After reading Chapter 3 of the Scott text, describe Function of Behavior with a specific example from your experiences with children that fortifies the authors approach to intervention.
Function of Behavior is why the child continues the behavior. A teacher must determine what the child in getting out of the behavior. My first year of teaching Kindergarten I had a child, I will call him Jerry for this writing, who was very challenging. I could not get this child to come into my room the first day of school. My Principal had to carry him to my room screaming all the way. Jerry had gone to our Preschool the year before, so I went to talk to the Preschool Teacher about how to bond with Jerry. The Preschool Teacher said that Jerry liked his day to be organized and suggested a picture schedule, which I still use to this date. This teacher said that Jerry was a one teacher kind of guy, and that I had better work hard to bond with this child. The second day of school, Jerry became angry when he was not immediately chosen to answer a question and he went into our classroom bathroom and slammed the door. He eventually came out of the bathroom and went back to his seat. This ritual started to become a habit which was becoming a big problem for students who really needed to use the bathroom. One day one of our Councelors tried to get him out of the bathrrom during a mad time, and this very very tall Kindergarten child gave her a black eye and broke her glasses. Being a new teacher, I was confused about what to do about this situation. I called Jerry's mother and discovered that when Jerry is angry he goes to his room and slams the door. Mom agreed that he gets angry very easily, usually over something that an adult would think was nothing. She also said that Jerry's father, who she was in the middle of divorcing, probably had Asbergers, but he had never been diagnosed and did not want his son Jerry to be tested for it. Mom said that Jerry liked to be a helper Jerry continued using the classroom bathroom for two more weeks, until Jerry began to bond with his new classroom family. I had determined at this point that the main discriminative stimulus was when Jerry was not recognized first to answer a question. He had learned to put his hand up and wait, but became angry when he was not called first. So I had two problems to solve. One, I needed to try and prevent the anger as much as possible by leting him answer questons and two, I needed to find him a new mad area, since the other children needed to also answer some questions and use their bathroom.
I first worked to try and prevent the anger by letting him answer a lot of questions. Next I tried leting other people answer questions while whispering in his ear, you will get the next question. Sometimes I would say, I am going to ask some questions and Jerry is going to help me find quiet folks that have their hands raised. This technique worked very well and Jerry was not getting mad and going into the bathroom as much.
Wow Cindy, what an amazing story! Thank you for sharing it with us!
I have yet to have any experience in teaching children, but keeping your experiences in mind, and how you handled it will definitely be on my mind when I encounter a difficult child!
What a great alternative it is to create a "mad corner" for children when they need it. I think there was a "quiet corner" in most of my classes in elementary school. It definitely gives children a sense of organization, and they know what to expect when the "quiet corner" is needed.
Its wonderful that you also got the class involved in telling "Jerry" how they all felt. I think its important to teach children to be able to express their feelings and emotions in a positive, healthy way, and they way you had the class recite the way they were feeling was an excellent way to get the point across to Jerry without making him feel bad. By the sounds of it, your tactic worked well, and Jerry made friends with his class, and became closer to you, which was your main goal.
Again, thank you for sharing such an inspiring story! :)
Not sure if they ever found out if Jerry had Asbergers or something else on the Autism spectrum, but I can relate as I had a student this past year with Asbergers. It was hard to understand many of his behaviors, but I found that doing my best to prevent issues from arising, his day would go much smoother. Thanks for sharing your story!
Next I wanted to try and make a mad area that Jerry could go to in the place of the bathroom. We were down to maybe one or two incidents per week that the bathroom was used by Jerry when mad, but the kids were getting upset that Jerry was keeping them from using their bathroom. I set up a child's size card table in a quiet corner of the room with a cover over the table. Under the table was a pillow and a stuffed bear. I talked to Jerry away from the class about the mad area and even let him experience the area while the class was in P.E. I was hopeful that the next time I could not prevent a fit that Jerry would go to the mad area instead of the bathroom. Well... he went to the bathroom and not the mad area the next time he became angry. While Jerry was in the bathroom I talked to the class about how they felt about Jerry keeping them from using the bathoom when they needed it. We, as a class, came up with the following I-message that we said in unison as Jerry was leaving the bathroom. "Jerry, we don't like it when you use our bathroom and not the mad area. We are afraid we are going to pee our pants. Please use the mad area!" Jerry looked like a deer in headlights. He stood staring at his classmates for a few seconds and then ran to the mad area. Jerry always used the mad area after that day. He also became one of my favorite students. He was accepted, flaws and all by his classmates. He even got to the point were he would give me a hug each morning when he saw me in the gym.
That is awesome that you were able to go back to his old teacher and try to get tips from what worked with this child and what didn't work. I personally am not a fan of singling someone out when they are bad. To me this embarrasses them and make them feel bad. But I do see on some occasions that this methods works because it make the child feel like bad and they don't want their classmates making fun of them. If there is a behavior method that would work for everyone that would be great, but we don't live in a perfect world so therefore this may not happen. I think that if we start with fixing the problem and slowly making this child be on the step with the other students then that student wouldn't have "special" attention. I know its a lot of work but it is possible from experience. I do like how you said you still use the same trick that you learned to help control Jerry. I am always a fan of learning new ways to get my students attention and if it works, that's great. And if it doesn't I will look for another way.
I agree that a positive approach is the best. Confronting Jerry with a group I-Message was not planned. I had taught the children from the first day to use I messages instead of hitting, pushing, etc. When Jerry went into the bathroom instead of the mad area that day, one of my kids gave me the group I message idea. One child said, " We need to give him an I message so he will use the mad area." I would love to be given alternative ideas on how I could have handled this situation better. I looked at the group I message as a classrom family intervention. Jerry would not listen to me, so I decided to think out of the box and let his peers help me with a solution. I discovered two years later when I had three diagnosed children with high functioning Asbergers just how hard it was to change a ritual. One child put his backpack on his back and tried to walk out my back door when angry. He was also visually impared and had to walk with a peer in the hallway. I was working with Juniper Garden reasearch team that year, and the children were receiving small group socialization training. Juniper Garden is run out of KU. Jerry was finally tested in the second grade and he did have high functioning Asbergers.
Function of Behavior is when a child acts a certain way in order to get a reaction out of others. When I was working at a Kindergarten Para we had a little boy that would either throw fits or just lay his head on his desk while the others were learning. This always seemed to happen when the teacher was going over a lesson on the dry erase board. This little boy would not even want try and learn a new subject. So when he would put his head on his desk or when she simply just sat on the floor under his desk the teacher would ask me to take him out in the hall way to go over the lesson or other times we would go to the office where he would have to sit in a small room with only a desk and a chair and his assignment. I would later have to go check on him. After checking on him he had finished the work and then allowed to return back to class. He did this about 3-4 times a week. He seemed to love the attention that he received when he was escorted out of the room to be on his own. By the end of the school year we were able to keep this little boy from getting the attention and doing the work in the class. It was a slow process of showing him that he isn't the only one in the class and that with his actions all the other students were taking a timeout from learning because the teacher and I had to give him all the attention.
It's sad when this happens to a student so young. Your method of consistency is a good example of what that can do. Perhaps giving him others to care about (the rest of the class) was a motivator. Sometimes people around the student are more valuable than the subject matter. Not that the subject matter shouldn't become important to that student.
Anyone, who has spent time in a classroom (as a student or a teacher) knows that the classroom Kleenex box serves two functions. The stated function is to provide tissues for the sniffle and the sneezy. The unstated function is to provide an opportunity for students to take a brake and drift around the room a bit. A student who is up to get a tissue is therefore getting one of two things out of this behavior,a chance to blow his/her nose or a chance to goof off. What's more, kids know that this is a great loophole for times when they are expected to be in their seats. After all, who wants a students with snot running down their chins. Hard and fast rules or airtight routines seem hard to come by here (due to the a fore mentioned running snot). I wonder if the best one could do is to have some clear guidelines for purposeful,discrete, well-timed nose blowing coupled with engaging and varied lessons that don't leave too many students with the desire to get up and drift about.
I love the kleenex analogy - I ovten wonder is it better to keep the box of kleenex in the classroom, or just allow students to go to their locker/bathroom to get some! It's a question every year!!
Function of behavior is the reinforcement of what is behind the behavior occurring. Last evening, I was in an audience where there was a child who was upset over something her dad said. She began the "fit throwing" and I couldn't help but witness the response of the dad. At first he just gave her "the look". She snuggled up behind her sister. She was still upset and acting out. The dad looked at the mom and raised his eyebrows. Then he looked back at us and shrugged. Meanwhile, the child is becoming even more agitated over not getting her way. The dad must have realized that this scene was going to get ugly real soon because he leaned forward, caught her eye and let her know they were going outside. When they came back in, she had gathered herself and was able to conduct herself in a better manner. The child seemed to sense that if Dad ignored her behavior, she would just act out even more. I think that children need and really want boundaries set for their actions. Yet, if they are ignored and the caregiver is either too busy, too tired, or simply disconnected, the child will act out until the parent finally steps in. Unfortunately, the child has already received a negative message and no doubt the behavior will reoccur.
Function of behavior is the reasoning behind why the behavior is occurring. The adult must analyze the situation, in order to discover what is setting the student off, prior to the behavior occurring.
While completing observations in a first grade classroom last semester, I had the opportunity to witness a child, who would become angry when he was unable to have his way. The information I gained from the teacher was that the child suffered from ADHD, as well as a divorced household. You could tell when he was beginning to become agitated and could almost always predict the behavior that was going to occur. The students were split into small groups around the classroom and each group was completing different activities, which related to the lesson. The child was at the teacher table and they were completing a game related to spelling words. The child became upset, when he was not able to complete his turn out of order. He began withdrawing from the activity and eventually went to his cubby, grabbed his backpack and walked out the door. I’m assuming this was a normal reaction, because the teacher immediately went to her classroom intercom and notified the front office, that he had left the classroom and was headed their way. Little did she know, he never went to the office, but went to hide in a hallway of the school. The office called down about 5 minutes later and notified the teacher that the student never made it to the office. We then had to search the school, where we found him hiding, in a corner, in on of the other hallways.
The remainder of the semester, the teacher spent extra time working with the student and trying to prevent his previous negative behaviors from reoccurring. Often times, he was placed with me, where I would help him complete his assignments one-on-one, where he was able to gain the individualized attention he was seeking.
It is almost exhausting just thinking about all the individule attention that is required to being an effective teacher. In the long run we all have to decide if this is the type of teacher we want to be because without purpose we could all fall into the catagory of ineffective teachers.
Kali, It was good that the teacher decided to spend time working with the student and not let him leave the classroom to avoid the situation again. I'm sure she'll have a student escorted next time. It is also good that you were there to give him the one-on-one attention that he needed.
Function of behavior very simply refers to the reason a behavior is occuring. It is not always easy to see what the function, or purpose is, but with effort and by delving into a situation, one might find what the function may be serving. People don’t do things unless there is a payoff to continue doing it - whether it is "to get" or "to avoid". So the real question is to find out out "are there other ways 'to get' of 'to avoid'?"
My immediate example comes from my 5 year old daughter. Oh - to have been given all the answers about raising a child would have been so nice!?!?! My Morgan is strong willed - I've read all the books, and call it strong willed or strong spirited or simply 'brat' - Morgan fits in. She has this learned behavior thing down to a science and as I read Chapters 2, 3 and part of 4 . . . I'm still looking for answers! Temper tantrums started early on with Morgan. She's incredibly smart for her age, but she wants things her way and immediately. Tonight, she wanted to play with the neighbor girl. I responded that we had to eat dinner and then take baths and go to bed. She immediately started the whiney thing about me "NEVER" letting her play with Dee. She ran out of the house to the swing set next door. I literally picked her up screaming and crying (and thinking that some neighbor will probably turn me in for child as as they hear her screams!) Our rule is when I say "ah oh" that signifies time out. If she kicks or hits me, that's an extra minute; and when the time goes off, that's an immediate sign for her to report to me and apologize for throwing a fit. She does okay with the apology, but how can I keep her from the time out chair? How can I stop her throwing fits?
I think as parents, we often find that it's easier to give in because it will be peace. Even my older daughter comes to her defense and pleads to give her what she wants! So, I'm still searching for the "to get" or the 'to avoid' . . .
Karen, You are not alone with raising a strong willed child. My first son was so easy to raise, because he did everything I asked him to do without complaint. Then came my second son, who like your daughter, screamed when anything did not go his way. I can remember him screaming and falling to the floor at he ages of two to almost four 1/2 when he wanted me to purchase something at the grocery store. He finally figured out that my response was to state I was not going to purchase the item and walk on down the isle. He always got up and followed me, usually running when I would turn the corner and not look back. I memorable family outing to my parents found this child unhappy to be sitting in his car seat. My husband, tired of the screaming right behind his head, pulled the car off the road one crisp Spring morning and everyone got out of the car, leaving the three year old still in his car seat. He told our son that we were going to stand beside the car looking at him until he was ready to quietly go to Grandma's. This child screamed for about 10 minutes and finally knocked on the window saying, "David's ready to go now." He was as quiet as a mouse the rest of the way to my parents. One more David Story, I still remember the day my husband told David that if he slammed his bedroom door one more time in anger that my husband was going to take the door off the hinges and place it in the basement until he earned it back. Well, two days later the door to my sons surprise came off the hinges and did travel to the basement for two weeks, until David earned it back. By the time David went to Kindergarten he had experienced enough creative consequences and folow through by his parents to understand what we expected from him. He became a rule follower in school and is now a mechanical engineer. David is the most mild mannered wonderful 23 year old son that anyone could have. People are surprised when we talk about his tantrum days.
Hi Karen, Parenting would be so much easier with a handbook. After raising 5 children, and still in the process, there are so many issues that unfortunately are trial and error. One of my daughters was very strong willed. She has turned out to be an incredible leader, holds a great position at Bombardier, and you would never know that she used to love to push all the wrong buttons. One form of discipline or drawing the boundaries for strong willed behavior was to find what makes them tick; going to friends, music, gadgets, tv, etc, these things are privileges and when they do not have them at their disposal they have a choice to make; right or wrong behavior (choices). In writing our Discipline Policy, I appreciated the direction given to keep the choices or "ball in the students court". I viewed the video by Rick Levoy, in one of my classes, where he talked about empowering the child. I've seen how a child will stop and recognize when you have given them the power of choice, instead of standing over them and "letting the hammer fall". The bottom line is taking it day by day.
I know - I'd love to have a handbook with every scenario I'm faced with! And I also know that one day, I will very much appreciate my daughter having a strong will because I get just as frustrated with my other daughter who can't order a meal from the menu unless her friend order's first! Are we never satisfied?? Do I want a leader or a follower?? And the same is true of students? Which would you rather teacher?
Function of behavior, this topic is very close to my heart because I am raising three boys. When I first started to work in the elementary school systems I had a reality check when it came to discipline. I thought that students would respect me simply because I was the authority figure. Big mistake! I believe my many years of experience as a sub and para have given me the ability to refine my abilities in this area of teaching. After reading the book about the first day of school I have developed a plan of action for setting up and maintaining a discipline policy in my classroom. Behaviors of all forms will pop up in my classroom. My first year as a para I was paired with a behavior student for 3 hours a day. This student would kick and throw his desk if he did not get what he wanted such as stand on his chair or tap his pencil on his desk. The behaviors were all distracting to the other students. Many times I was told to remove the student from the classroom for these types of behaviors. Eventually, I came to understand how to help this student stay in the room so that he could be present for the instruction time. Instead of standing on his chair I would take his chair away and he was allowed to just stand behind his desk. Instead of tapping his pencil on his desk I gave him a sensory ball that he could squeeze or roll around on his desk. The solutions were simple but getting past the distruptive behaviors was the challenge. I have learned that each student is different and each student needs an individualized solution.
The reason why a behavior is occurring refers to the term function of behavior. I am having to deal with this as we speak with my two year old son. He is behind in language skills because his father and I divorced last year and just wanted to make Cooper happy. Instead of doing what was right. If Cooper whined for a toy or snack, etc we gave it to him (his father still does this), instead of making him say what he wanted. It is a constant struggle to rectify this behavior. He has learned that if he whines for what he wants he'll get it. I am trying very hard not to give the things he wants, but don't want to deny him such necessities as food and drink. With constant support and consistency in general I hope that my son starts talking like a 2.5 year old should.
As many of you have stated, function of behavior is simply the "why" of a certain behavior that can help create a solution or intervention to the problem. These stories are all reminders that every child and circumstance is unique. There is no formula for how to handle bad behavior situations and so finding the function of behavior is vital to helping a child overcome their behavior. I too have worked as a paraprofessional mostly with behavior students. These students each had something that set them off and it took a little time to work with them before figuring out how to get past it. The toughest challenge I faced as a paraprofessional was a student who was partially deaf. He came from a low income family and his brother that was a year older than him had Asperger's. Although this student was extremely smart, he refused to do homework and acted like he did not pay attention in class. Yet in the hour of study hall he had with me, he could easily complete all of the homework from every class period that day. The student simply wanted someone to listen to him and talk about the things he wanted to talk about. We were able to use the first 5-10 minutes of class to just talk and then complete assignments the rest of class. I know this isn't always an option when you are an educator of a classroom full of students but I think it is important to make time for the students to simply just talk to you. Knowing they have someone on their side is often key in beating a bad behavior.
It is amazing to me now that I am already looking for the function of behavior with my 8 month old son. Learning how each child communicates is a process for adults as well as educators. Committing ourselves to learning each child's form communication will help the child succeed in school, the classroom run more smoothly, and us to enjoy the profession of education.
So how might discipline methods be used to find out the "to gets" or "to avoids" behavior? I've read a lot (especially with my strong willed child!) of love and logic theory. Is that helpful to get to the "why"? Anyone??
Karen, I think that Love and Logic, as well as any discipline methods can only be used after getting to know the child and finguring out how they tick and what might help them learn different ways to deal with their anger or change an unwanted learned behavior. I have incorporated techniques into my "bag of tricks" from Love and Logic, Conscious Disipline, Give Em Five Effective Disciplne, etc. After getting to know the child, I pull out techniques that I think might help change the behavior. I realize that things might get worse before they get better and assess if the technique is working after one or two weeks. The key to your own child is you and your husband working and planning together, communicating, doing the same things and beng on the same consistant page.
If I remember correctly, the meat of Love and Logic is three fold. 1. Giving the child choices that the parent WILL follow through with. Example: Johnny, you can either bring your homework home each night from school, or do the homework that your father has prepared for you to do. We used this technique on our oldest child who could not, or prefered not to bring his homework home in 5th Grade. If he did not come home with homework, then his father would have a math lesson ready and I would have a Spelling List ready. He decided that the school's homework was easier, and started bringing his homework home. 2. Teach the child differnt ways to deal with their angry, such as Deep breathing ( Filling the Balloon, I still use this is class) The pretzle (( stretching), etc. 3. Let the child experience natural consequences. I have a David story for this one! After reading love and logic books and listening to tapes in the car, my husband and I decided to help the natural consequences along a bit. David had a tendency to leave his bicycle unattended in front of our house. My husband had told him the story of how his new bike was stolen by doing the same thing when he was a child, but David continued to leave his bike in front of our house, close to the street. One day when David was at a friends house, my husband put David's bike in our laundry room while I called the friends mother that David was visiting to alert her to our plan. When David returned to our house to ride his bike with his friend and discovered that his bike was missing, he was upset and crying when he reached me in the Kitchen. We talked about his experience and he said he wished that he had listened to his father's warning. I then sent David down to the laundry room with his basket of dirty clothes. He came running back up the steps, hugged me and said, "Thank, You, Thank You, Thank You," " I am so glad that you were teaching me a lesson." David NEVER AGAIN left his bike in our front yard. Neither did his friend who was with him during the whole experience.
After reading the chapter, I found that Function of Behavior provides reason as to why a behavior is occurring in the classroom. Many times the teacher can talk to previous teachers, other students in the classroom, an administrator or a parent to get to the bottom of why a behavior occurred. I think the example that Cindy provided above about "Jerry" is a good example of finding out why a student is behaving a certain way. Cindy went to a previous teacher and spoke to the boy's mother to try to understand Jerry better and why he was behaving in that way. I think each of us will experience something like this in our classroom almost every school year. There is always going to be students who have personal problems going on at home or even at school that can lead to poor behavior in school. It is our job to understand why they are behaving that way and to find a solution that benefits all involved.
It seems as though we may be at a bit of an impasse here in that we have all done our best to describe behaviors using a functional model but we are not yet well equipped to use a functional approach to intervention. The first several chapters of our book do a great job of explaining how to precisely define a behavior,and gather data about it's consequences and antecedents. I'm hoping subsequent chapters clearly describe how to use this data to tailor an effective intervention. My guess is that these interventions will be aimed at altering or removing the predictive antecedents of the behavior or providing more constructive ways for the students to satisfy the function of their disruptive behaviors. Might there be something I'm overlooking? Do some of you have a clear since of a functional approach to intervention already?
I too am looking forward to learning more ways to a functional approach to intervention. As this blog continues, I love reading Cindy and Karen's posts. Cindy is providing us with a lot of real life examples of intervening with children not only in the classroom, but in life. There is something important to remember from this I believe. We are all a team. Educators don't need to "sell" their ideas or techniques that they have discovered, rather we need to all collaborate. The behavior we encounter with one student may never be duplicated for us, but it could be for another teacher. Cindy did a great job of doing this when she worked with "Jerry". Helping each other ultimately helps the student.
After reading chapter three, I learned that Function of Behavior is how a child continues to act when no consequences follow the action.
I do not yet have any experience with this in terms with teaching, but I do have a (almost) three year old daughter who definitely challenges me daily by not listening. When she constantly does one thing (like opening the fridge door), I will admit that I probably don't take the best approach to disciplining her. I get a bit stern with her, and I do spank her. Time outs are used, but Im not sure if they are very effective at this point in her life. I also take away toys or other prized possessions when she is acting out. There is very little else that I feel I can do to teach her the right ways to act. As I go through school, and begin my student-teaching, I am looking forward to learning how to give appropriate consequences when necessary.
As we learned in one of our last chapters, intervention to unfavorable behavior is a must when dealing with children of any age. Just like the boys throwing rocks at cars, there were several things that could have been done ahead of time to prevent such a thing from happening. Especially since it happened more than once. The children need to learn this lesson, but its the adults that already should have known better, and should have been more prepared for that particular situation. Just like any other situation that will happen in a classroom, I believe it is the teacher's responsibility to do everything they can to correct the unfavorable behavior so it doesn't happen again. I think the younger a child is when they learn these lessons, the better off they will be for the future. Patience and dedication can show when dealing with these situations. Good luck to you all! :)
I think prevention is the key to a functional approach. I know that prevention cannot always work and intervention is needed. Educators share all the time. Educators are going to give their advice and things that work all the time. Not all techniques work for every situation.
Function of behavior is the reason a behavior is occurring and continues to occur. To determine the function of behavior you must look at the situation in which it occurs and the behaviors/available consequences that allow it to continue.
While reading this chapter my thoughts kept going to a child I have worked with for many years in a summer camp. The first year I worked with this child, he seemed to get angry very easily when playing with other children and through the years it has escalated. He is very competitive and gets upset easily when playing any games. He does not lose. When this occurred we would remove him from the situation and sit him on the side to calm down. Now when problems occur, the child argues and refuses to do anything. We have all determine that the best way to handle any situation with this child is to talk to him like a friend. He does not have the respect for authority that most other children seem to have. Treating him like an equal and talking to him like an adult is the one thing that consistently works.
I agree Robin that prevention and abiding by a consistant classroom schedule is key to a functional approach. My simple picture schedule that has velcro attached pictures on a laminated file folder means the world to my Kindergarten students. They immediately tell me when I forget to change the enrichment class for the day, and they notice if I have a surprise change listed on their daily schedule. The picture schedule was most important to those children on the autism spectrum. They really need a consistant schedule and prior warning if the schedule is going to change. One prevention technique that works for me is singing classroom directions. This has worked for every group I have had since my second ( Year from Hell) group of children. When I feel stressed with the kids and really want to start raising my voice, I sing. You need to know that I have the worst singing voice that you have ever heard, but the kids don't seem to care. They will stop the unwanted activity they are doing and either stare or start singing with me. Here are examples of my made up songs.
(To the tune of I Am Sleeping) I am sitting, I am sitting, In my seat, quietly. I am sitting quieting, I am sitting quietly ready for (direction, snack, lunch, math) ( repeat last line)
Put your name at the top of your paper, Put your name at the top of your paper. Put your name at the top, put your name at the top, put your name at the top of your paper. If your names at the top of your paper ( raise your hand, touch the floor, etc.
The first year I used the preventive singing technique was my second year of teaching in a public school. My Principal still apologizes for overloading my class with 10 children who had an array of problems. I asked, no begged my Principal to come into my room to help me discover what was so different about this group of children conpared to my wonderful first Kindergarten class I had enjoyed the privious year. He called me into his office and said, "Cindy, you have a group of preschool minded children and I suspect several will soon be diagnoses and be on IEP's" . 8 children were on IEP's by the end of the year. I got to know my Principal very well that year. He and the Director of our school systems Special Education Department gave me many ideas that I still use as needed today. I started using different sounding bells to get their attention. The singing directions was my idea, and it wored great. I would cover the toys with sheets until it was time to use them. I asked a former music therapist who worked at our middle school to make me a CD that would help the children quiet down. The CD is now my classroom work music. The children still ask for their work music when working on assignments. The Principal taked with the janitoria staff and I was allowed to put masking tape on my floors ( since I was getting new carpets) to help the children transisiton better to floor activities. The tape had each child's name listed, so they knew right where to sit. If they could not sit quietly, they had to return to their table chair. My second year of teaching ended up being my most valuable year of learning. A big thanks to my co-works, Principal and Director of Special Education for helping me grown and still keep my job! A special thank you to my husband who helped me locate the quiet music from Mr. Duncan and listened those first few weeks as I was crying as he drove me to and from school.
My example of Function of Behavior comes from being a para and working with a student with ADHD. When this student is on his medication routinely he never has behavior issues. In fact he is a model student both academically and socially. His ability to function in the classroom is above standards for his age. The problem is always associated with the ability of his parents to afford his medication. His dosage is so inconsistent which creates lots of ups and downs. This child is not physically violent but would physically defend himself if provoked. He does the typical push or step on another persons foot in line but nothing that would be considered aggressive behavior. The typical behavior off the medication is consistent with ADHD behavior. He has trouble sitting still, listening skills diminish, and he becomes a class clown needing to get the class to laugh. He knows when he is getting out of control and doesn't like the feeling. Unfortunately, he was in a large class of identified behavior issues. I would say Cindy's 2nd year kindergarten class in 5th grade. So we know what the behaviors are, when they are going to happen, and a hypothesis about the function of the behavior. Now what to do about a situation that even the student can't seem to control. Fortunately, he has para support most of the day from 2 different paras. Since the student doesn't like the out of control feeling he gets to we find way to help him get through the rough parts of the day. He has different stimulus such as the ball to squeeze as mentioned above, he has standing time (but can't stand in front of someone else), and he can ask for assistance from the para. There are times when he loses control and verbally attacks another student or adult. He isn't really a child that yells but he will cuss. Being aware that he is out of medication helps with being proactive because you know you will have to spend extra time helping him get through it. Most days it is just a matter of sitting with him at the back table and walking him through instruction. He can, and wants, to find the answers himself. I can't imagine having to sit in a class all quiet with the all but one row of lights off sitting through a math lecture in 5th grade. Much less when you just want to jump out of your skin. Talking to him like he is and adult and expressing that you are there to help him get through has really worked. Then there are times you just have to lay down the law and say, "that isn't appropriate and it has to stop." He knows if a bad word slips out he has to go to the office and he doesn't even argue about it he just goes. Our district make students with office referrals apologize to the teacher or para that made the referral before they can reenter the class. (I think this is a good policy because it makes the child verbalize the behavior and hold them accountable in the future.) He is always sincerely remorseful and apologetic. He is a great kid that needs proactive behavior management. This can be very difficult in the course of a day with 20 other students. However, if we are striving to become "impact" teachers and cultivate our dispositions we should be able to learn how to balance the different aspects of the classroom. I think it is kind of like learning to drive. The other day we were in town and stopped at Braums. When we were leaving she noticed in the car next to us a gentleman was taking off eating an ice cream cone. She looked at me and said how in the world can you drive and eat ice cream? (like she had never seen it before..lol) She goes on to say how she can barely take one had off the wheel without sharply going into the other lane. Eventually we learn how to balance all the controls of the car and drive with one hand. One day we too will learn how to manage all the controls of our classrooms.
I also want to say thank you to Cindy for the wonderful examples you have given us. No doubt I will be adding your tools to my own use. Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us!
Thank you Dena and Hannah. As you can tell, I love to talk (write). I am getting ready for my first Student Teacher next year, and hope to help get him or her ready for their first teaching experience. I recently discovered that my School District had a 47% turn over of all teachers during a two year time span. WOW! That was eye opening! I thought back to the 5 other new to the Elementary School teachers that came in with me as teachers six years ago. Two of the six were fired their first year, due to not being able to control their classes. One left after her second year and another one was fired after her second year. That left two of now six years later. I also recently experienced one of my co-workers being fired. I wish I had known that she was having trouble with behavior and tests scores, becasue I could have helped her. I told my Principal to please tell the two new Kindergarten Teachers that I will be working with to please let me know if they need my help in these two areas. New teachers are afraid to talk to co-workers about their classroom troubles because they do not want to be seen as weak, but if you need help you need help! I have many times said that I was glad that my second year was not my first year, or I might not still be teaching. But looking back, I think I would still be teaching, due to the support my co-workers and administrative staff showed me. We are using an old fashion mentoring system that is clearly now working. I don't see how, with budget cuts we could afford the preferred coaching mentoring program. I will just try harder to help those survive that are new to our system.
Function of behavior is why the behavior occurs and what is reinforcing the behavior. I also, like Dena, see this working as a Para-educator. I see it a great deal when there is sub or student teachers, I don't think that the classwork that is done in college can every prepare you to face the Oppositional defiant child or the child who like was talked about above that has ADHD and is off their medication. When new people come into the situation they can aggravate this type of child because of how they handle the classroom discipline, such as a couple years ago I had a student teacher who thought that if he was silent long enough when the kids started misbehaving that they would eventually calm down and he could start teaching again. This only reenforced the bad behavior because the students that I had in his class knew that he wouldn't take a active role in discipline and therefor they could do whatever they wanted,including starting dance parties or breaking into their own little groups. Finally the classroom teacher had to step in to fix the problem. I also agree with Cindy that new teachers often won't ask for help because somehow it makes them feel incompetent and I hope that when I finally get my own classroom that I make connections with a veteran teacher so that I can ask for help because that type of knowledge is so valuable and shouldn't be seen as a failure when you seek it out as a knew teacher. Function of behavior happens even in adults if you feel ridiculed when you ask for help you won't ask again.
Behaviors occur for a reason. When a behavior is performed it is because a certain outcome is expected. Behaviors are not always conscious decisions though so once patterns are established the reason for the behavior can be more easily ascertained. Reinforcement of behavior is a predictor to future behaviors based on the outcome being desirable and satisfying or not. Instead of focusing on behavior management to try to eliminate undesirable behavior, we should focus on the trigger of the behavior. There was a boy that I used to work with who was autistic and completely non-verbal but we had a good communication system in place based on icons depicting activities throughout the day to include both school work and leisure activities. Since going to the restroom was part of our school work (he was diapered but had been capable of exhibiting proper toileting skills) he completely despised putting on the restroom icon and would become physically violent, pushing me, pulling my hair and twisting my clothes. Since I knew putting the icon on and actually getting him to go to the restroom would elicit this behavior I decided to perform two tasks at once, somewhat as a surprise attack, if you will. One duty was to take office mail out to the mailbox, which he enjoyed. When finished with the mail and he removed the icon for that task I placed the icon on his card and since we were already in the office, where his private restroom was, he willingly went to the restroom. This worked for a while until he associated getting the mail with going to the restroom and he began to refuse to do that task. After some experimenting with various routines, I began to realize that actually going to the restroom was not what bothered him; it was the hand washing afterward that he disliked. When washing hands before lunch or brushing teeth after lunch he used a different sink where there was a mirror and he loved to see himself. So finally, I had figured out the source of the behavior problem. As long as he was able to wash hands in the lounge sink instead of the private restroom sink he was more than happy to go to the restroom. I know this is a long story and because the student was completely non-verbal, it was quite a task to find the source of the undesirable behavior but once the source was eliminated, the negative behavior was gone. I was able to identify the behavior, assess the behavior, look for patterns and triggers, experiment with solutions and finally overcome the undesirable behavior.
Function of Behavior includes the causes or situation of a particular behavior (antecedent), the behavior itself, and the results of the behavior (consequences). I had a student, Nick, for four years. He was very negative toward school and had difficulties in socializing with others. He often acted the "victim" in situations so as to get some attention. It took about a year and a half to really get through to him. I found that spending time with him after school (his mom and dad picked him up from our small Lutheran parochial school everyday and they approved of him getting some extra teacher time) sometimes for tutoring and sometimes to visit. The attention seeking was sometimes negative (so as to not have to do something) and sometimes positive but often in a victimized way. He would play a game with the others, get hit with the ball on purpose, and overact the "injury". He always had a story to tell after school, and I found that reminding him of our after-dismissal visit time when he tried to start story time during classtime was helpful. When giving regular verbal updates to his parents about his study struggles, I found that they often remarked how they hated this or that about school. I knew right away that they needed to not announce their hatred for math or science in his presence, and I kindly requested that they curtail their memories of past schooling horrors. By the third year, Nick could conduct himself fairly well when I took the time to explain the boundaries and once his ADHD medication got under control. He had his bouts with refusals to keep up on his studies and with laziness. But I had very specific steps to combat failure to complete school responsibilities, so no discipline measure was arbitrary. Unfortunately, his reputation of the first five years at our school was so negative that many students did not interact well with him. However, they can to appreciate the things he could do, and many parents remarked about his growth.
My example involves a boy, I will call Cody. I was a para in his early childhood preschool classroom last year. Cody is a very active little farm boy, with a very big imagination and he likes to tell stories that often get him in trouble. Cody is on an IEP for speech and behavior among a few other things. I did not know Cody before he entered the preschool, however, I did go to school with some of his family. His aunts and uncle that I knew had similar problems in school as to what Cody was having.
The other para in the preschool and I would rotate duties, I would do bathroom for a week while she did circle and music time. Then we would switch the next week. It appeared to me that Cody was removed from circle/music almost everyday that the other para was doing it. When we discussed it she explained that she couldn't keep him quiet or sitting when he was supposed to be and then when it was time for singing and dancing he would sit and not participate. She said he was distracting the other kids and some of them were starting to mimic his behaviors so she would just send him to time out. I suggested that we change our schedule around the next day and I would take Cody out of the room for that time and work with him one on one.
The problem with this was the only place we had to work in at the time was the gym. Not a great location for circle time because if you take a preschooler to the gym all they want to do is play. However, Cody and I implemented physical activities into our own circle time in the gym. We would race to one end of the gym and do the weather. Then race to the other end and do calendar activities. He did great! Cody was able to do all of circle time: calendar, weather, counting, alphabet, singing, dancing.
Then knowing that Cody could do circle, we had to find ways to get him to do it in the classroom. We tried several things like: wiggle seats, sitting on exercise balls, spinning seats, small trampoline, and wall pushes. All of these things greatly improved Cody's ability to participate and remain attentive during circle time.
Function of Behavior is why the child continues the behavior. A teacher must determine what the child in getting out of the behavior.
ReplyDeleteMy first year of teaching Kindergarten I had a child, I will call him Jerry for this writing, who was very challenging. I could not get this child to come into my room the first day of school. My Principal had to carry him to my room screaming all the way. Jerry had gone to our Preschool the year before, so I went to talk to the Preschool Teacher about how to bond with Jerry. The Preschool Teacher said that Jerry liked his day to be organized and suggested a picture schedule, which I still use to this date. This teacher said that Jerry was a one teacher kind of guy, and that I had better work hard to bond with this child.
The second day of school, Jerry became angry when he was not immediately chosen to answer a question and he went into our classroom bathroom and slammed the door. He eventually came out of the bathroom and went back to his seat. This ritual started to become a habit which was becoming a big problem for students who really needed to use the bathroom. One day one of our Councelors tried to get him out of the bathrrom during a mad time, and this very very tall Kindergarten child gave her a black eye and broke her glasses.
Being a new teacher, I was confused about what to do about this situation. I called Jerry's mother and discovered that when Jerry is angry he goes to his room and slams the door. Mom agreed that he gets angry very easily, usually over something that an adult would think was nothing. She also said that Jerry's father, who she was in the middle of divorcing, probably had Asbergers, but he had never been diagnosed and did not want his son Jerry to be tested for it. Mom said that Jerry liked to be a helper
Jerry continued using the classroom bathroom for two more weeks, until Jerry began to bond with his new classroom family. I had determined at this point that the main discriminative stimulus was when Jerry was not recognized first to answer a question. He had learned to put his hand up and wait, but became angry when he was not called first.
So I had two problems to solve. One, I needed to try and prevent the anger as much as possible by leting him answer questons and two, I needed to find him a new mad area, since the other children needed to also answer some questions and use their bathroom.
I first worked to try and prevent the anger by letting him answer a lot of questions. Next I tried leting other people answer questions while whispering in his ear, you will get the next question. Sometimes I would say, I am going to ask some questions and Jerry is going to help me find quiet folks that have their hands raised. This technique worked very well and Jerry was not getting mad and going into the bathroom as much.
Wow Cindy, what an amazing story! Thank you for sharing it with us!
DeleteI have yet to have any experience in teaching children, but keeping your experiences in mind, and how you handled it will definitely be on my mind when I encounter a difficult child!
What a great alternative it is to create a "mad corner" for children when they need it. I think there was a "quiet corner" in most of my classes in elementary school. It definitely gives children a sense of organization, and they know what to expect when the "quiet corner" is needed.
Its wonderful that you also got the class involved in telling "Jerry" how they all felt. I think its important to teach children to be able to express their feelings and emotions in a positive, healthy way, and they way you had the class recite the way they were feeling was an excellent way to get the point across to Jerry without making him feel bad. By the sounds of it, your tactic worked well, and Jerry made friends with his class, and became closer to you, which was your main goal.
Again, thank you for sharing such an inspiring story! :)
Cheri Fox
Cindy,
DeleteNot sure if they ever found out if Jerry had Asbergers or something else on the Autism spectrum, but I can relate as I had a student this past year with Asbergers. It was hard to understand many of his behaviors, but I found that doing my best to prevent issues from arising, his day would go much smoother. Thanks for sharing your story!
Here is the rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteNext I wanted to try and make a mad area that Jerry could go to in the place of the bathroom. We were down to maybe one or two incidents per week that the bathroom was used by Jerry when mad, but the kids were getting upset that Jerry was keeping them from using their bathroom. I set up a child's size card table in a quiet corner of the room with a cover over the table. Under the table was a pillow and a stuffed bear. I talked to Jerry away from the class about the mad area and even let him experience the area while the class was in P.E. I was hopeful that the next time I could not prevent a fit that Jerry would go to the mad area instead of the bathroom. Well... he went to the bathroom and not the mad area the next time he became angry. While Jerry was in the bathroom I talked to the class about how they felt about Jerry keeping them from using the bathoom when they needed it. We, as a class, came up with the following I-message that we said in unison as Jerry was leaving the bathroom. "Jerry, we don't like it when you use our bathroom and not the mad area. We are afraid we are going to pee our pants. Please use the mad area!" Jerry looked like a deer in headlights. He stood staring at his classmates for a few seconds and then ran to the mad area. Jerry always used the mad area after that day. He also became one of my favorite students. He was accepted, flaws and all by his classmates. He even got to the point were he would give me a hug each morning when he saw me in the gym.
That is awesome that you were able to go back to his old teacher and try to get tips from what worked with this child and what didn't work. I personally am not a fan of singling someone out when they are bad. To me this embarrasses them and make them feel bad. But I do see on some occasions that this methods works because it make the child feel like bad and they don't want their classmates making fun of them. If there is a behavior method that would work for everyone that would be great, but we don't live in a perfect world so therefore this may not happen. I think that if we start with fixing the problem and slowly making this child be on the step with the other students then that student wouldn't have "special" attention. I know its a lot of work but it is possible from experience. I do like how you said you still use the same trick that you learned to help control Jerry. I am always a fan of learning new ways to get my students attention and if it works, that's great. And if it doesn't I will look for another way.
DeleteI agree that a positive approach is the best. Confronting Jerry with a group I-Message was not planned. I had taught the children from the first day to use I messages instead of hitting, pushing, etc. When Jerry went into the bathroom instead of the mad area that day, one of my kids gave me the group I message idea. One child said, " We need to give him an I message so he will use the mad area." I would love to be given alternative ideas on how I could have handled this situation better. I looked at the group I message as a classrom family intervention. Jerry would not listen to me, so I decided to think out of the box and let his peers help me with a solution. I discovered two years later when I had three diagnosed children with high functioning Asbergers just how hard it was to change a ritual. One child put his backpack on his back and tried to walk out my back door when angry. He was also visually impared and had to walk with a peer in the hallway. I was working with Juniper Garden reasearch team that year, and the children were receiving small group socialization training. Juniper Garden is run out of KU. Jerry was finally tested in the second grade and he did have high functioning Asbergers.
DeleteFunction of Behavior is when a child acts a certain way in order to get a reaction out of others.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working at a Kindergarten Para we had a little boy that would either throw fits or just lay his head on his desk while the others were learning. This always seemed to happen when the teacher was going over a lesson on the dry erase board. This little boy would not even want try and learn a new subject. So when he would put his head on his desk or when she simply just sat on the floor under his desk the teacher would ask me to take him out in the hall way to go over the lesson or other times we would go to the office where he would have to sit in a small room with only a desk and a chair and his assignment. I would later have to go check on him. After checking on him he had finished the work and then allowed to return back to class. He did this about 3-4 times a week. He seemed to love the attention that he received when he was escorted out of the room to be on his own. By the end of the school year we were able to keep this little boy from getting the attention and doing the work in the class. It was a slow process of showing him that he isn't the only one in the class and that with his actions all the other students were taking a timeout from learning because the teacher and I had to give him all the attention.
It's sad when this happens to a student so young. Your method of consistency is a good example of what that can do. Perhaps giving him others to care about (the rest of the class) was a motivator. Sometimes people around the student are more valuable than the subject matter. Not that the subject matter shouldn't become important to that student.
DeleteAnyone, who has spent time in a classroom (as a student or a teacher) knows that the classroom Kleenex box serves two functions. The stated function is to provide tissues for the sniffle and the sneezy. The unstated function is to provide an opportunity for students to take a brake and drift around the room a bit. A student who is up to get a tissue is therefore getting one of two things out of this behavior,a chance to blow his/her nose or a chance to goof off. What's more, kids know that this is a great loophole for times when they are expected to be in their seats. After all, who wants a students with snot running down their chins. Hard and fast rules or airtight routines seem hard to come by here (due to the a fore mentioned running snot). I wonder if the best one could do is to have some clear guidelines for purposeful,discrete, well-timed nose blowing coupled with engaging and varied lessons that don't leave too many students with the desire to get up and drift about.
ReplyDeleteI love the kleenex analogy - I ovten wonder is it better to keep the box of kleenex in the classroom, or just allow students to go to their locker/bathroom to get some! It's a question every year!!
DeleteFunction of behavior is the reinforcement of what is behind the behavior occurring. Last evening, I was in an audience where there was a child who was upset over something her dad said. She began the "fit throwing" and I couldn't help but witness the response of the dad. At first he just gave her "the look". She snuggled up behind her sister. She was still upset and acting out. The dad looked at the mom and raised his eyebrows. Then he looked back at us and shrugged. Meanwhile, the child is becoming even more agitated over not getting her way. The dad must have realized that this scene was going to get ugly real soon because he leaned forward, caught her eye and let her know they were going outside. When they came back in, she had gathered herself and was able to conduct herself in a better manner. The child seemed to sense that if Dad ignored her behavior, she would just act out even more. I think that children need and really want boundaries set for their actions. Yet, if they are ignored and the caregiver is either too busy, too tired, or simply disconnected, the child will act out until the parent finally steps in. Unfortunately, the child has already received a negative message and no doubt the behavior will reoccur.
ReplyDeleteFunction of behavior is the reasoning behind why the behavior is occurring. The adult must analyze the situation, in order to discover what is setting the student off, prior to the behavior occurring.
ReplyDeleteWhile completing observations in a first grade classroom last semester, I had the opportunity to witness a child, who would become angry when he was unable to have his way. The information I gained from the teacher was that the child suffered from ADHD, as well as a divorced household. You could tell when he was beginning to become agitated and could almost always predict the behavior that was going to occur. The students were split into small groups around the classroom and each group was completing different activities, which related to the lesson. The child was at the teacher table and they were completing a game related to spelling words. The child became upset, when he was not able to complete his turn out of order. He began withdrawing from the activity and eventually went to his cubby, grabbed his backpack and walked out the door. I’m assuming this was a normal reaction, because the teacher immediately went to her classroom intercom and notified the front office, that he had left the classroom and was headed their way. Little did she know, he never went to the office, but went to hide in a hallway of the school. The office called down about 5 minutes later and notified the teacher that the student never made it to the office. We then had to search the school, where we found him hiding, in a corner, in on of the other hallways.
The remainder of the semester, the teacher spent extra time working with the student and trying to prevent his previous negative behaviors from reoccurring. Often times, he was placed with me, where I would help him complete his assignments one-on-one, where he was able to gain the individualized attention he was seeking.
It is almost exhausting just thinking about all the individule attention that is required to being an effective teacher. In the long run we all have to decide if this is the type of teacher we want to be because without purpose we could all fall into the catagory of ineffective teachers.
DeleteKali,
ReplyDeleteIt was good that the teacher decided to spend time working with the student and not let him leave the classroom to avoid the situation again. I'm sure she'll have a student escorted next time. It is also good that you were there to give him the one-on-one attention that he needed.
Function of behavior very simply refers to the reason a behavior is occuring. It is not always easy to see what the function, or purpose is, but with effort and by delving into a situation, one might find what the function may be serving. People don’t do things unless there is a payoff to continue doing it - whether it is "to get" or "to avoid". So the real question is to find out out "are there other ways 'to get' of 'to avoid'?"
ReplyDeleteMy immediate example comes from my 5 year old daughter. Oh - to have been given all the answers about raising a child would have been so nice!?!?! My Morgan is strong willed - I've read all the books, and call it strong willed or strong spirited or simply 'brat' - Morgan fits in. She has this learned behavior thing down to a science and as I read Chapters 2, 3 and part of 4 . . . I'm still looking for answers! Temper tantrums started early on with Morgan. She's incredibly smart for her age, but she wants things her way and immediately. Tonight, she wanted to play with the neighbor girl. I responded that we had to eat dinner and then take baths and go to bed. She immediately started the whiney thing about me "NEVER" letting her play with Dee. She ran out of the house to the swing set next door. I literally picked her up screaming and crying (and thinking that some neighbor will probably turn me in for child as as they hear her screams!) Our rule is when I say "ah oh" that signifies time out. If she kicks or hits me, that's an extra minute; and when the time goes off, that's an immediate sign for her to report to me and apologize for throwing a fit. She does okay with the apology, but how can I keep her from the time out chair? How can I stop her throwing fits?
I think as parents, we often find that it's easier to give in because it will be peace. Even my older daughter comes to her defense and pleads to give her what she wants! So, I'm still searching for the "to get" or the 'to avoid' . . .
Karen,
DeleteYou are not alone with raising a strong willed child. My first son was so easy to raise, because he did everything I asked him to do without complaint. Then came my second son, who like your daughter, screamed when anything did not go his way. I can remember him screaming and falling to the floor at he ages of two to almost four 1/2 when he wanted me to purchase something at the grocery store. He finally figured out that my response was to state I was not going to purchase the item and walk on down the isle. He always got up and followed me, usually running when I would turn the corner and not look back. I memorable family outing to my parents found this child unhappy to be sitting in his car seat. My husband, tired of the screaming right behind his head, pulled the car off the road one crisp Spring morning and everyone got out of the car, leaving the three year old still in his car seat. He told our son that we were going to stand beside the car looking at him until he was ready to quietly go to Grandma's. This child screamed for about 10 minutes and finally knocked on the window saying, "David's ready to go now." He was as quiet as a mouse the rest of the way to my parents. One more David Story, I still remember the day my husband told David that if he slammed his bedroom door one more time in anger that my husband was going to take the door off the hinges and place it in the basement until he earned it back. Well, two days later the door to my sons surprise came off the hinges and did travel to the basement for two weeks, until David earned it back. By the time David went to Kindergarten he had experienced enough creative consequences and folow through by his parents to understand what we expected from him. He became a rule follower in school and is now a mechanical engineer. David is the most mild mannered wonderful 23 year old son that anyone could have. People are surprised when we talk about his tantrum days.
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteParenting would be so much easier with a handbook. After raising 5 children, and still in the process, there are so many issues that unfortunately are trial and error. One of my daughters was very strong willed. She has turned out to be an incredible leader, holds a great position at Bombardier, and you would never know that she used to love to push all the wrong buttons. One form of discipline or drawing the boundaries for strong willed behavior was to find what makes them tick; going to friends, music, gadgets, tv, etc, these things are privileges and when they do not have them at their disposal they have a choice to make; right or wrong behavior (choices). In writing our Discipline Policy, I appreciated the direction given to keep the choices or "ball in the students court". I viewed the video by Rick Levoy, in one of my classes, where he talked about empowering the child. I've seen how a child will stop and recognize when you have given them the power of choice, instead of standing over them and "letting the hammer fall". The bottom line is taking it day by day.
I know - I'd love to have a handbook with every scenario I'm faced with! And I also know that one day, I will very much appreciate my daughter having a strong will because I get just as frustrated with my other daughter who can't order a meal from the menu unless her friend order's first! Are we never satisfied?? Do I want a leader or a follower?? And the same is true of students? Which would you rather teacher?
DeleteFunction of behavior, this topic is very close to my heart because I am raising three boys. When I first started to work in the elementary school systems I had a reality check when it came to discipline. I thought that students would respect me simply because I was the authority figure. Big mistake! I believe my many years of experience as a sub and para have given me the ability to refine my abilities in this area of teaching. After reading the book about the first day of school I have developed a plan of action for setting up and maintaining a discipline policy in my classroom. Behaviors of all forms will pop up in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteMy first year as a para I was paired with a behavior student for 3 hours a day. This student would kick and throw his desk if he did not get what he wanted such as stand on his chair or tap his pencil on his desk. The behaviors were all distracting to the other students. Many times I was told to remove the student from the classroom for these types of behaviors. Eventually, I came to understand how to help this student stay in the room so that he could be present for the instruction time. Instead of standing on his chair I would take his chair away and he was allowed to just stand behind his desk. Instead of tapping his pencil on his desk I gave him a sensory ball that he could squeeze or roll around on his desk.
The solutions were simple but getting past the distruptive behaviors was the challenge. I have learned that each student is different and each student needs an individualized solution.
The reason why a behavior is occurring refers to the term function of behavior. I am having to deal with this as we speak with my two year old son. He is behind in language skills because his father and I divorced last year and just wanted to make Cooper happy. Instead of doing what was right. If Cooper whined for a toy or snack, etc we gave it to him (his father still does this), instead of making him say what he wanted. It is a constant struggle to rectify this behavior. He has learned that if he whines for what he wants he'll get it. I am trying very hard not to give the things he wants, but don't want to deny him such necessities as food and drink. With constant support and consistency in general I hope that my son starts talking like a 2.5 year old should.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAs many of you have stated, function of behavior is simply the "why" of a certain behavior that can help create a solution or intervention to the problem. These stories are all reminders that every child and circumstance is unique. There is no formula for how to handle bad behavior situations and so finding the function of behavior is vital to helping a child overcome their behavior. I too have worked as a paraprofessional mostly with behavior students. These students each had something that set them off and it took a little time to work with them before figuring out how to get past it. The toughest challenge I faced as a paraprofessional was a student who was partially deaf. He came from a low income family and his brother that was a year older than him had Asperger's. Although this student was extremely smart, he refused to do homework and acted like he did not pay attention in class. Yet in the hour of study hall he had with me, he could easily complete all of the homework from every class period that day. The student simply wanted someone to listen to him and talk about the things he wanted to talk about. We were able to use the first 5-10 minutes of class to just talk and then complete assignments the rest of class. I know this isn't always an option when you are an educator of a classroom full of students but I think it is important to make time for the students to simply just talk to you. Knowing they have someone on their side is often key in beating a bad behavior.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me now that I am already looking for the function of behavior with my 8 month old son. Learning how each child communicates is a process for adults as well as educators. Committing ourselves to learning each child's form communication will help the child succeed in school, the classroom run more smoothly, and us to enjoy the profession of education.
So how might discipline methods be used to find out the "to gets" or "to avoids" behavior? I've read a lot (especially with my strong willed child!) of love and logic theory. Is that helpful to get to the "why"? Anyone??
ReplyDeleteKaren,
DeleteI think that Love and Logic, as well as any discipline methods can only be used after getting to know the child and finguring out how they tick and what might help them learn different ways to deal with their anger or change an unwanted learned behavior. I have incorporated techniques into my "bag of tricks" from Love and Logic, Conscious Disipline, Give Em Five Effective Disciplne, etc. After getting to know the child, I pull out techniques that I think might help change the behavior. I realize that things might get worse before they get better and assess if the technique is working after one or two weeks. The key to your own child is you and your husband working and planning together, communicating, doing the same things and beng on the same consistant page.
If I remember correctly, the meat of Love and Logic is three fold.
1. Giving the child choices that the parent WILL follow through with. Example: Johnny, you can either bring your homework home each night from school, or do the homework that your father has prepared for you to do. We used this technique on our oldest child who could not, or prefered not to bring his homework home in 5th Grade. If he did not come home with homework, then his father would have a math lesson ready and I would have a Spelling List ready. He decided that the school's homework was easier, and started bringing his homework home.
2. Teach the child differnt ways to deal with their angry, such as Deep breathing ( Filling the Balloon, I still use this is class) The pretzle (( stretching), etc.
3. Let the child experience natural consequences. I have a David story for this one! After reading love and logic books and listening to tapes in the car, my husband and I decided to help the natural consequences along a bit. David had a tendency to leave his bicycle unattended in front of our house. My husband had told him the story of how his new bike was stolen by doing the same thing when he was a child, but David continued to leave his bike in front of our house, close to the street. One day when David was at a friends house, my husband put David's bike in our laundry room while I called the friends mother that David was visiting to alert her to our plan. When David returned to our house to ride his bike with his friend and discovered that his bike was missing, he was upset and crying when he reached me in the Kitchen. We talked about his experience and he said he wished that he had listened to his father's warning. I then sent David down to the laundry room with his basket of dirty clothes. He came running back up the steps, hugged me and said, "Thank, You, Thank You, Thank You," " I am so glad that you were teaching me a lesson." David NEVER AGAIN left his bike in our front yard. Neither did his friend who was with him during the whole experience.
After reading the chapter, I found that Function of Behavior provides reason as to why a behavior is occurring in the classroom. Many times the teacher can talk to previous teachers, other students in the classroom, an administrator or a parent to get to the bottom of why a behavior occurred. I think the example that Cindy provided above about "Jerry" is a good example of finding out why a student is behaving a certain way. Cindy went to a previous teacher and spoke to the boy's mother to try to understand Jerry better and why he was behaving in that way. I think each of us will experience something like this in our classroom almost every school year. There is always going to be students who have personal problems going on at home or even at school that can lead to poor behavior in school. It is our job to understand why they are behaving that way and to find a solution that benefits all involved.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as though we may be at a bit of an impasse here in that we have all done our best to describe behaviors using a functional model but we are not yet well equipped to use a functional approach to intervention. The first several chapters of our book do a great job of explaining how to precisely define a behavior,and gather data about it's consequences and antecedents. I'm hoping subsequent chapters clearly describe how to use this data to tailor an effective intervention. My guess is that these interventions will be aimed at altering or removing the predictive antecedents of the behavior or providing more constructive ways for the students to satisfy the function of their disruptive behaviors. Might there be something I'm overlooking? Do some of you have a clear since of a functional approach to intervention already?
ReplyDeleteI too am looking forward to learning more ways to a functional approach to intervention. As this blog continues, I love reading Cindy and Karen's posts. Cindy is providing us with a lot of real life examples of intervening with children not only in the classroom, but in life. There is something important to remember from this I believe. We are all a team. Educators don't need to "sell" their ideas or techniques that they have discovered, rather we need to all collaborate. The behavior we encounter with one student may never be duplicated for us, but it could be for another teacher. Cindy did a great job of doing this when she worked with "Jerry". Helping each other ultimately helps the student.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading chapter three, I learned that Function of Behavior is how a child continues to act when no consequences follow the action.
ReplyDeleteI do not yet have any experience with this in terms with teaching, but I do have a (almost) three year old daughter who definitely challenges me daily by not listening. When she constantly does one thing (like opening the fridge door), I will admit that I probably don't take the best approach to disciplining her. I get a bit stern with her, and I do spank her. Time outs are used, but Im not sure if they are very effective at this point in her life. I also take away toys or other prized possessions when she is acting out. There is very little else that I feel I can do to teach her the right ways to act. As I go through school, and begin my student-teaching, I am looking forward to learning how to give appropriate consequences when necessary.
As we learned in one of our last chapters, intervention to unfavorable behavior is a must when dealing with children of any age. Just like the boys throwing rocks at cars, there were several things that could have been done ahead of time to prevent such a thing from happening. Especially since it happened more than once. The children need to learn this lesson, but its the adults that already should have known better, and should have been more prepared for that particular situation. Just like any other situation that will happen in a classroom, I believe it is the teacher's responsibility to do everything they can to correct the unfavorable behavior so it doesn't happen again. I think the younger a child is when they learn these lessons, the better off they will be for the future. Patience and dedication can show when dealing with these situations. Good luck to you all! :)
I think prevention is the key to a functional approach. I know that prevention cannot always work and intervention is needed. Educators share all the time. Educators are going to give their advice and things that work all the time. Not all techniques work for every situation.
ReplyDeleteFunction of behavior is the reason a behavior is occurring and continues to occur. To determine the function of behavior you must look at the situation in which it occurs and the behaviors/available consequences that allow it to continue.
ReplyDeleteWhile reading this chapter my thoughts kept going to a child I have worked with for many years in a summer camp. The first year I worked with this child, he seemed to get angry very easily when playing with other children and through the years it has escalated. He is very competitive and gets upset easily when playing any games. He does not lose. When this occurred we would remove him from the situation and sit him on the side to calm down. Now when problems occur, the child argues and refuses to do anything. We have all determine that the best way to handle any situation with this child is to talk to him like a friend. He does not have the respect for authority that most other children seem to have. Treating him like an equal and talking to him like an adult is the one thing that consistently works.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSorry about all of the spelling mistakes. I hit publish toooo quickly. Cindy
DeleteI agree Robin that prevention and abiding by a consistant classroom schedule is key to a functional approach. My simple picture schedule that has velcro attached pictures on a laminated file folder means the world to my Kindergarten students. They immediately tell me when I forget to change the enrichment class for the day, and they notice if I have a surprise change listed on their daily schedule. The picture schedule was most important to those children on the autism spectrum. They really need a consistant schedule and prior warning if the schedule is going to change. One prevention technique that works for me is singing classroom directions. This has worked for every group I have had since my second ( Year from Hell) group of children. When I feel stressed with the kids and really want to start raising my voice, I sing. You need to know that I have the worst singing voice that you have ever heard, but the kids don't seem to care. They will stop the unwanted activity they are doing and either stare or start singing with me. Here are examples of my made up songs.
ReplyDelete(To the tune of I Am Sleeping) I am sitting, I am sitting, In my seat, quietly. I am sitting quieting, I am sitting quietly ready for (direction, snack, lunch, math) ( repeat last line)
Put your name at the top of your paper, Put your name at the top of your paper. Put your name at the top, put your name at the top, put your name at the top of your paper.
If your names at the top of your paper ( raise your hand, touch the floor, etc.
The first year I used the preventive singing technique was my second year of teaching in a public school. My Principal still apologizes for overloading my class with 10 children who had an array of problems. I asked, no begged my Principal to come into my room to help me discover what was so different about this group of children conpared to my wonderful first Kindergarten class I had enjoyed the privious year. He called me into his office and said, "Cindy, you have a group of preschool minded children and I suspect several will soon be diagnoses and be on IEP's" . 8 children were on IEP's by the end of the year. I got to know my Principal very well that year. He and the Director of our school systems Special Education Department gave me many ideas that I still use as needed today. I started using different sounding bells to get their attention. The singing directions was my idea, and it wored great. I would cover the toys with sheets until it was time to use them. I asked a former music therapist who worked at our middle school to make me a CD that would help the children quiet down. The CD is now my classroom work music. The children still ask for their work music when working on assignments. The Principal taked with the janitoria staff and I was allowed to put masking tape on my floors ( since I was getting new carpets) to help the children transisiton better to floor activities. The tape had each child's name listed, so they knew right where to sit. If they could not sit quietly, they had to return to their table chair. My second year of teaching ended up being my most valuable year of learning. A big thanks to my co-works, Principal and Director of Special Education for helping me grown and still keep my job! A special thank you to my husband who helped me locate the quiet music from Mr. Duncan and listened those first few weeks as I was crying as he drove me to and from school.
My example of Function of Behavior comes from being a para and working with a student with ADHD. When this student is on his medication routinely he never has behavior issues. In fact he is a model student both academically and socially. His ability to function in the classroom is above standards for his age. The problem is always associated with the ability of his parents to afford his medication. His dosage is so inconsistent which creates lots of ups and downs. This child is not physically violent but would physically defend himself if provoked. He does the typical push or step on another persons foot in line but nothing that would be considered aggressive behavior. The typical behavior off the medication is consistent with ADHD behavior. He has trouble sitting still, listening skills diminish, and he becomes a class clown needing to get the class to laugh. He knows when he is getting out of control and doesn't like the feeling. Unfortunately, he was in a large class of identified behavior issues. I would say Cindy's 2nd year kindergarten class in 5th grade. So we know what the behaviors are, when they are going to happen, and a hypothesis about the function of the behavior. Now what to do about a situation that even the student can't seem to control. Fortunately, he has para support most of the day from 2 different paras. Since the student doesn't like the out of control feeling he gets to we find way to help him get through the rough parts of the day. He has different stimulus such as the ball to squeeze as mentioned above, he has standing time (but can't stand in front of someone else), and he can ask for assistance from the para. There are times when he loses control and verbally attacks another student or adult. He isn't really a child that yells but he will cuss. Being aware that he is out of medication helps with being proactive because you know you will have to spend extra time helping him get through it. Most days it is just a matter of sitting with him at the back table and walking him through instruction. He can, and wants, to find the answers himself. I can't imagine having to sit in a class all quiet with the all but one row of lights off sitting through a math lecture in 5th grade. Much less when you just want to jump out of your skin. Talking to him like he is and adult and expressing that you are there to help him get through has really worked. Then there are times you just have to lay down the law and say, "that isn't appropriate and it has to stop." He knows if a bad word slips out he has to go to the office and he doesn't even argue about it he just goes. Our district make students with office referrals apologize to the teacher or para that made the referral before they can reenter the class. (I think this is a good policy because it makes the child verbalize the behavior and hold them accountable in the future.) He is always sincerely remorseful and apologetic. He is a great kid that needs proactive behavior management. This can be very difficult in the course of a day with 20 other students. However, if we are striving to become "impact" teachers and cultivate our dispositions we should be able to learn how to balance the different aspects of the classroom. I think it is kind of like learning to drive. The other day we were in town and stopped at Braums. When we were leaving she noticed in the car next to us a gentleman was taking off eating an ice cream cone. She looked at me and said how in the world can you drive and eat ice cream? (like she had never seen it before..lol) She goes on to say how she can barely take one had off the wheel without sharply going into the other lane. Eventually we learn how to balance all the controls of the car and drive with one hand. One day we too will learn how to manage all the controls of our classrooms.
ReplyDeleteI also want to say thank you to Cindy for the wonderful examples you have given us. No doubt I will be adding your tools to my own use. Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us!
ReplyDeleteThank you Dena and Hannah. As you can tell, I love to talk (write). I am getting ready for my first Student Teacher next year, and hope to help get him or her ready for their first teaching experience. I recently discovered that my School District had a 47% turn over of all teachers during a two year time span. WOW! That was eye opening! I thought back to the 5 other new to the Elementary School teachers that came in with me as teachers six years ago. Two of the six were fired their first year, due to not being able to control their classes. One left after her second year and another one was fired after her second year. That left two of now six years later. I also recently experienced one of my co-workers being fired. I wish I had known that she was having trouble with behavior and tests scores, becasue I could have helped her. I told my Principal to please tell the two new Kindergarten Teachers that I will be working with to please let me know if they need my help in these two areas. New teachers are afraid to talk to co-workers about their classroom troubles because they do not want to be seen as weak, but if you need help you need help! I have many times said that I was glad that my second year was not my first year, or I might not still be teaching. But looking back, I think I would still be teaching, due to the support my co-workers and administrative staff showed me. We are using an old fashion mentoring system that is clearly now working. I don't see how, with budget cuts we could afford the preferred coaching mentoring program. I will just try harder to help those survive that are new to our system.
ReplyDeleteMentoring System that is NOT working!
ReplyDeleteFunction of behavior is why the behavior occurs and what is reinforcing the behavior. I also, like Dena, see this working as a Para-educator. I see it a great deal when there is sub or student teachers, I don't think that the classwork that is done in college can every prepare you to face the Oppositional defiant child or the child who like was talked about above that has ADHD and is off their medication. When new people come into the situation they can aggravate this type of child because of how they handle the classroom discipline, such as a couple years ago I had a student teacher who thought that if he was silent long enough when the kids started misbehaving that they would eventually calm down and he could start teaching again. This only reenforced the bad behavior because the students that I had in his class knew that he wouldn't take a active role in discipline and therefor they could do whatever they wanted,including starting dance parties or breaking into their own little groups. Finally the classroom teacher had to step in to fix the problem. I also agree with Cindy that new teachers often won't ask for help because somehow it makes them feel incompetent and I hope that when I finally get my own classroom that I make connections with a veteran teacher so that I can ask for help because that type of knowledge is so valuable and shouldn't be seen as a failure when you seek it out as a knew teacher. Function of behavior happens even in adults if you feel ridiculed when you ask for help you won't ask again.
ReplyDeleteBehaviors occur for a reason. When a behavior is performed it is because a certain outcome is expected. Behaviors are not always conscious decisions though so once patterns are established the reason for the behavior can be more easily ascertained. Reinforcement of behavior is a predictor to future behaviors based on the outcome being desirable and satisfying or not. Instead of focusing on behavior management to try to eliminate undesirable behavior, we should focus on the trigger of the behavior. There was a boy that I used to work with who was autistic and completely non-verbal but we had a good communication system in place based on icons depicting activities throughout the day to include both school work and leisure activities. Since going to the restroom was part of our school work (he was diapered but had been capable of exhibiting proper toileting skills) he completely despised putting on the restroom icon and would become physically violent, pushing me, pulling my hair and twisting my clothes. Since I knew putting the icon on and actually getting him to go to the restroom would elicit this behavior I decided to perform two tasks at once, somewhat as a surprise attack, if you will. One duty was to take office mail out to the mailbox, which he enjoyed. When finished with the mail and he removed the icon for that task I placed the icon on his card and since we were already in the office, where his private restroom was, he willingly went to the restroom. This worked for a while until he associated getting the mail with going to the restroom and he began to refuse to do that task. After some experimenting with various routines, I began to realize that actually going to the restroom was not what bothered him; it was the hand washing afterward that he disliked. When washing hands before lunch or brushing teeth after lunch he used a different sink where there was a mirror and he loved to see himself. So finally, I had figured out the source of the behavior problem. As long as he was able to wash hands in the lounge sink instead of the private restroom sink he was more than happy to go to the restroom. I know this is a long story and because the student was completely non-verbal, it was quite a task to find the source of the undesirable behavior but once the source was eliminated, the negative behavior was gone. I was able to identify the behavior, assess the behavior, look for patterns and triggers, experiment with solutions and finally overcome the undesirable behavior.
ReplyDeleteFunction of Behavior includes the causes or situation of a particular behavior (antecedent), the behavior itself, and the results of the behavior (consequences).
ReplyDeleteI had a student, Nick, for four years. He was very negative toward school and had difficulties in socializing with others. He often acted the "victim" in situations so as to get some attention. It took about a year and a half to really get through to him. I found that spending time with him after school (his mom and dad picked him up from our small Lutheran parochial school everyday and they approved of him getting some extra teacher time) sometimes for tutoring and sometimes to visit. The attention seeking was sometimes negative (so as to not have to do something) and sometimes positive but often in a victimized way. He would play a game with the others, get hit with the ball on purpose, and overact the "injury". He always had a story to tell after school, and I found that reminding him of our after-dismissal visit time when he tried to start story time during classtime was helpful. When giving regular verbal updates to his parents about his study struggles, I found that they often remarked how they hated this or that about school. I knew right away that they needed to not announce their hatred for math or science in his presence, and I kindly requested that they curtail their memories of past schooling horrors. By the third year, Nick could conduct himself fairly well when I took the time to explain the boundaries and once his ADHD medication got under control. He had his bouts with refusals to keep up on his studies and with laziness. But I had very specific steps to combat failure to complete school responsibilities, so no discipline measure was arbitrary. Unfortunately, his reputation of the first five years at our school was so negative that many students did not interact well with him. However, they can to appreciate the things he could do, and many parents remarked about his growth.
My example involves a boy, I will call Cody. I was a para in his early childhood preschool classroom last year. Cody is a very active little farm boy, with a very big imagination and he likes to tell stories that often get him in trouble. Cody is on an IEP for speech and behavior among a few other things. I did not know Cody before he entered the preschool, however, I did go to school with some of his family. His aunts and uncle that I knew had similar problems in school as to what Cody was having.
ReplyDeleteThe other para in the preschool and I would rotate duties, I would do bathroom for a week while she did circle and music time. Then we would switch the next week. It appeared to me that Cody was removed from circle/music almost everyday that the other para was doing it. When we discussed it she explained that she couldn't keep him quiet or sitting when he was supposed to be and then when it was time for singing and dancing he would sit and not participate. She said he was distracting the other kids and some of them were starting to mimic his behaviors so she would just send him to time out. I suggested that we change our schedule around the next day and I would take Cody out of the room for that time and work with him one on one.
The problem with this was the only place we had to work in at the time was the gym. Not a great location for circle time because if you take a preschooler to the gym all they want to do is play. However, Cody and I implemented physical activities into our own circle time in the gym. We would race to one end of the gym and do the weather. Then race to the other end and do calendar activities. He did great! Cody was able to do all of circle time: calendar, weather, counting, alphabet, singing, dancing.
Then knowing that Cody could do circle, we had to find ways to get him to do it in the classroom. We tried several things like: wiggle seats, sitting on exercise balls, spinning seats, small trampoline, and wall pushes. All of these things greatly improved Cody's ability to participate and remain attentive during circle time.