1. Off to a Great Start! Practical behavior management strategies
Presented by
Aaron Stabel, M.A., BCBA
BCI, LLC

2. Behavior = Communication
Smiles = “I want more”
Crying = “Help, this is hard!!”
“You’re stupid!” = “Show
me a big emotional reaction!”
Hitting = “I want rough and tumble play”

3. Misbehavin’ Kids Deficits Academic or cognitive
Lacks basic learning skills
Communication
Social deficits
Attention
Tolerance
Self-management
Problem solving
Excesses
Noncompliant/Defiant
Disruptive/Aggressive
Rule breaking
Estimated that 2% - 5% of students meet the definition of a behavior problem student – expect at least one problem behavior student in each class.
Research suggests that most students exhibiting chronic behavior problems suffer from “skill deficits,” such as learning disabilities, attention problems, social-communication disabilities, etc. Many (if not all) of these disabilities have links to neurobiological abnormalities.
The “Excesses” are obvious and easily get our attention, but the “Deficits” are not always easy to observe. Furthermore, we often fail to understand the link between the two.
© 2010 BCI, LLC

4. Writing Activity
A teacher is one who makes herself progressively unnecessary.
2. Treat the students the way you would want to be treated.
Select staff or half the audience can only write with their non-preferred hand, i.e. the “skill deficient” group. Consider “pre-planting a few whiners” in the “skill deficient” group, etc.
Ask everyone to correct and write the first sentence. Raise a hand when finished.
Praise the strong performers and criticize the slow and weak.
Relate performance to recess access, your positive acknowledgement, and other school-based privileges.
Ask the “skill deficient” participants how they would feel if this trend lasted from mid-September to mid-February.
3. She who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

5. The only strategy you need . . .
This video clip can be found on YouTube at the link provided on the slide.

6. “Past behavior predicts future behavior.”
Start promoting
school
successes!
Frustration and failure
Motivation and accomplishment

7. Different settings can produce different behaviors
Critical
Negative attention
Punishment
Unstructured
Never good enough
“You’re not doing it right!”
“What’s wrong with you!”
Compassionate
Positive attention
Supportive
Structure
Nice try!
“You’re doing great!”
“You’re a great kid!”
In which environment would you rather work and learn? Where would you flourish and perform best?
Who is responsible for designing your work environment? Who is responsible for designing the classroom environment?
How do we design a positive classroom environment?
© 2010 BCI, LLC

8. Where is the motivation?
Every educator has a choice. What kind of influence do you want to be in a student’s life? That influence depends on your behavior and how you manage yourself and the environment.
If you are the teacher on the right, children will want to leave the classroom. Very difficult to teach students who are always trying to escape your presence.
If you are the teacher on the left, children will want to be around you. You will be able to teach them, and set them up for success.
The teacher on the left is not just fun and happy, he utilizes a variety of evidence-based instructional strategies to effectively teach. Overall, these strategies are referred to as “Positive Behavior Supports.”
Another important point about the mean teacher on the right, “you cannot punish good behavior into a student, only positive reinforcement can do that.”
Where is the motivation?

9. Growing basic learning skills
Sitting quietly
Waiting
Listening
Following directions
Hands to self

10. Positive Reinforcement
Observe and recognize good behaviors.
Immediately reinforce good behaviors (0-3 seconds).
Consistency and frequency are very important.

11. Make yourself positively reinforcing!!!!
Know what the child likes!
Encourage, support, reinforce
Speak the same language
Incorporate the above into important learning lessons
How do we make friends and build positive relationships?
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer.”
Empathic questions = asking people about their interests
Help make friends = Many of “our” students are terrible at making friends, worse at keeping them, but they really want friends. Show them you can support their social goals by teaching them how to be a good friend. Teaching, re-teaching, and repetitive practice will be essential.
Cheerlead = Reinforce effort, trying, and success, build enthusiasm and self-esteem
Relevant curriculum = Maybe most importantly, help the curriculum speak to the student. How does it relate to their lives, their interests, their world? Incorporating student interests into the curriculum will increase attention and motivation.
Possible skit: a) Ask a participant to make friends with someone completely dressed in Raiders garb; they have to get them to talk about themselves and follow instructions (i.e., line up for football recess); b) Ask participant to make friends with a nonverbal person who only likes a favorite stuffed animal; use to get the person to smile, embed in academic activity, use to motivate compliance, use to make a friend.
© 2010 BCI, LLC

12. How would we help this little mouse-student to better pay attention to the lesson, when all he can think about is cheese?
Would the “Stop It!” strategy work in this case?
© 2010 BCI, LLC

13. Incorporating student interest into a lesson is a cornerstone to positive support.
Making the curriculum relevant to the student will go along way in building rapport, getting the student interested in learning, and setting the student up for academic success.
© 2010 BCI, LLC

14. Choosing Reinforcers for your Students
Who determines if something is reinforcing?
He picks it!

15. How well do you know your student?
Small group activity:
Identify motivators for a specific child or the class
Identify several ways to incorporate these motivators into a class activity.

16. Build An Educational Amusement Park
Incorporate student interests
Motivational Systems
Focus on the positive
Shape and Fade
Publicly post classroom rules – a) 3 to 5 rules, b) stay behavioral and specific, c) stay positive when possible, d) all rules have consequences (both positive and negative), e) include a compliance rule.
No down time allowed.
Seat problem students near the teacher (so that supervision is high, and reinforcement delivery is easily accessible).
Do not allow problem students to sit near each other.
Get up and move – do not spend too much time behind your desk.
The Amusement Park: a) selecting prizes, b) developing games and rides, c) reward delivery
Step right in to the GREATEST CLASSROOM on Earth!!! The games and rides are not free. You will need to earn TICKETS. You can’t WIN if you don’t PLAY!!!!

17. Randomize Reinforcement Systems
Keep it fun and fresh
Wheel of Fortune
Pick-a-card
Secret Incentive
Tim Roger’s ticket system
Mystery motivator
Good behavior game
Critters
Win a spin for participating, finishing your work on time, or simply paying attention!!

18. Increased participation = Decreased disruption
Priming
Generative learning
Randomized participation
Positive reinforcement: Tokens, praise, high fives
Make learning FUN!!!!!

19. Priming social-emotional success
Before going out to recess Before transitions Before competitive activities Before difficult tasks Before, before, before . . .

20. Predicting the future & Forecasting
Calmly explain what is about to happen
Preview potential challenges
List choices (+ and -)
Describe outcomes (+ and -)
(How would you implement with ELL?)
Taking your own child out of a birthday party early, etc.

21. How you give directions matters

22. Effective Command Strategies: How you give directions matters
Keep it brief
One task or objective at a time
Matter-of-fact, business like tone
Directives not questions
Avoid long explanations or justifications
Give them time to comply (5 – 15 seconds)
Recognize and reinforce compliance!

23. Use Visual Cues to Promote Good Behavior
Pre-teach
“Tell, Show, Do”
Cheerlead
Practice
Not all students learn effectively from verbal instruction. Use visual supports to design a predictable environment (see photos and discuss).
Imagine you are in a foreign country. You don’t speak the language, you can’t read the language (i.e., you have a learning disability in that country). How essential are the visual supports for you in that setting? They might save your life, keep you out of jail, etc.

24. How to teach . . . Direct instruction
“Tell, Show, Do” Cheerlead any progress Practice, practice, practice, practice

25. Use Your Visual Schedules
Tips
Reference every transition
What did we just do?
What are we doing next?
Redirect off-task or disruptive students to schedule
Review every morning
Discuss sequence, changes in routine, student choices, etc.
Can also be referenced with specific students to help calm them down, get them motivated, etc.

26. Teach and Re-Teach the Rules

27. Where do I line up? Must be actively taught to be effective
Use behavior system to support success

28. Where do I stand when I want to talk to the teacher?
Must be actively taught to be effective
Use behavior system to support success

29. Organized space = Organized behavior
Consistency is crucial, and at some level the organization of the physical environment speaks directly to consistency levels in a classroom.

30. Is this off limits?

31. How loud is too loud? Must be actively taught to be effective
Use behavior system to support success

32. Consistency is Essential

33. Playing the Numbers
“You mean I’ll get a reaction 1 out of 4 times if I keep up the screaming?!”
Them ain’t bad odds!
CONSISTENCY IS CRUCIAL!!!

34. If there is turbulence . . .

35. Stop, Watch, and Take a Deep Breath
“Why are you acting
like this right now?”
Don’t immediately react. If the behavior has been persistent, then your reaction may actually be supporting the behavior.
Instead, take a deep breath and ask “why?”
Behavior happens for a reason. The student is communicating something. Our ability to translate the “meaning” or “communication” of the problem behavior will help us solve the problem.

36. Why is this child engaging in this behavior, in this setting, at this time? - i.e. What’s the function of this behavior?
“Good” AND “Bad” behavior is learned.
Everyone learns through interactions with their environments.
“Trying to get something I want”
“Trying to avoid something I don’t want”
Kids are not born “bad.” They have special strengths and challenges.
But, everyone’s behavior is motivated. We learn “good” and “bad” behavior through interacting with our environments.

37. Why is this kid screaming?
Let’s practice! Video of baby having a tantrum for attention.

38. Why is this kid screaming?
Video of child having a tantrum to get candy.

39. Behavior is Communication
“I will behave in order to access something I want.”
Attention
Preferred items
Preferred activities
Preferred sensory
“I will behave in order to avoid or escape something I don’t like.”
Attention
Non-preferred items/activities
Stress, anxiety
Sensory aversion
Briefly discuss common motivators of problem behaviors.

40. Pain Control
How a child negotiates: Increase tantrum volume to change your behavior
Child learns: Tantrum works to get what I want or avoid what I don’t want
You learn: Best way to stop the screaming = Give the child what he wants
Tantrum 12
Discuss how problem behaviors (i.e., tantrum, noncompliance, aggression, etc.) are actually very effective in changing staff behaviors.
“Don’t make me throw a shoe!”

41. Examples of Misbehaviors and Functions
A child running away from you may actually want you to chase them (Attention)
Q. What is a child NOT doing when they constantly argue and negotiate after you told them to do something? A. The task. (Avoidance)
Hitting can mean, “Leave me alone!” (Escape), BUT also “Don’t leave me alone!” (Attention)
A few real life examples.

42. Replacement Behaviors
Screaming,
Grabbing,
Physical aggression
To access something:
Food
Computer
Playground
Toys
Etc.
Appropriate request
Pointing
Asking “when can
I have . . .?”
Examples

43. Replacement Behaviors
Using profanity,
tipping chairs,
spitting on you
To get your attention:
Stand close to me
1:1 time
Emotional reaction
More talking please
Raising a hand
Smiling and waving
Following directions
Examples

44. Replacement Behaviors
Ignoring you,
Head down,
Emotional escalation
To avoid work:
Stop teaching me
Walk away
Reduce demands
Reduce workload
Let me outta here
No thank you
Ask for help
Take some space
Examples

45. Once again . . . Direct instruction
“Tell, Show, Do” Cheerlead any progress Practice, practice, practice, practice

46. Building a history of school success: Finding opportunities to practice
Academic practice
Rules practice
Making a friend practice
Lining up practice
Sitting still practice
Waiting your turn practice

47. Don’t “feed” the problem behavior!
Strategies to “starve” problem behaviors
Planned ignoring
Putting items out of reach
Distraction and redirection
Strategic instructional support
Home-based supports
Risks and Problems
Extinction bursts
Sometimes difficult to implement
So Plan Ahead!
Time In
Earning R+
Will probably revise
Time Out
Not Earning R+

48. Thank you very much for your attention
Aaron Stabel, M.A., BCBA BCI, LLC