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I think one thing that's helpful is if the parent doesn't
feel judged.
Often, when a child is acting out,
the staff sometimes immediately go to bed parenting.
So that's not helpful.
Certainly doesn't make you feel like you're on a team.
It makes you feel like you need to, I don't know,
change everything you do in your life,
so that would be the first thing.
Some understanding, maybe some empathy.
And then some ideas.
Give me some tools to help with this job,
because at that point, you're at a loss.
No one expects to have a four-year-old
you can't handle or behaviors that you just never expected.
So if they have some ideas that they
could share with you that might work, by all means, please.
Let's be on the same page here and try and help this child.
Your efforts to help a child learn more positive behaviors
should begin with prevention.
There may be simple changes you can
make that will eliminate the child's need
to use challenging behaviors.
I think teachers don't realize how important it
is to prevent the behavior from ever needing to occur
and don't look at it enough, and they don't look specifically
at what they're doing, or how they're doing it.
Sometimes they physically think, well, I've set up my room,
and I've looked at my program, so the things
you can actually feel and touch they look like they've done.
And they're not looking at the details of prevention.
They're not looking at the tone of voice they use,
or their body language, and so they
think they're doing something and they're not really
doing it.
So prevention has to be very thoughtful
and it has to be something they're really
looking at from all different levels, because most
children will respond to those prevention techniques.
There's only really about 3% to 7%
of children that rely on challenging behavior
to solve their problems to meet their needs, and the rest,
will probably really be able to behave appropriately
if those preventive techniques are in place.
Preventive techniques and good practice
are enough to head off challenging behaviors
in most children.
But some children will need additional help.
When a child's difficult behavior isn't improving
and the behavior is limiting the child's or other children's
ability to learn, you'll need to develop a plan
to help the child learn more positive behavior.
How a behavioral intervention plan is developed
will vary depending on the nature of the child's behavior,
the resources available to the program,
and the input of the child's parents.
In some cases, an effective plan can
be developed by a teacher and the child's parents
acting on their own.
In other situations, the creation of a plan
will require additional input from mental health
and behavioral specialists.
These specialists are trained to guide the team
through a formalized behavioral planning process,
but however a plan is developed, you
and the child's parents will play the primary role
in implementing the plan and documenting its progress.
There may be differences in who provides input
into a child's behavioral plan, but the process
should remain the same.
Let's look at the six steps that should
be part of the development of each plan.
One, define the behavior.
Two, collect information on the child's use of the behavior.
Three, form a best guess about why the child is
using the behavior.
Four, set goals.
Five, develop and implement strategies.
And six, evaluate success and make needed changes.
In this program, we'll take a look at the first three steps.
In behavioral planning two, we'll
describe steps four, five, and six.
The purpose of the first three steps
of the behavioral planning process
is to determine why the child uses the challenging behavior.
The reason behind the behavior is
described as the function of the behavior.
That's why this part of the behavioral planning process
is sometimes referred to as a functional
behavioral assessment.
Before the planning process begins,
try to explain to parents what will be happening and why.
They may be uncertain of what is expected of them.
Emphasize the importance of their role and the benefits
to their child of the development
of a successful plan.
Remember, every child has their own history, their own culture,
their own set of family, a neighborhood, a home.
So we have to really look at that individual child
from their uniqueness, and we really
have to find that uniqueness.
I think a big mistake is we think that they're all
the same, and really that's come couples almost stereotyping it.
But really looking at children, again, as that personality.
How can I assist them in any particular interventions?
I think we all know and believe that, or maybe
we don't believe, that parents are the child's most important
teacher.
I think as early childhood educators,
it's very important to make that the parent feel wanted, feel
comfortable in the classroom.
Many of our parents have had negative experiences
in an educational setting, and they
look toward their child's teacher
as a reminder of what types of experiences
they have had in an educational setting.
So I think if teachers treat parents as their good friends,
parents know that teachers are rushed.
They're rushed, but take the time
to ask about their day, share something that happened
with the child during the day.
Anything that the teacher can do to nurture
that relationship between herself and the parent
is extremely important.
The parent teacher relationship is critical
when it comes to helping a child learn more positive behaviors.
You will need to share observations, insights,
and evaluations as the process unfolds.
Trusting one another and respecting
the value of different perspectives
will be crucial to a child's success.
Now let's take a look at each of the first three steps.
Step one, define the behavior.
Descriptions of a child's behavior
should be based on direct observations
by parents, teachers, or specialists.
The words should be clear, detailed, and objective.
For example, instead of describing a child's behavior
as aggressive, you should provide a more detailed
description like, Maria verbally and physically threatens
shouts, and says, I'll beat you, pushes and hits other children.
This description gives everyone involved
a clearer picture of the nature of Maria's aggression.
Step two in planning to help a child improve behavior
is to collect information on the child's display
of challenging behavior.
Sources of information might include
interviews with parents and teachers,
informal and formal health and developmental assessments,
behavioral incident reports, and observations looking
at all developmental domains, including cognitive ability,
language ability, motor skills, and social and emotional
development.
These are all forms of documentation.
I work with a lot of teachers in preschool classrooms,
and I try to help them think about documentation
in three different ways.
One is documenting in the action.
So if you're in an activity with a child,
you have prepared what it is you are
going to be looking for in the activity of teaching the child.
It might be a little checklist of behaviors
that you're looking for or responses
that you're listening for.
The second way I talk to teachers about documenting
is called out of the action.
Many teachers are lucky enough to be
teaching in a team situation.
If not in a team, then they have children
who go off to the music teacher, the gym teacher, the art
teacher.
That teacher is actually recording observations,
documenting children's behavior out of the action of teaching,
and so you take a moment to watch children
when somebody else is acting as the instructor.
The third way that I talk to teachers about documenting
is called by reflection, and by reflection are the thoughts
we have about children when the day is over.
Sometimes they hop in the back seat with us on the way home,
they get in the bathtub with us at night
when we're trying to calm down, they wake us up
in the middle of the night.
Teachers often feel afraid that they're
going to forget what's happened and forget about writing it
down, but those reflective observations
that we have about children are really critical pieces
of information and should be written down and recorded
just like in the action and out of the action.
Recorded information about a child's behavior
is most helpful when it captures what
came before the behavior, the behavior itself,
and what happened after the behavior.
This full picture of a behavior incident
often holds important clues about why the child
is using the behavior.
Documenting this information is described
as including the ABC'S of an incident.
The antecedents, the behavior, and the consequences.
Other factors not directly related
to the immediate circumstances surrounding
their behavior such as illness or fatigue,
are called setting events.
Setting events may also play an important role
in the child's use of challenging behavior.
As you evaluate behavior incidents,
remember to take note of the times
the child does not use challenging behavior.
Antecedents are the circumstances
that may trigger the child's use of challenging behavior.
Possible antecedents of an incident
might include the time of day, the activity that has just
occurred, the activity coming up next,
the children or adults present, and the children or adults not
present during the incident.
A behavior incident should be documented
in as much detail as possible, including
what the child and others said and did during the incident.
Record the actual words used by the children and adults
involved whenever possible.
The consequences are a description
of what happened after the behavior incident ended.
How did the adult present respond?
What did the child do and say?
How did other children react?
Did the child seem to be pleased with the result?
What do you think the goal of the behavior might have been?
Do you think the child reached her goal?
Some teachers like to document behavior in their own format.
Others prefer to use a pre-formatted documentation
tool.
One useful tool to help capture the ABCs of behavior
is found in the Devereaux Early Childhood Assessment, or DECA
program resources.
It's called the behavioral concern observation summary.
This useful form helps to record the ABC's in a simple format.
Step three in planning to help a child improve behavior
is to form a best guess about why the child is
using that behavior.
This best guess about the function of the behavior
will shape the next three steps of the process.
To develop a best guess about the purpose of a child's
challenging behavior, the team will
look at what seems to be acting as a trigger
to the use of the behavior, what children or adults are
typically present and not present
at the time of the behavior, and how children and adults have
been responding when the child uses the challenging behavior.
Leave it closed, Joshua.
The specific reasons behind each child's challenging behavior
are unique, but generally, children use difficult
behaviors to get something they want or to avoid something they
don't.
Sometimes the behavior can be brought on by both reasons
at the same time.
A child might be trying to seek adult attention by refusing
to participate in circle time, but also
be trying to avoid the activity because it
is too difficult for him.
After the documentation has been discussed and evaluated,
the planning team should write a summary statement
about the child's behavior.
This statement is called a hypothesis statement,
or best guess, about why the child
is using challenging behaviors.
The statement should follow this general formula.
When X happens, the child does Y to get or avoid Z.
When Maria wants something and other child has,
she pushes, hits, or threatens other children
to try to get the object.
At this point, you've developed a best guess
about why the child is using the challenging behavior.
The next program titled, behavioral planning two
will cover the three remaining steps in the planning process.
Step four, set goals.
Step five, develop and implement strategies.
And step six, evaluate success and make needed changes.
I think just listening and not brushing it off,
whether it's, well, that's an option that we
haven't considered.
Let's talk about it some more, instead of just saying, well,
no.
We don't do that.
Not a possibility, I don't teach like that,
but really being open and understanding
that every child is an individual,
and therefore, something that may have worked for somebody
else, might work for your kid or might not work for your kid,
but it really is an individual process.
And I think that that's really a critical point for teachers
to remember.
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