higher up on the shelf out of
Chad’s reach. During baseline, after
Chad went to the shelf to get the puz-
zles, Mrs. Govett waited 10 seconds
TEACHING EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN 冨 JAN/FEB 2013
and then reached up and got the puz-
zle down for Chad. During the 10-sec-
ond interval, Mrs. Govett recorded
Chad’s attempts to use his communica-
tion device. During baseline conditions
Chad made no attempts to use his
device to request the puzzle once he
noticed that it was out of reach.
During the intervention phase,
immediately after Chad walked to the
shelf and looked up at the puzzle
boxes, Mrs. Pearl verbally prompted
him to say, “I want to play with the
puzzle, please” while using hand-over-
hand prompting to guide him through
the process of entering this information
into his communication device. When
the phrase was outputted, the teacher
handed Chad the puzzle. For the first
three sessions, Chad still pointed or
used his communication device to
request, “Play,” requiring Mrs. Pearl to
prompt him through the appropriate
request process at the shelf. By the
fourth session, while still seated at his
desk, Chad looked up at the puzzles
on the shelf and used his communica-
tion device to say, “I want to play with
the puzzle, please.”
For generalization to new routines,
a similar procedure was used to shape
Chad’s requests for “cheese,” to “I
want cheese crackers, please.” This
procedure was also used in the gym
where he was taught not only to use
his device to say, “ball,” but to request
a basketball specifically.
Suggestions for
Implementation and
Troubleshooting
If BCIS does not immediately appear to
be effective, there are several sugges-
tions from the early BCIS research that
may improve outcomes (Goetz et al.,
1985; Hunt & Goetz, 1988). For best
results, the selected behavior chain
should cause the student mild to mod-
erate distress when interrupted. The
distress caused by the interruption
functions to enhance the motivation to
perform the target request. When
determining the appropriateness of a
behavior routine for use with BCIS,
teachers may use a behavior-chain
pretest to measure the level of distress
and perseverance to perform each step.
69
During a behavior chain pretest, which
is conducted similarly to the baseline
conditions described previously, the
degree of distress caused by the inter-
ruption is given a rating of 1, 2, or 3,
with 1 meaning little or no visible dis-
tress and 3 meaning high distress, such
as tantrums, aggression, or self-injuri-
ous behaviors. In addition, attempts to
persevere with task completion may be
measured by circling “yes” or “no” on
a score sheet. Both dimensions can be
measured at predetermined steps in the
routines. If the student appears to lose
interest as a result of the interruption
or appears to be severely distressed (a
score of 3 on the distress pretest), an
alternate behavior chain or routine
should be selected, or the interruption
should take place during another step
in the routine. The step in the routine
selected for the BCIS should ideally
have a ranking of 2 on level of distress,
indicating a moderate level, and a “yes”
on attempts to continue, indicating
motivation to proceed with the routine.
When designing a BCIS interven-
tion, the teacher or other adult should
select an appropriate communication
goal for the student. If the instruction-
al goal is too difficult, the student may
become frustrated with the interrup-
tions, which can result in negative out-
comes such as tantrums, aggression,
or self-injurious behaviors, as well as
decreased motivation to engage in the
task. If it is unclear what communica-
tion goal is appropriate for the stu-
dent, a comprehensive communication
assessment should be completed, pos-
sibly with input from the local educa-
tion agency’s assistive technology
consultant or a speech language
pathologist.
To promote generalization of the
skills learned in BCIS, the teacher
should provide the student with multi-
ple opportunities to use their newly
acquired requests throughout the day,
during a variety of routines, and with a
variety of communication partners. For
example, a BCIS session can be imple-
mented during lunch with a trained
cafeteria monitor while the student is
going through the line, during class-
room cleanup with a trained classmate
without disabilities, while the students
70 COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
are emptying the waste baskets, and at
home with a parent while the student
is brushing his teeth.
The BCIS is an evidence-based
intervention that provides teachers and
parents with a user-friendly approach
to teaching functional communication
within naturally occurring contexts.
Because BCIS relies on natural learn-
ing environments, it lends itself to a
wide range of applications in the class-
room, home, and community, and can
be effectively implemented by a vari-
ety of communicative partners such as
teachers, peers, siblings, or parents.
The brief description of the BCIS and
the step-by-step instructions for its
implementation contained in this arti-
cle will provide practitioners with a
useful tool in encouraging communica-
tion among individuals with a variety
of exceptionalities.
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Daniel A. Bayes (Texas CEC), Assistant
Executive Director, Bayes Achievement
Center, Huntsville, Texas. Amy K. Heath
(Texas CEC), Graduate Student, Department
of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M
University, College Station. Carol Williams
(Texas CEC) Special Education Teacher, Bay
Colony Elementary, Dickinson ISD, Texas.
Jennifer B. Ganz (Texas CEC), Associate
Professor of Special Education, Department
of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M
University, College Station.
Address correspondence concerning this
article to Daniel Bayes, Assistant Executive
Director, Bayes Achievement Center, 7517
Highway 75 South, Huntsville, TX 77340
(e-mail: dbayes@bayescenter.com).
TEACHING Exceptional Children, Vol. 45,
No. 3, pp. 64–70.
Copyright 2013 CEC.