How To And How Not To Use Time-Out

Ryan, Sanders, Katsiyannis, and Yell (2007) published an article in Teaching Exceptional Learners entitled, “Using Time-Out Effectively in the Classroom.” In this article, the authors define four types of time-out, describe ways that time-out is used ineffectively, and provide recommendations on how to implement it effectively in the classroom. One type of time-out defined by Ryan et al. (2007) is exclusion time-out, when teachers, “remove the student who exhibited the inappropriate behavior from the reinforcing setting” (p. 61). They go on to write that exclusion time out involves, “placing a student (a) in the corner of a classroom facing the wall, (b) behind a partition in the classroom, or (c) in another teacher’s classroom” (p. 62). After reading about the four types of time-out, I felt that the description of exclusion time-out best fit the safe seat. Every safe seat that I have observed is towards the back of the classroom away from instructional areas and facing a wall. Exclusion time-out removes a child from instruction.

Ryan et al. (2007) go on to write about how time-out can be ineffective if students do not want to be in the classroom: “The term ‘time-out’ implies that the ‘time-in’ (i.e., the classroom) is reinforcing, and that a student would prefer to remain in that setting” (p. 62). When interviewing a third grade male student at my elementary host school, I asked him how he feels when he goes to the safe seat. He responded, “Happy because I’m not doing my work” (Interview, October 3, 2017). For this student the classroom or learning activity is not reinforcing. The safe seat may actually be reinforcing his negative behavior because it allows him to get away from something that he does not like: doing work that is difficult for him. Ryan et al. (2007) states that teachers need to make the classroom a desired environment that students want to be in if they are going to use time-out.

The most effective form of time researched by Ryan et al. (2007) was inclusion time-out, which, “involves removing the reinforcement from a student, rather than removing the student from the reinforcing environment” (p. 61). A subcategory of inclusion time-out is contingent observation, where, “a student … is required to move to another location in the classroom and is instructed to observe the class without participating or interacting in any way for a period of time” (p. 61). I observed my second grade host teacher use contingent observation on several occasion when students were distracting their peers on the rug during instructional time (Observation, September 5, 2017). Rather than sending them to the safe seat, she told the students to sit at their desks. They were still able to see and hear her teaching but were not able to respond to any questions posed by the teacher.

“Using Time-Out Effectively in the Classroom” has made me wonder if teachers should implement a step before the safe seat that allows their students to continue observing instruction. This may show students what they are missing when they behave inappropriately. Teachers could be taught to use “go to your desk” like my second grade host teacher as a first removal step before sending students to a safe seat and exclusion time-out.