1. Challenging Behaviors:
Strategies to Make Your Life Easier
Manhattan Family Support Fair
December 14, 2017

2. Before you get started with any intervention…..:

3. Ask yourself some questions:
Why does this behavior need to change?
Who benefits when
the behavior changes?

4. You are on a behavior plan too! 2. Acknowledge:
There are expectations for your behavior as well!

5. 3. Know yourself…. Especially your kryptonite!
Implementing a behavior plan requires consistency, attention to detail, and clear and logical thinking.
What might prevent you from being fully present and on your game?

6. 4. Practice managing your emotions.
Who is in control of your emotions?

7. 5. Remember it’s not personal!
Q-tip
Quit
taking it
personally!
People engage in behavior because it meets a need

8. 6. Prepare the environment.
Tell the people in the environment what they should expect
Organize and rearrange the physical environment
where warranted

9. 7. Share your plans with others.
Get the support of others who can:
Hold you accountable
Offer feedback
Pat you on the back
Fill in during your kryptonite
moments

10. 8. Expect it to get worse before it gets better.

11. Now for the intervention...
What should you do when…?

12. Your child is “being good”
Be on the lookout for and recognize every incident of good behavior
Use Reinforcement - give rewards and praise as soon as the behavior occurs
Use tangible rewards for behaviors that required lots of effort
Use items that your child really likes

13. Types of rewards Edibles (candy, raisins, soda, juice, etc.)
Social (praise, hugs, high-fives, etc.)
Sensory (bubbles, get a massage,
sitting in a rocking chair, etc.)
Natural (stay up late, spend time with a friend, shooting hoops, etc.)
Tangibles (stickers, pencils, trading cards, etc.)
Generalized reinforcers (items that can be exchanged later, e.g. tokens, money)

14. Your child is not “being good”
Behaviors occur for four main reasons
Attention
**Attention could be to get an item or to get you to respond in some way
Escape
Self-stimulation
Pain/distress reduction

15. Behavior is communication
Remember….
Behavior is communication
What your child does sends a message.
Are you listening?

16. Your child is seeking attention
Remember to give lots of attention when the child is appropriate
Do not respond to the behavior
Use Planned Ignoring
Identify and teach a new means of asking for attention

17. Your child is seeking attention
…. but the behavior presents a danger to the child or others
Gently Stop the Behavior

18. Your child is trying to escape
Lessen demands
Help the child with the task
Offer choices
Never let the child escape or avoid a demand that you have placed
Teach appropriate ways to ask for something to go away

19. Your child is self-stimming
Self-stimulation
Movements or activities of the body that produce ‘pleasurable’ feelings that
make the behavior
more likely to occur

20. Your child is self-stimming
Provide an enriched environment
If appropriate allow child to engage in self- stimming behaviors as rewards for good behavior or completing tasks
If self-stimming is dangerous prevent it from occurring
Teach child to enjoy more appropriate behavior

21. Your child is avoiding some internal distress (pain)
The behavior is reducing or removing something that the child
does not like/want

22. Your child is avoiding internal distress
If child is in pain or you are not sure consult a doctor
If child exhibits a new behavior rule out a medical cause
If there is an ongoing behavior whose function remains unknown rule out a medical cause

23. In conclusion: Before starting an intervention make sure you are ready
Observe to discover the function (cause of the behavior)
Your intervention should address the cause of the behavior
Implement
Evaluate - how is it going?

24. QUESTIONS or COMMENTS?

25. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION!!!