Lag Sequential Analysis as a Tool for Functional Analysis of Student Disruptive Behavior in Classrooms

Lag sequential analysis of individual interactions was explored as a tool to generate hypotheses regarding the social control of inappropriate classroom behavior of students with severe behavior disorders. Four single subject experiments with two students who displayed high rates of disruptive behavior in special education classrooms were completed using lag sequential analysis to identify antecedent and subsequent social events that were significantly related to their disruptive behavior. Three coded events (student handraise, teacher attention, and the “stop code”) were identified as highly related to the students' disruptive behavior. Three of the four experiments were successful in reducing the students' disruptive behavior by prescribing treatment based upon the lag sequential analysis. The results of these experiments indicated that the lag sequential analysis procedure is potentially a useful tool, but additional research is needed. The results are discussed in terms of the usefulness of the analysis procedures in contributing to the functional analysis of students' classroom behavior.