Supporting Young Children with Challenging Behavior

1. Supporting Young Children with Challenging Behavior 2010-2011 Special Education Paraprofessional Training Series December 8, 2010 Dr. De Voka Gordon

2. The mission of the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) is to support the efforts and initiatives of the Bureau of Special Education, and to build the capacity of local educational agencies to serve students who receive special education services. PaTTAN’s Mission

3. Our goal for each child is to ensure Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams begin with the general education setting with the use of supplementary aids and services before considering a more restrictive environment. PDE’s Commitment to Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)

4. District, IU, Preschool Agency Policy Your local district or agency’s policies regarding paraprofessional job descriptions, duties, and responsibilities provide the final word!

5. Agenda • Define what is meant by an effective workforce • Examine attitudes toward challenging behavior • Discuss how to support nurturing and responsive relationships • View high quality supportive environments • Develop targeted social emotional supports for young children

6. Learner Objectives Participants will: • Describe a framework for addressing social emotional development and challenging behavior. • Identify strategies to promote positive behavior practices. • Identify effective leadership strategies for paraprofessionals. • Collaborate with appropriate partners to develop strategies for improving children’s social emotional and behavioral outcomes.

7. An Evidence Based Framework:The Pyramid Model Approach • PROMOTION • PREVENTION • INTERVENTION

9. EFFECTIVE WORKFORCE

11. Effective Workforce Behavior that promotes and sustains the use of positive behavior practices. How does this connect to your professional responsibilities?

12. Managing Personal Stress: Thought Control Upsetting Thoughts “That child is a monster. This is getting ridiculous. He’ll never change.” “I’m sick of putting out fires!” Calming Thoughts “This child is testing to see where the limits are. My job is to stay calm and help him learn better ways to behave.” “I can handle this. I am in control. They have just learned some powerful ways to get control. I will teach them more appropriate ways to behave.”

13. Examining Our Attitudes About Challenging Behaviors Activity • What behaviors push your buttons? • How do these behaviors make you feel? • How does this impact your relationship with a child and his/her family?

14. Managing Personal Stress: Thought Control Calming Thoughts “I feel undervalued right now – I need to seek support from my peers and supervisor.” “Having her in my class is going to be a wonderful Professional Development experience.” Upsetting Thought “I wonder if the corner grocery is hiring?” “He ruins everything! This is going to be the worst year of my career.”

15. Key Social Emotional Skills Children Need as They Enter School • Confidence. • Capacity to develop good relationships with peers and adults. • Concentration and persistence on challenging tasks. • Ability to effectively communicate emotions. • Ability to listen to instructions and be attentive. • Ability to solve social problems. • What do children do when they don’t have each of these skills?

16. Key Social Emotional Skills Children Need as They Enter School • When children do not have these skills, they often exhibit challenging behaviors • We must focus on TEACHING the skills!

17. Children identified as hard to manage at ages 3-4 have higher probability (50:50) of continuing to have difficulties into adolescence. Campbell & Ewing, 1990; Egeland et al., 1990; Fischer, Rolf, Hasazi, & Cummings, 1984 17

18. Some Basic Assumptions • Challenging behavior usually has a message- I am bored, I am sad, you hurt my feelings, I need some attention. • Children often use challenging behavior when they don’t have the social or communication skills they need to engage in more appropriate interactions. • Behavior that persists over time is usually working for the child. • We need to focus on teaching children what to do in place of the challenging behavior.

19. Preschool children are three times more likely to be “expelled” than children in grades K-12(Gilliam, 2005)

20. Promoting Children’s Success • Create an environment where EVERY child feels good about coming to school. • Design an environment that promotes child engagement. • Focus on teaching children what To Do! • Teach expectations and routines. • Teach skills that children can use in place of challenging behaviors.

21. Nurturing and Responsive Relationships

23. Nurturing and Responsive Relationships Supportive relationships are essential to promoting healthy social emotional development How does this connect to your professional responsibilities?

24. Building Relationships with Children • Helps each child feel accepted in the group. • Assists children in learning to communicate and get along with others. • Encourages feelings of empathy and mutual respect among children and adults. • Provides a supportive environment in which children can learn and practice appropriate and acceptable behaviors as individuals and as a group.

25. Building Relationships with Children • Why is it important? • Children with the most challenging behaviors especially need these relationships • Adult time and attention are very important when children are behaving appropriately • Parents and critical partners (such as mental health providers and therapists) need to work together to build children’s social emotional competence to ensure success.

26. Building Relationships with Children • Why is it important? • The relationships that we build with children, families, and colleagues are the foundation of everything we do. • Building relationships early on make it easier to address problems when they arise. • Children learn and develop in the context of relationships that are responsive, consistent, and nurturing.

27. Building Relationships with Children Home visits Happy Grams Notes home Share Play Empathy Time & Attention

28. Ideas for Making Deposits • Greet every child at the door by name. • Post children’s work around the room. • Have a “star” of the week who brings in special things from home and gets to share them during circle time. • Call a child’s parent in front of them to say what a great day she is having or send home positive notes.

29. Ideas for Making Deposits • Call a child after a difficult day and say, “I’m sorry we had a tough day today. I know tomorrow is going to be better!” • Give high fives and thumbs up accomplishing tasks.

30. Activity- Building Relationships • How do you build positive relationships with • Children? • Families? • Colleagues? • Brainstorm a list of things you could do to build or strengthen relationships with children, families, or other colleagues. • Share within your group. • Identify 2-3 things you are going to do to build stronger relationships with children, families, and colleagues.

31. Building Relationships

32. Building Relationships • When a child misses school tell him how much he was missed. • Write on a t-shirt all the special things about a given child and let him/her wear it. • Find time to read to individual children or a few children at a time. • Acknowledge children’s efforts.

33. Building Relationships • Find out what a child’s favorite book is and read it to the whole class. • Give compliments liberally. • Play with children, follow their lead. • Let children make “All About Me” books and share them at Circle Time.

34. “Every child needs one person who is crazy about him.” ~ Uri Bronfenbrenner

35. High Quality Supportive Environments

37. High Quality Supportive Environments High quality early childhood environments promote positive outcomes for all children How does this connect to your professional responsibilities?

38. High Quality Environments and Positive Outcomes Teachers report that challenging behavior is their number one training need and promoting social emotional development as the second. Eighty (80%) of teachers report that problem behavior negatively affects their job satisfaction and directors report that teachers are not effective in implementing prevention/promotion practices. Hemmeter, M.L. (2006). Research and Issues for Implementation, Policy and Scaling Up: Training & Supporting Personnel and Program Wide Implementation, presentation, Annual Policy Maker’s Summit, Center on Evidence-based Practices: Young Children with Challenging Behavior, Washington, Dc., November, 2006. www.challengingbehavior.org

39. Create Meaningful and Engaging Learning Areas Stand in center of the room Is there a clear entry to each center? Is each center inviting? Are there enough materials (3 units of play per child allowed in center)? Is there a system in place for entering and exiting centers? Are centers and materials/shelves labeled? Is there a rotation of materials? Are materials highly engaging? Are the activities relevant to children’s needs, interests and lives?

40. Classroom Arrangement and Design: Traffic Patterns • Minimize large open spaces • Minimize obstacles and other hazards • Consider the needs of children with physical and sensory disabilities

42. Classroom Arrangement and Design: Learning Centers • Physical Design • Clear boundaries • Visibility • Visual prompts when centers are not an option • Adequate number of centers • Size and location of centers • Number of children in centers • Organization of materials • Preparation of centers

43. Classroom Arrangement and Design: Learning Centers • Create meaningful and engaging learning centers • Relevant to children’s needs, interests, andlives • Highly engaging and interesting • Variety of materials in each center • Changed and rotated on a regular basis

44. Schedules and Routines • Develop a schedule that promotes child engagement and success • Balance activities • - active and quiet • - small group and large group • - teacher-directed and child-directed • Teach children the schedule • Establish a routine and follow it consistently • When changes are necessary, prepare children ahead of time

45. Teach with Visual Schedules

46. Photograph Visual Schedule

47. Photograph Visual Schedule 1. Turn on water. 2. Wet hands. 3. Get soap. 4. Rinse hands.

48. Photograph Visual Schedule 5. Turn off water. 6. Dry hands. 7. Throw away towel. 8. Go play.

49. Physical Environment Discuss these two writing centers. Strengths? Concerns?

50. Activity Turn-Taking Cue