We’ve all heard the baseball phrase “three strikes and your out.” When applied to behavior modification, three strikes become a tangible strategy for training children.
A strike (the perpetrator’s name o the board with a check mark next to it) is given for any number of inappropriate behaviors such as: foul language, arguing name calling, hitting, kicking, impoliteness etc. A student may receive one, two, or three strikes at any one time, depending on the severity of the offense. If someone receives three strikes they will spend the remainder of the day, working in isolation form the rest of the class. Since most infraction involve a social setting, removing the attention seeking person from this environment often times stops the behavior.
This method can be administered on an extended basis. For example, the first week, strikes accumulate for one day only. On the second week, strikes carry over to the next day. The third week strikes carry over for three days and so forth, bu to four days.
This technique helps the student to incrementally change his or her behavior and therefore increases the chance of success.