1. “She did what!?”
Partnering with Families and Teachers to Increase Social and Emotional Competencies in Children
Becky Britton & Stephanie Therrien, Project LAUNCH

2. Agenda Overview of Pyramid Model What is challenging behavior?
The meaning of behavior
Building relationships
Teaching skills to children
How to deal with anger
Problem Solving
Preventing challenging behaviors
Powering it up with Families
Teacher planning and practice
Handout 3.B6

3. The Pyramid Model: Promoting Social and Emotional Competence and Addressing Challenging Behavior
Tertiary Intervention: Few Children
Secondary Prevention: Some Children
Universal Promotion: All Children
2 minutes 3 3

4. The Goal of the Pyramid is to Promote Children’s Success By:
Creating an environment where EVERY child feels good about coming to school.
Designing an environment that promotes child engagement.
Focusing on teaching children what TO DO!
Teach expectations and routines.
Teach skills that children can use in place of challenging behaviors.
The goal is to not only have strategies for dealing with behaviors but also to have strategies to prevent the behavior from happening in the first place and what new skills should we teach to take the place of the behavior that is not working for the child.

5. Key Social Emotional Skills Children Need as They Enter School
Confidence
Capacity to develop good relationships with peers and adults
Concentration and persistence on challenging tasks
Ability to effectively communicate emotions
Ability to listen to instructions and be attentive
Ability to solve social problems
What do children do when they don’t have each of these skills?

6. Challenging Behavior
What we are referring to when we say “challenging behavior” is:
Any repeated pattern of behavior that interferes with learning or engagement in pro-social interactions with peers and adults.
Behaviors that are not responsive to the use of developmentally appropriate guidance procedures.
Prolonged tantrums, physical and verbal aggression, disruptive vocal and motor behavior (e.g., screaming, stereotypy), property destruction, self-injury, noncompliance, and withdrawal.

7. Challenging Behavior Works
Children engage in challenging behavior because “it works” for them.
Challenging behavior results in the child gaining access to something or someone (i.e., obtain/request) or avoiding something or someone (i.e., escape/protest).

8. Some Basic Assumptions
Challenging behavior usually has a message: I am bored, I am sad, you hurt my feelings, I need some attention.
Children often use challenging behavior when they don’t have the social or communication skills they need to engage in more appropriate interactions.
Behavior that persists over time is usually working for the child.
We need to focus on teaching children what to do in place of the challenging behavior.

9. We Teach
“If a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to swim, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to multiply, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to drive, we teach. If a child doesn’t know how to behave, we…… ……teach? ……punish? Why can’t we finish the last sentence as automatically as we do the others?”
This sums it all up for me.
Tom Herner (NASDE President) Counterpoint 1998, p.2

10. Nurturing and Responsive Relationships
Why is it important?
The relationships that we build with children, families, and colleagues are at the foundation of everything we do. It is important to build these relationships early on rather than waiting until there is a problem.
Children learn and develop in the context of relationships that are responsive, consistent, and nurturing.
Take out inventory of practice.
Pull out p 2-3 and p 15-16

11. Building Relationships
Children with the most challenging behaviors especially need these relationships, and yet their behaviors often prevent them from benefiting from those relationships.
Adults’time and attention are very important to children, and we need to be sure that we are giving them that time and attention at times other than when they are engaging in challenging behavior.
Parents and other colleagues (such as mental health providers and therapists) are critical partners in building children’s social emotional competence. We should all work together to ensure children’s success and prevent challenging behavior.

12. Adult-Child Conversations
What are some things that this teacher does to build positive relationships with children?
Video 1.1
Starts on slide 21 of Module 1
Start with video
Read question before and after watching
What does this teacher do to build relationships with children?

13. Positive Adult-Child Interactions
Acknowledge child’s communication (verbal or non-verbal)
Greets children by their name
Engage in one-to-one interactions, at eye level
Use a pleasant, calm voice and simple language
Provide warm, responsive physical contact
Follow the child’s lead and interests during play
Listen to children and encourage them to listen to others
Acknowledge child’s accomplishments & efforts

14. Teach Me What to Do Instead
Friendship skills
Following rules, routines and directions
Identifying feelings in self and others
Controlling anger and impulse
Problem solving

15. Identifying Teachable Moments

16. Friendship Skills
Look at handout 2.3 You’ve got to have friends: identify some times when teachers can embed opps. Read setting the stage for friendship (the 5 areas teachers need to attend to five elements of the classroom. Then ask teachers to fill out matrix on handout 2.2 just one. Share with the group.

17. Following rules, routines and directions

18. Identifying feelings in self and others
Handout Touch upon: building an emotional vocabulary, teaching children to recognize feelings in others, teaching children what to do with a feeling. Read highlight.

19. Controlling anger and impulse
Handout 2.7 Tucker the turtle. Read highlights then helping children to control anger and impulse using the turtle technique, handling disappointment, and to recognize when children remain calm.

20. Problem Solving Video 2.19 Adult Modeling Modeling with Puppets
Preparing Peer Partners
Songs
Finger-plays
Partner projects
Affection Training
Incidental Teaching
Prompts
Priming
Encouragement
Use of Games
Use of Children’s Literature
Social Stories
Video 2.19

21. Prevent Challenging Behaviors
Social Stories
Cue Cards
First/Then Schedule

22. Preventing Challenging Behaviors

23. Powering it up with Families
This leads us to why we do all these things and how it relates to families

24. Power it Up!: Partnering with Families
Provide families with materials and information for teaching social emotional skills
Host events in the classroom where families can see and learn how to teach social emotional skills
Send “homework” assignments with child that help families guide the child
Partner with families to teach individual children targeted social emotional skills

25. Backpack Connection www.challengingbehavior.org
TACSEI show website:

26. Madison
Madison is in housekeeping, putting on high heels and a hat. Emily moves into the area and selects a purse from the dress-up box. Madison shouts “no” and bites Emily. A teacher comes over; she asks Madison to go to the thinking chair and takes Emily to the bathroom to look at the bite. After 4 minutes, Madison leaves the thinking chair and returns to housekeeping. She grabs the purse Emily had selected and continues to play. Emily leaves the bathroom with the teacher and then begins an art activity where the teacher is present.

27. Teacher Support Planning Sheet
Explain the sheet to staff we will use this in a bit

28. Tim
During center time, Tim will use verbal aggression (threats), Verbal aggression (threats), physical aggression (hit, push, kick, punch), and property destruction. This causes peers to give up toys, leave the area, or adults to intervene with negative attention to Tim.

29. Works Cited
"Building Adult Capabilities to Improve Child Outcomes." Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Frontiers of Innovation Project, n.d. Web. 17 Mar
"Family Materials.“ The WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies, The Center on the Social Emotional Foundations in Early Learning (CSEFEL), and The Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar
Lentini, R., Vaughn, B. J., & Fox, L. (2008). Creating Teaching Tools for Young Children with Challenging Behavior [CD-ROM]. (Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention, University of South Florida, Bruce B. Downs Tampa, FL 33612).
"Resources: Practical Strategies for Teachers/Caregivers." Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL). Office of Head Start and Child Care Bureau, n.d. Web. 17 Mar
Introduction: 5 minutes
Conversation video: 4 minutes
Problem solving: 3 minutes
Social Story: 2 minutes
Theory of change video: 5.5 minutes
Teacher support planning sheet: 15 minutes
Questions/Comments: 10 minutes
45 minutes
Relationships 15
Targeted teaching 15
Families 15