“PEOPLE GENERALLY SEE WHAT THEY LOOK FOR, AND HEAR WHAT THEY LISTEN

FOR.”-TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, BY HARPER

LEE

Understanding Children With Challenging Behavior

PART ONE

Changing Perspectives

Think about this for a minute…

If a student can’t read, we TEACHIf a student can’t add, we TEACHIf a student can swim, we TEACHIf a student can’t swim, we TEACHIf a student can’t behave, we ________

Why can’t we finish the last sentence as automatically as the others?

We need to check our mindset about behavior

2 perspectives of behavior

1. The child IS a problem.

2. The child HAS a problem.

Your belief about a child and their behavior greatly impacts how you will respond to challenging situations.

Negative Perspective of BehaviorThe child IS a problem.

Imagine that Mikey, a 10 year old boy, is sitting at a desk but refusing to do his schoolwork. He is oppositional and angry when his teacher reminds him of his work (he refuses, may say “make me,”) and when further pushed, may become aggressive.

How do we typically feel (and respond) when confronted with these behaviors?

The child IS a problem perspective

If the attitude is that Mikey is lazy or deliberately disrespectful, the likelihood is that we will become angry and may feel the need to “tighten the screws.”

An angry person often responds to negative behaviors negatively, with punishment or a “Do it or else” attitude.

The child IS a problem perspective

When a teacher uses punishment frequently, a student may come to fear and dislike the teacher.

Or, the student may become angry and try to “get even” by escalating his or her behavior.

This cycle of behavior often results in damaged relationships and a lack of caring on the part of the student.

The child IS a problem perspective

The opportunity for instruction does not exist in a negative approach

When negative behaviors result in excluding a student from his or her classroom, the student may learn that the behavior is successful in helping him or her to avoid doing the required work.

Removal may actually be reinforcing the negative behavior it was designed to correct.

Shifting our Perspective

We can’t always take triggers and/or reinforcers at face value.

As teachers it is important that we step outside of the situation and consider what else might be influencing challenging behavior.

Remember: Challenging behavior ISN’T about you.

It’s easy to take challenging behavior personally but we have to remember that students who exhibit challenging behavior often don’t have the skills to communicate in a more appropriate way.

The child HAS a problem perspective

Imagine again Mikey, the 10 year old discussed previously. (refusing to work, oppositional, angry)

What if we now know that that Mikey reads at a 2nd grade level. The work in front of him is 5th grade reading level work. His parents are divorced and show a great deal of anger and animosity toward each other.

Would our feelings and how we respond change based on this info?

The child HAS a problem perspective

When adults understand the underlying factors behind misbehavior, their attitudes often change.

Mikey’s behaviors are still not appropriate or acceptable, and they obviously should not be permitted to continue.

How that problem is addressed, though, will be more positive than in the perspective of the child “is” a problem.

This is when the opportunity for instruction comes in.

The Child HAS a problem perspective

Positive behavior is expected and taught.

Positive behaviors are reinforced.

Negative behaviors receive consequences that are meaningful and instructive.

Positive Supports-an alternative to traditional discipline

Positive behavioral supports are planned interventions that take place:

Before the onset of problem behaviors, Before escalation of those behaviors, or To prevent the behaviors from happening in the

first place.

Positive behavior interventions look at more than just the child. Environmental factors, teacher and peer interactions, curriculum, etc., play a role in behavior and can be modified to prevent some problem behaviors.

Common Factors that Can be Modified

Classroom EnvironmentSeatingNoise levelLightingStructure***ScheduleMovement RoutinesTransitionsConsistencyOrganizationPrepared

Peer/teacher interactionsRelationships***Peer reactions Teacher reactionsNew person(s)

Instruction/CurriculumWork too hardWork too easyPresentation of workFormatAmount of informationBoredom***

Common Antecedent-Based Interventions

Visual SupportsProactive AttentionModifying the Task, Environment, etc.Offering Choices (clear, concise, and

reasonable)Sensory Tools or Sensory BreaksFollow the Behavior Plan

Visual Schedule

Mini-Task Schedule

Digging Deeper:

The purpose of this presentation is to convince you of the following quote:

“Kids Do Well if They Can.”-Ross Greene

- Once you are convinced of this, extinguishing behaviors and replacing them will not be your ultimate goal, and that is a good thing!

What will become your ultimate goals

To recognize that a kid is lacking skillsTo recognize why prior interventions have

been ineffectiveTo become aware that unsolved problems

occur under specific conditionsTo recognize that unsolved problems are

predictable and can be solved proactivelyTo begin changing practices based on what

research indicates about our current methods of dealing with challenging kids

Thoughts to Ponder

Why would a kid choose to act bad?

Traditional answer….they are “getting” something from the behavior

They are escaping, avoiding, controlling or getting something they want

Escaping, avoiding, controlling may be the function, but the more important question is “why” are they escaping, avoiding and controlling?

We often hear……

“It’s working for them!” -This leads to interventions aimed at

ensuring that kids have the incentives to do well, but doesn’t tackle the actual problems causing them to do poorly. -Or, it leads to interventions aimed at punishing the child and eliminating the behaviors, but again, this doesn’t help solve the problems

Understanding Comes Before Helping

If a child does not posses the skills to do well, our incentives and motivational techniques will not help.

We should be teaching and reinforcing skill

acquisition

Shouldn’t our effort be put into figuring out (understanding) what unsolved problems kids have and then start chipping away at these?

Some statistics….

In the US, we expel over 100,000 kids annuallyThere are 300 million suspensions per yearCurrently, we have 2.6 million people

incarcerated (no other country has this many)19 states allow corporal punishment

-Cited from Ross Greene’s “Explosive, Noncompliant, Disruptive, Aggressive Kids: What Works, What Doesn’t & How to Turn it Around” presentation on 11-8-12

The problem With Traditional School Discipline

Detentions, suspensions, expulsions are not changing the behavior of our most behaviorally challenging kids

The kids who are “frequent flyers” in the school discipline program benefit from it the least. Obviously, if they are accessing it a lot, IT ISN’T WORKING!

Who does it work for? Answer: the kids who have the skills to do well!

Ross Greene

Kids Do Well If They Can

Time for a new lens!

The Favor…..

Be the person who finally figures out what is getting in the way of a child doing well! This is the single most important favor we can do for challenging kids.

New Mantra

Start telling yourself…..Kids do well if they CAN, not if they want to.Behaviorally challenging kids want to do well,

but are lacking the skills to do wellCaveat…..Some older kids (overcorrected,

over punished) have thrown in the towel as far as doing well. They have become SKILLED at doing poorly. But guess what? They weren’t born not wanting to do well.

Important Questions

Why are challenging kids challenging?

When are challenging kids challenging?

What are we going to do differently?

Non traditional answer to “why”

They are lacking the skills to not be challenging

Challenging behavior communicates that the kid does not have the skills to “get” what he/she wants in a more adaptive manner

Nontraditional answer to“when”

Drag picture to placeholder or click icon to addChallenging kids are not always challenging. They are challenging when certain demands are placed on them that they do not have the skills to deal with (flexibility, adaptability, problem solving, frustration tolerance).

Think of it this way: When are kids who can’t read challenged?

So, when are kids who don’t get along with others challenged?

Lagging Skills, not label or diagnosis!

What if we could categorize based on lagging skills instead of the behaviors kids exhibit, the label they have or the diagnosis they were given?

Lagging Skills:Executive skillsLanguage processingEmotion regulationCognitive flexibilitySocial skills

The Breakdown of Skills

Executive skillsHindsightForethoughtOrganizationPlanningProblem solvingSense of timing

Language Processing SkillsLinguistically

challenged people have fewer options. Many behaviorally challenged kids are lacking language processing skills, yet this is often overlooked

The Breakdown of Skills

Emotional RegulationRecognizing emotions

in one’s selfSelf-calmingSeparation of affect

(being able to separate our emotions from the thinking we must do to solve problems-thinking solves problems, not emotions!)

Cognitive Flexibility and Social SkillsAppreciating how one

affects othersTheory of mindUnderstanding

perspectiveConcrete/literal/black

and white thinking when living in a grey world

IncompatibilityWhat are the specific expectations and conditions in which a child struggles?

We need to figure out these as well as what skills are lacking to help kids solve problems.

A reward and punishment program will not accomplish what we now know-challenging kids lack skills.

The clash of the lagging skills and demands=UNSOLVED PROBLEMS

A sidenote….

We are demanding skills at younger and younger ages (earlier in development). Could it be that kids are not at a developmental stage where they posses the skill, so they start displaying challenging behaviors at younger and younger ages?

What do you think?

A question I know you have…

“What if the kid has the skills, but chooses not to use them? Sometimes, he does well and other times he doesn’t.” Talk to a partner about why this might be.

We need to dig deeper and figure out why under some conditions he can perform well, and other times, he cannot. What are the specific conditions or expectations that exist in which the kid cannot perform the skills we think he/she has?

Another tricky question….

“You don’t think he wants to get thrown out of class? He misbehaves and gets out of his assignment. It’s working for him!”

Answer: I suppose you could call that working, but if you dug deeper, you may find the specific demands that he isn’t skilled at. Wouldn’t the kid prefer to have the skills to be able to stay? What is getting in the way? Maybe in the most narrow sense of the word it is working. However, it is always preferable to do well!

Non traditional answer to “what are we going to do differently ”

Here is the hard part (but only until we get good at it) and the essential role of adults:

1. Identify lagging skills2. Identify unsolved problems3. Solve problems AND teach skills

IT IS TIME TO GET BUSY!!!!

Ross Greene

Collaborative Problem Solving: part 1

OK, I GET IT! NOW WHAT DO I DO ABOUT IT?

PART TWO

Identifying Lagging Skills, Unsolved Problems and Teaching

skills

Identify Lagging Skills

Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems (Center for Collaborative Problem Solving)

It is not a checklist or a rating scale, but a tool to use as a discussion guide for identifying skill deficits and unsolved problems

Helps people focus on things that we can actually do something about (not theorizing as to why a child is the way he/she is)

Identify Lagging Skills

Identify Unsolved Problems

Once you have identified a lagging skill, move OVER, not down! Give specific examples of times when the child is

expected to perform in a certain way and doesn’t EX…difficulty persisting on challenging or tedious

tasks has been checked as a lagging skill. The SPECIFIC problem would be an example of when she actually cannot persist: When asked to read her assigned reading in science, she

is unable to persist and complete this task. When asked to work on a math program on the computer,

she is unable to persist and complete the task

Identify Unsolved Problems

Unsolved Problems are : Free of adult theories (often we are wrong anyway) Free of the behaviors exhibited (difficulty raising hand

during social studies lecture is ok. Yells and blurts during social studies lecture is not. This is the behavior, not the problem)

Split, not clumped (difficulty reading assigned text in science, difficulty reading assigned text in social studies)

What if we reconsider and think of these behaviors as SKILLS that need to be taught

WaitingCalming down when frustratedAsking for helpStaying quiet when bored and/or

expectedWorking on a task until it’s finishedUsing appropriate tone of voiceAccepting “No”Raising your hand before speakingStopping one activity and starting

another

Solve Problems While Simultaneously, Teaching Skills

Prioritize! We cannot work on all problems at once! Pick up to 3 problems based on: 1-Safety 2-Frequency

Solving Problems is the same as direct teaching of social skills. Teaching the skills a student is lacking can be direct or indirect.

Ross Greene

Plan B in actionDrilling for the unsolved problem

I say to you: “Do Something”; and when you have done something, if it works, do it some

more; and if it does not work, then do something else

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

References

Greene, R.W. (2009). Lost at School: Why our kids with behavioral challenges are still falling through the cracks and how we can help them. New York: Scribner

www.livesinthebalance.orgGreen, R.W. (2012, November 8). Solving

Problems Collaboratively: The Next Generation of Understanding and Helping Behaviorally Challenging Kids. Presentation given in Bloomington, MN