Behaviors in the Classroom

1. Behaviors in the Classroom Teaching and Understanding Our Most Challenging Students

2. REsource

3. Today we will: • Discuss the four most challenging students in the classroom: students with anxiety-related, oppositional, withdrawn, and sexualized behaviors. • FAIR Plan Functional hypothesis, accommodations, interaction strategies and response strategies

4. What Teachers Need to Know about Behavior • Why challenging students are so challenging? Jimmy • Challenging behavior can often be counterintuitive Think of a student or situation in your classroom

5. Essential Concepts for understanding behavior • Misbehavior is a symptom of an underlying cause • Behavior is communication • Behavior has a function • Behavior occurs in patterns • The only behavior teachers can control is their own • Behavior can be changed

6. Misbehavior is a symptom of an underlying cause • A student would behave if he or she could • If a student is displaying a problematic, maladaptive behavior, it is a symptom of an underdeveloped skill • Students with emotional and behavioral challenges looks purposeful • Flight-or-fight response

7. Behavior is Communication • All behavior is a form of communication • Their actions are purposeful and are their attempt to solve a problem • Behavior is the primary way that babies communicate

8. Behavior has a function In his book Severe Behavior Problems, behavior analyst Mark Durand categorizes all human behaviors a being motivated by four functions: • to get attention • to escape or avoid something • to gain something tangible like an object • to get some sensory (smell, taste, feel) satisfaction

9. Attention Function Nonverbal (smiling, nodding), Verbal; positive (affirming) and negative (criticism, insults) Escape Function Avoids situations or tasks Tangible Function Rewarded with something concrete Sensory Function Engages in behaviors because they feel good, taste good, sound good, or are visually soothing or calming. Multiple Functions Behaviors can serve more than one function at the same time.

10. Behavior occurs in patterns • The key to breaking the behavior code is to look for patterns • These patterns can be based on the time of day, activity, people as well as other factors

11. Controlling Behavior • The only behavior teachers can control is their own

12. Behavior can be changed • If the ultimate goal is to reduce or change the inappropriate behavior, merely managing the behavior won’t cut it: the student has to learn a new way to behave.

13. Fair Plan 5 Basic Steps • Manage antecedents (what occurs in the environment immediately prior to the behavior) with necessary accommodations or modifications, and change the way you interact with a challenging student • Reinforce desired behavior • Teach a replacement behavior • Address underdeveloped skills that are the root of a child’s inability to behave appropriately • Respond to a student’s undesired behavior in a way that deters it

14. Student with Anxiety-related behavior • Anxiety is hard to identify because there are few consistent outward signs • Students with anxiety can have inconsistent behavior patterns-antecedents can be inconsistent • Students with anxiety commonly have escape-motivated behavior • Student with anxiety can be inflexible, irrational, impulsive, emotionally intense, or prone to overreact

15. Anxiety Behavior • Create an observable definition of anxiety • Times of day that may be hard include unstructured times and transitions • Other circumstances: writing demands, social demands, novel events, and unexpected changes in routine • Give the student noncontingent, anxiety-reducing breaks throughout the day

16. The student with oppositional Behavior • Oppositional behavior could have one or all of the following functions: escape, attention (negative), tangible rewards • Common antecedents are: --Peer interactions, especially without adult facilitation --Unstructured activities (lunch/recess) and transitions --Interactions with an adult who has an authoritative style or a history of conflict --Situations in which a student is asked to wait, is given a demand, or is told no

17. Oppositional behavior • These students can have several difficulties including cognitive inflexibility, all or nothing thinking, difficulty with authority, and social problems with peers • Most students show warning signs that they are escalating. Keep a list of warning signs • Demands are very hard for students, so consider breaks throughout the day

18. The student with Withdrawn Behavior • Can have negative-attention seeking behavior • May avoid positive attention • Some students are diagnosed with depression • Students with depression may engage in negative thinking and perceive students negatively

19. The student with Sexualized behavior • Sexualized behavior,or sexually undesired behavior , includes saying sexual words to peers or teachers, making sexual gestures, making noises or engaging in pretend play that simulates sex, making sexual invtations to others, inappropriately touching another person, or masturbating in the classroom • Normal sexualized behavior in childhood includes (in preschool) touching genitals, trying to view others nude, and exposing genitals to peers (in elementary school) and making jokes about body parts and elimination, and playing doctor

20. Sexualized Behavior • Potential causes of sexualized behavior in school include anxiety, self-soothing, the need for attention, and/or imitation • Sexualized behavior in a student does not necessarily mean he or she was abused • The three main factors associated with children who exhibit sexualized behavior are (1) interpersonal skill deficits; (2) impulsiveness; and (3) trauma (e.g. sexual or physical abuse, family violence, overstimulation)

21. Questions • How can a teacher maintain stamina when he or she has a challenging student? • What’s the best way for administrators to support a teacher who has a student with challenging behavior? • How can a teacher fit the FAIR Plan into an already packed day? • How does a teacher talk to the other students after a student’s explosive incident? • What is the best way to communicate with the family of a student with challenging behavior? • What’s the best way to deal with the issue of fairness?

22. Resources • These websites are good for students needing social skills instruction http://do2learn.com/games/learningames.htm http://jillkuzma.wordpress.com www.angelfire.com/pa5/as/socialskills.html www.autism4teachers.com/autism4teachers_008.htm www.cyke.com/depression.swf www.jambav.com www.socialthinking.com www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/conflict/guide/activites_perceptions.html • These websites are good for students needing help with emotional regulation www.5pointscale.com www.goodcharacter.com/EStopics.html http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/emotions/anger/index.html www.embracethefuture.org.au/kids/index.htm?feelings2.asp www.e-learningforkids.org/courses.html#life • Mobile Device Apps for Self-Regulation, Thought Stopping, and Self-Monitoring Sosh/Sosh lite Voice Meter Symtrend