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Promoting Social Emotional

Competence

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Promoting Children’s Success: Building

Relationships and Creating Supportive Environments

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Agenda• Introduction• Examining attitudes• Relationship between challenging behavior and social

emotional development • Creating environments• Building relationships• Designing physical environment• Schedules, routines & transitions• Activities that promote engagement• Giving directions• Following rules & directions• Ignoring/redirecting• Ongoing monitoring and positive attention• Using positive feedback & encouragement• Pulling it all togetherCSEFEL

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Learner Objectives

1. Participants will be able to describe the relationship between children’s social emotional development and challenging behaviors

2. Participants will be able to describe the importance of building relationships with children, families, and colleagues

3. Participants will be able to describe the relationship between a number of environmental variables and children’s challenging behaviors

4. Participants will be able to identify strategies to build positive relationships

5. Participants will use positive feedback and encouragement appropriately

6. Participants will evaluate their workCSEFEL

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Examining Our Attitudes about Challenging Behavior

• What behaviors make you crazy or

push your buttons?

• How do these behaviors make you

feel?

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Managing Personal Stress: Thought Control

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.”

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Upsetting Thoughts

“That child is a monster. This is getting ridiculous. He’ll never change.”

“I’m sick of putting out fires!”

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Managing Personal Stress: Thought Control

Calming Thoughts

“I feel undervalued right now – I need to seek support from my peers and supervisor.”

“Having him in my class is going to be a wonderful Professional Development experience.”

Upsetting Thought

“I wonder if Wal-Mart is hiring?”

“He ruins everything! This is going to be the worst year of my career.”

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Key Social Emotional SkillsChildren Need as

They Enter School• Key Skills

– Confidence– Capacity to develop good relationships with peers– Concentration and persistence on challenging tasks– Ability to effectively communicate emotions– Ability to listen to instructions and be attentive

• When children don’t have these skills, they often exhibit challenging behaviors• We must focus on teaching the skills!!

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Some Basic Assumptions

• Challenging behavior is most often related to some skill deficit (e.g., language, social)• Behavior that persists over time is working for the child • When we have positive relationships with children, supportive classroom environments, and focus on teaching social and communication skills, we reduce the likelihood of challenging behavior

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Classroom Preventive Practices - Promoting Children’s Success

• Create a context that makes EVERY child feel 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

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Creating Supportive EnvironmentsCreating Supportive Environments

Positive Relationships with Children, Positive Relationships with Children, Families, and ColleaguesFamilies, and Colleagues

Social Emotional Social Emotional Teaching StrategiesTeaching Strategies

Intensive Intensive Individualized Individualized InterventionsInterventions

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Building Relationshipswith Children

• Why is it important?– Creating a safe environment for children– Ensuring that all children, even those with the most challenging behaviors, have access to ongoing positive relationships

• How do we build relationships with children?

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Strategies for Building Relationships

• Select a partner• Brainstorm a list of things you could do to

build or strengthen relationships with children, families, or other colleagues

• From that list, identify 2-3 things you are going

to work on in order to build stronger

relationships with the children, families, or colleagues

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Creating Supportive EnvironmentsCreating Supportive Environments

Positive Relationships with Children, Positive Relationships with Children, Families, and ColleaguesFamilies, and Colleagues

Social Emotional Social Emotional Teaching StrategiesTeaching Strategies

Intensive Intensive Individualized Individualized InterventionsInterventions

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Classroom Arrangement and Design: Traffic Patterns

• Carefully plan traffic patterns– Minimize large open spaces– Minimize obstacles and other hazards– Consider the needs of children with physical and sensory disabilities

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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

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Classroom Arrangement and Design: Learning Centers

• Create Meaningful and Engaging Learning Centers

– Relevant to children’s needs, interests, and lives– Highly engaging and interesting– Variety of materials in each center– Changed and rotated on a regular basis

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Classroom Arrangement and Design: Activity

• With a partner, sketch a classroom. Review item 3 on the Inventory and consider what changes need to be made in the classroom based on what you heard or what is in the Inventory • Revise your sketch of the environment and then share major changes with other participants at the table

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Schedules and Routines

• Develop a schedule that promotes child

engagement and success– Minimize the number of transitions– Balance active and quiet activities, small

group and large group activities, teacher-

directed and child-directed activities–Teach children the schedule

• Establish a routine and follow it consistently– When changes are necessary, prepare

children ahead of timeCSEFEL

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Transitions

• Plan for transitions – Minimize the length of time children spend

waiting with nothing to do– Prepare children for transitions by

providing a warning– Structure the transitions so that children

have something to do while they wait• Teach children the expectations related to

transitions– Individualize supports and cues

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Schedule Activity

• Divide into groups of people who currently work together• Write down a schedule from one of the participant’s classroom• Consider the things we have just talked about. What changes could you make in the schedule that might increase engagement and prevent challenging behaviors?• Share your major changes with others at your table and brainstorm possible solutions

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Large Group Activities

• Planning the activity– Consider the length– Be clear about the purpose and goals of the activities– Use circle time to teach new things

• Implementing the activity– Provide opportunities to be actively involved– Assign jobs to children– Vary your speech and intonation patterns– Have children lead activities– Pay attention to children’s behavior

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Circle Activity

•Clip 1.2:–Are the children engaged?

–What tells you that?

–Describe the teacher’s behavior in this clip.

•Clip 1.3:–Are the children engaged?

–What tells you that?

–What is the teacher doing that engages the children?

•Both Clips:–What strategies can you suggest that would help the teacher engage the children even more?

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Small Group Activities

• Importance of small group activities– Skill building– Individualized attention

• Planning and implementing– Be clear about the goal– Use peers as models– Ensure participation by all children– Make them fun – Provide feedback throughout

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Adaptations and Modifications(Sandall & Schwartz, 2002)

• Environmental support• Materials adaptation• Simplify the activity • Use child preferences• Special equipment• Adult support• Peer support

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Giving Directions

• Make sure you have the children’s attention before you give the direction

• Minimize the number of directions given to children

• Individualize the way directions are given

• Give clear directionsCSEFEL

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Giving Directions

• Give directions that are positive• Give children the opportunity to

respond to a direction• When appropriate, give the child

choices and options for following directions

• Follow through with positive acknowledgment of children’s behavior

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General Guidelines about Rules and Directions

• Have a few simple classroom rules• Involve the children in developing

the rules• Post the rules visually• Teach the rules systematically• Reinforce the rules at high rates

initially and at lower rates throughout

the year

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Involving Children in Developing the Rules

• Have children help generate the rules• Name the rule and have a child

demonstrate the rule• Name the rule and have the children

identify the visuals that might go on a

poster• Have children help decorate a rules

poster

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Rules

• Should Address

– Noise level

– Movement inside

– Interactions with property

– Interactions with adults

– Interactions with peers

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Rules Activity

• Develop a list of 3-5 rules you use or would use in a classroom

• Discuss these rules with others at the table

• Brainstorm fun and creative ways for teaching the rules

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Fun Ways to Reinforce the Rules

• Rules Bingo!

• Make a big book about school

rules

• Homework – what are your rules

at home?

• Play “rule charades”

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Ignoring Misbehavior

• Is one of the most effective techniques that can be used with students• Maintains positive teacher-student relationships based on respect rather than fear• Requires that adults give attention for positive behaviors as opposed to negative ones• Can be a powerful tool for changing behavior since access to attention is such a positive thing for childrenCSEFEL

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Ignoring Misbehavior

• Will only be effective with students who desire teacher attention• Is probably the hardest teaching strategy for teachers to carry out• Is unnatural - our natural tendency is to attend to students who are being disruptive

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To Use Ignoring

• Identify the specific behaviors you want to focus on• Plan carefully to provide attention and positive feedback to the prosocial behaviors• Neutralize your reaction to what the student is doing• Return your attention by acknowledging appropriate behavior as soon as student begins to behave appropriately•Teach other students to ignore inappropriate behaviors

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When You Ignore

• Most children will initially react to ignoring with an increase in the challenging behavior to see if they can recruit the adult’s attention• Be prepared to wait out the testing period• Remember that consistency is the key to using ignoring!

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Redirecting

• When children are withdrawn or off task, it is important that teachers do not ignore them. That can send the message that the teacher has low expectations for them or does not care.

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Redirection

• Can be nonverbal, verbal, or physical in nature•Should not be confrontational•Should focus on the behavior you saw and provide specific feedback

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Ongoing Monitoring and Positive Attention

• Give children attention when they are engaging in appropriate behaviors• Monitor our behavior to ensure that we are spending more time using positive descriptive

language and less time giving directions or correcting

inappropriate behavior

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Positive Attention Activity

• Count the number of positive comments the teacher makes (and positive nonverbals)• Have a large group discussion about what types of comments and nonverbal behaviors the teacher exhibited• Generate some ideas to help adults remain focused on the positive throughout the day• Encourage participants to include some of these ideas on their Action Planning Form

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Using Positive Feedback and Encouragement: 4 Principles

• Contingent on appropriate

behavior

• Descriptive

• Conveyed with enthusiasm

• Contingent on effort

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Using Positive Feedbackand Encouragement

•Remember to use nonverbal forms

of positive feedback and encouragement•Individualize use of positive feedback

and encouragement based on children’s needs and preferences•Encourage other adults and peers to

use positive feedback and encouragement

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Increasing PositiveBehaviors: Activity

• What are 3-5 behaviors you would like to see increase in your setting?• Review item 8 on the Inventory• What changes might you make in your use of positive feedback and encouragement in order to increase the behaviors you just identified.• Add this to your Action PlanCSEFEL

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Sample Certificate

SUPER FRIEND AWARD!!!This certificate is to certify that Marleco is a

SUPER FRIEND!!

Today, Marleco used his words to ask Malen nicely for a turn on the swing. When he was done

swinging, he asked Malen if she wanted another turn and then helped to push her. At circle time,

he gave his friend Cesar a compliment! YAY Marleco!! What a Super Friend you are!!

Give yourself a pat on the back!!Signed by: Miss Gail & Mr. Jim

Date: January 7, 2003

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Major Messages

• The first and most important thing that we can

do is to build positive relationships with every

child and family• Focus on prevention and teaching appropriate

skills • Promoting social emotional development is not

easy. There are no quick fixes to challenging

behavior• It requires a comprehensive approach that

includes building relationships, evaluating our

own classrooms and behaviors, and TEACHING

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