1. Promoting Social Emotional Competence
Promoting Children’s Success: An Introduction to the Pyramid Model and Challenging Behavior
Adapted for Kindergarten-Grade 1 from the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning
by Genetta Gross, Margret Thorstenson, Melissa Binkley & Elizabeth Vorhaus

2. Over the next few months, we will be going on a “treasure hunt” – not for gold, but for good behaviors, socially confident children, well-managed classrooms, and happier teachers and staff.
There will be some “booby traps” and “pit falls” along the way – keep in mind that for every year a behavior has been in place, it takes approximately one month of consistent intervention to see major improvement (Laura A. Riffel, 2009). If a child has been engaging in a challenging behavior for five years, it could take at least 5 months before you will see significant improvement.
It’s our job to make sure you reach that treasure chest
We’ll be providing you with lots of helpful information and practical strategies during our training sessions
We’ll be also working with you, in your classrooms, to help you implement these strategies
We want you to succeed!

3. It’s a Teaching Pyramid!

4. TEACHER
“I HAVE COME TO A FRIGHTENING CONCLUSION. I AM THE DECISIVE ELEMENT IN THE CLASSROOM. IT IS MY PERSONAL APPROACH THAT CREATES THE CLIMATE. IT IS MY DAILY MOOD THAT MAKES THE WEATHER. AS A TEACHER, I POSSESS TREMENDOUS POWER TO MAKE A CHILD’S LIFE MISERABLE OR JOYOUS. I CAN BE A TOOL OF TORTURE OR AN INSTRUMENT OF INSPIRATION. I CAN HUMILIATE OR HUMOR, HURT OR HEAL. IN ALL SITUATIONS IT IS MY RESPONSE THAT DECIDES WHETHER A CRISIS WILL BE ESCALATED OR DE-ESCALATED AND A CHILD HUMANIZED OR DEHUMANIZED.” DR. HAIM GINOTT
Before you show this slide ask participants to think back to their school days and the classroom in which they felt safe, accepted, and valued; bring to mind those teachers who inspired them to put forth their best efforts. What about those teachers motivated them to attend and achieve.
Have participants list three words or traits that describe the teachers or their actions.
Now, ask participants to think of teachers, bosses or supervisors who made them feel unappreciated, resentful, fearful or discouraged. Have participants list three words or traits that describe those people or their actions.
Show the slide and discuss quote, ask participants how they feel about this quote. Does the quote hold true to their memories of their school or work experience that they just recalled?
Explain to the participants that this workshop will provide information that can assist in preventing and reducing challenging behaviors however implementing this model will require that teachers invest time and energy to build positive relationships and supportive environments however they will reap the benefits of spending less time correcting challenging behaviors.

5. Children need key social emotional skills to attain school success!
Remember…
Children need key social emotional skills
to attain school success!
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
Describe how several national reports (e.g., Eager to Learn, Neurons to Neighborhoods, A Good Beginning, the Kaufmann Report on Social-Emotional Development) have discussed the importance of social emotional development in children’s readiness for and success in school.
These publications have identified a number of social emotional skills that help children be successful as they transition into kindergarten
Read through the list of skills
Ask participants to explain how they know when a child doesn’t have a specific skill (e.g., for example, “What do children do when they can’t persist at a challenging task and they are faced with something that is hard for them?”).

6. When skills are absent…
When children do not have these skills, they often exhibit challenging behaviors
We must focus on TEACHING the skills!
Make the point that children often use challenging behavior when they don’t have more appropriate behaviors or skills to accomplish the same goal or to communicate the same message.
This means that our focus has to be on “teaching children new skills” rather then “trying to get them to stop using challenging behaviors.”
We need to teach children what to do rather than what not to do.

7. “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?”
Tom Herner (NASDE President ) Counterpoint 1998, p.2)
Make the point that children often use challenging behavior when they don’t have more appropriate behaviors or skills to accomplish the same goal or to communicate the same message. This means that our focus has to be on “teaching children new skills” rather then “trying to get them to stop using challenging behaviors.” We need to teach children what to do rather than what not to do

8. Defining Challenging Behavior
What it is…
Any repeated pattern of behavior that interferes with learning or activities
Behaviors that are not responsive to the use of developmentally appropriate guidance procedures.
What it looks like…
Prolonged tantrums,
Physical and verbal aggression
Disruptive vocal and motor behavior
Property destruction
Self-injury
Noncompliance
Withdrawal.
What we are referring to when we say "challenging behavior" is:
Any repeated pattern of behavior that interferes with learning or engagement in prosocial interactions with peers and adults.
Behaviors that are not responsive to the use of developmentally appropriate guidance procedures.
These behavior patterns can include:
Prolonged tantrums, physical and verbal aggression, disruptive vocal and motor behavior (e.g., screaming, stereotypy), property destruction, self-injury, noncompliance, and withdrawal.
This is just a brief introduction to challenging behavior. Later, we will talk much more about challenging behavior and how to respond to it in the classroom. Now, we want to talk about how challenging behavior makes you feel as a teacher and how it affects your relationship with the child and their family.

9. Activity: Are You a Vending Machine?
What behaviors push your buttons?
How do these behaviors make you feel?
How does this impact your relationship with a child and his/her family?
We all have “hot buttons” – those behaviors that just really get to us…. and we all have specific ways we respond when those buttons get pushed.
When a someone pushes our buttons, they get a certain response.
Using Handout “Are You A Vending Machine” ask participants to fill the top row in with their “hot buttons behaviors”
Ask for volunteers to name some of their “hot buttons” and list a few of your own. Write on chart paper.
Ask participants how they feel (internal response) and how they act (external response) when children (or adults) push these buttons. Write on chart paper.
Ask if their responses differ after someone has pushed their buttons 50 times.
Ask if their external responses differ from their internal responses. Write on chart paper.
Note that everyone’s buttons and responses are different.
Ask participants how these responses can influence their relationships with children, families, or coworkers.
When children continue to push your buttons, it’s because you are delivering the goods!
In other words, they are getting what they want from you.
In later sessions, we will talk about identifying what the child is getting, but for now, let’s look at how you can reframe your feelings and responses by understand why the behavior is occurring. This will help you to stop delivering the goods for negative behaviors and to start building positive relationships.
From PIES Workbook, Laura Riffel, 2009

10. Baby Blues
Jerry Scott & Rick Kirkman
Nov 2, 2013

11. Activity: Reframing Activity
In pairs or in small groups:
See Handout 1.3 (Reframing Activity)
Read the four examples listed and generate two to three other challenging behaviors and how you might reframe each one.
In reframing the challenging behaviors, do not come up with solutions but rather restate the behaviors to make them more manageable.
Be prepared to share your ideas with the large group.
Have participants take each of their “hot buttons,” re-read it, and consider how they can reframe the behavior to interact with the child to build a positive relationship with him or her. For example, one might consider: “If Delroy starts to whine when he canʼt get his shoes on or off, or his bookbag stored in his cubby, I will use these interactions as opportunities to teach him how to ask for assistance in a more
appropriate way.”
2. Use Reframing Activity
Review the four examples listed then have individuals list two to three of their own and restate the problems to make them more manageable. Do not generate solutions at this time.

12. Challenging Behaviors have a Purpose!
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.
When challenging behavior occurs in classrooms, it is important to remember that “Challenging Behaviors have a Purpose!”
Challenging behavior communicates a message
Challenging behavior is used when children lack social or communication skills
Challenging behavior continues over time because it works!
The solution to challenging behavior is to teach appropriate behaviors.

13. The Significance of the Problem
“Emotional well-being and social competence provide a strong foundation for emerging cognitive abilities, and together they are the bricks and mortar that comprise the foundation of human development.”
(National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2007)

14. Promote Children’s Success
Create an environment where EVERY child feels good about coming to school. (RELATIONSHIPS)
Design an environment that promotes child engagement. (ENVIRONMENT)
Focus on teaching children what To Do!
Teach expectations and routines.
Teach skills that children can use in place of challenging behaviors. (TEACHING SOCIAL SKILLS AND REPLACEMENT SKILLS)
Think back to the Pyramid Model. As we just talked about, there are a variety of things we can do to prevent challenging behaviors and to teach children appropriate behaviors. As adults, we must first focus on prevention before we focus on changing children’s inappropriate behaviors.
We must focus on:
Ensuring that the classroom is a place children want to be
Designing environments that promote engagement
Teaching children the skills they need to be successful

15. Nurturing and Responsive Relationships
Pyramid Model
The relationships we build with children, families, and colleagues are at the foundation of everything we do with children. We know about the importance of relationships in terms of children’s development and success in school. It is important to build these relationships with all children as a context for supporting their social emotional development and preventing challenging behavior. It will be easier to address challenging behavior if we already have a relationship with the child.
Supportive responsive relationships among adults and children is an essential component to promote healthy social and emotional development
Nurturing and Responsive Relationships

16. Building Relationships
Why is it important?
Helps each child feel accepted in the group
Assists children in learning to communicate and get along with others
Encourages feelings of empathy and mutual respect among children and adults
Provides a supportive environment in which children can learn and practice appropriate and acceptable behaviors as individuals and as a group
Go through the slide to review each of the reasons. Ask participants to add anything that they feel might be missing.

17. “Every child needs one person who is crazy about him
“Every child needs one person who is crazy about him.” Uri Bronfenbrenner
This is such an important quote for us to remember! It is important for every child to have someone who is crazy about him/her! We want to be the person in our child’s life who makes him/her feel loved and special. The person that he/she can always count on, just like the special person in our life that we just talked about

18. High Quality Supportive Environments
Pyramid Model
High Quality early childhood environments promote positive outcomes for all children
High Quality Supportive Environments
The next level of the Pyramid Models is High Quality Supportive Environments. Well designed environments support children’s appropriate behaviors and make it less likely that children will need to engage in challenging behavior. In addition, environments can be designed to help children learn about expectations and promote their engagement and interactions.

19. The Early Childhood Environment
Create meaningful and engaging learning centers
Relevant to children’s needs, interests, and lives
Highly engaging and interesting
Variety of materials in each center
Changed and rotated on a regular basis
Use visual cues to support schedules, routines, transitions, and classroom expectations
Go through the slide to review each of the criteria. Ask participants to add their requirements for a responsive environment to this list.

20. Visual Schedules and Cues
This is a moveable schedule – the teacher can remove pictures as they progress throughout the day and alter the schedule if changes are necessary
A first-then schedule shows the current activity and what will follow it. The teacher selects the cards and puts them on the Velcro strip. She can remove them and place new activities on it as the day progresses.

21. Targeted Social Emotional Supports
Pyramid Model
Systematic approaches to teaching social skills can have a preventative and remedial effect
Targeted Social Emotional Supports
1. Tell participants that we are now at the third level of the pyramid – social emotional teaching strategies, this level continues to build on the pyramid model by discussing the use of effective strategies, ideas, and resources to help “teach” children social emotional skills (friendship skills, emotional literacy, development of empathy, impulse control, and problem solving).

22. What do we mean by social emotional skills?
A sense of confidence and competence
Ability to develop good relationships with
peers and adults/make friends/get
along with others
Ability to persist at tasks
Ability to follow directions
Ability to identify, understand, and communicate own feelings/emotions
Ability to constructively manage strong emotions
Development of empathy
Ask participants why they think it is so important for us to “teach” children social emotional skills. Add to their comments by sharing that these are some of the skills that we know that children need in order to be more successful and to prevent challenging behavior—not only in early care and education settings, but also in future educational settings.
While we tend to be very thoughtful and intentional about teaching literacy, cognitive, and other skills, we need to be just as intentional about teaching social emotional skills.

23. Intensive Intervention
Pyramid Model
Assessment based intervention that results in individualized behavior support plans
Intensive Intervention
We are continuing to move up the pyramid, building on our base of nurturing relationships, supportive environments and intentional teaching of social skills.
Remember that while all children benefit from the bottom layers of the pyramid, this top layer applies to only about 5% of the early childhood population.
Note that the bottom layers are the “supports” part of the Pyramid Model – supporting positive behavior in all children.
The top level, “interventions” is implemented when all other levels of the Pyramid Model are in place. It is a very elaborate, thorough and effective process.
When supports and interventions are combined together, it creates an early childhood environment which increases positive behaviors in all children.

24. Intensive Individualized Interventions
Why is it important?
Helps each child feel accepted in the group
Assists children in learning to communicate and get along with others
Encourages feelings of empathy and mutual respect among children and adults
Provides a supportive environment in which children can learn and practice appropriate and acceptable behaviors as individuals and as a group
Review slide with participants

25. What topics will we cover?
Building Positive Teacher-Child Relationships
Purpose and Impact of Classroom Arrangement
Helping Children Understand Routines and Classroom Schedules
Helping Children Make Transitions between Activities  
Giving Directions and Reinforcement with Positive Feedback
Identifying the Importance of Teaching Social Skills
Developing Friendship Skills
Enhancing Emotional Literacy Skills
Teaching Children Alternatives to Anger and Impulse
Social Emotional Problem Solving Skills
Here are some topics that teacher might be introduced to in the next few months. Review the topics with participants and ask them if there is a topic that is of particular interest to them.

26. Team Tennessee Website:
Here’s where you can get in touch with us or send someone else to get in touch with us!
Here’s where you can download documents & look for new resources from us!

27. Informational Websites:

28. Activity: Action Planning
Over the next month take the time to access the materials on the CSEFEL and TACSEI websites and familiarize yourself with the materials for Teachers/Providers
Review the materials from today’s training
Tell participants that, after each session, they will be asked to complete an Action Plan for that month. The Action Plan will focus on the topic that will be introduced that month. It gives teachers an opportunity to focus on that topic and develop ways to implement it in the classroom.
This month, instead of a formal action plan, encourage participants to take some time to explore the CSEFEL and TACSEI websites. In particular, ask them to focus on the areas, and learn about the materials, for teachers/providers.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Teaching Pyramid Article

29. Questions?