Strategies for Challenging Behaviour - Positive Behaviour Support

The number one referral to the administration is typically oppositional or defiant behaviour.  Adults express views that this generation of children is a lot more difficult than earlier generations.  Some teachers believe that it is not their job to teach both behavioural and academic outcomes.  However research shows that a child's behaviour directly affects their academic outcomes.  So if we want to see a positive result for a child who is exhibiting challenging behaviour the first thing that we have to discuss is the factors behind the behaviours. No matter how much we push the academic side without addressing the behavior we will not achieve the results we want until we pursue a holistic outlook. 
Teachers need to carry out a number of tasks and some of those tasks feel insurmountable.  Not only are teachers required to make sure their students are achieving their academic outcomes but we also want students to develop skills so they can make good, healthy responsible decisions and become contributing members of society.  If behaviour management in our classrooms is a struggle than we are not achieving either of these outcomes.    Tuttle and Otten (2011) note that good teachers have both the skills to teach social and behavioural strategies as well as academic outcomes as they have similar learning principles and interventions. 
So what do we do??  It is time to examine our approach to the problem.  Schools punish and suspend but do these strategies really work.  For some maybe, but they still will not teach self-responsibility and control.  Punitive methods may actually create learning counter productive to the goals we want to meet.  Letting go of the "old ways of doing things" and focusing on problem solving and proactive approaches is the key. 
Positive Behaviour Support or PBS is a major initiative developed over the past decade to shift the focus from reactive behaviour management to proactive support.  It is not about providing rewards and consequences but it is a systemic, structured approach to the function of a child's behaviour in relation to many factors - family, environment, health, school, social interaction, etc... It is a flexible approach that embraces scientific methods and interventions that are research based. 
Data gathering plays a critical role in this model.  Through a variety of collection methods a hypothesis and intervention is developed surrounding the function of the child's behaviour.  The premise of PBS focuses on learning what the child is trying to communicate through their behaviour and what needs they are trying to meet.  The intervention is then structured toward helping the child meet the same needs but in a more appropriate way.  Keeping in mind that behaviour will change over time and environment, the intervention is never fixed or static.  It is dynamic and flexible. 

Let's Talk Strategies

The first thing that teachers need to understand about classroom management is that we set the classroom up in a way that promotes respect, safety and learning.   Organization, setting routines and procedures, discussing expectations and guidelines is a definite must when beginning a new class or year.  Strategies for classroom organization and management can be divided into three levels or tiers. 

Tier 1:  Refers to those strategies that apply at a whole school level.   All stakeholders need to be dedicated to the creation of this positive and proactive approach.  The Positive Behaviour Support Model states that the following framework needs to be applied to promote safe and respectful environment:

􀂉 Universal Expectations

􀂉 Office Referral Procedures

􀂉 School-Wide Acknowledgement System

􀂉 School-Wide Social Skills Instruction

􀂉 Active Supervision

􀂉 Enforcement of Expectations

􀂉 Data-Based Decision Making

􀂉 Safe & Welcoming Culture

Strategies that may be helpful at this stage include: 

1.       Lesson Pacing:  Rate of instructional delivery and time taken by students to complete a task – Colvin (2009) states that slow instruction and pacing tends to create more off task and disruptive behaviour and good pacing correlates with increased on task behaviour and less disruptive behaviour. 

2.      Prompting:  Hints, cues or gestures prior to engaging the student in the task.

3.      Behavioural Momentum:  Taken from the law of physics – an object in motion will stay in motion until a force is applied to change the state.  If the child is engaged and cooperative in one task, they will typically remain cooperative for the next task.

4.      Pictures and organizational tools:  Visual schedules, transition cues, expectations, classroom guidelines, checklists, self-awareness lists.... Pictures and visuals are meant to increase the student’s comprehension of the required task.  The more students’ can understand and comprehend the less likely they may engage in inappropriate behaviour.  Have the student create their own visuals to support their own behaviour. 

5.      Effective feedback:  Feedback that indicates to the student the required behavioural responses.  Focus on what the student did right and how that behaviour results in positive outcomes. 

6.      Increase participation and movement.  Use techniques like games to increase the opportunities for children to respond appropriately. 

Tier 2:   These strategies are applied when children do not respond effectively to Tier 1 strategies.  Depending on the child, the teacher can immediately apply Tier 2 strategies. 

1.        Create situations and opportunities to practice the appropriate behaviour.   It is important for the teacher to establish a relationship with the student and enters into a supportive role rather than an adversarial role.  This is helpful for students experiencing anxiety and fear related difficulties. 

2.       Context modification:  Change the context that is likely to trigger the problem behaviour.  Have the student complete a modified task with similar outcomes and then try to return to the original context as the student becomes more comfortable with the task. 

3.       Fading:  Allowing the student to complete the task after the interventions or strategies have been found to be successful.  Moving children from dependent to independent is our ultimate goal. 

4.       Minimize errors:  Students who feel incompetent in completing a task may experience anxiety around that task because of the errors they may make.  Present clear explicit directions to the student so they understand the requirements of the task.  Separate work completion from work correction. 

5.       Precorrection or Proactive Intervention:  Determine the triggers that set off the problem behaviour and define the expectations using strategies that could be as simple as cueing or redirection, prompting or effective feedback.  Prepare your transitions as these can be troublesome times for a student with difficult behaviour.

6.       Stimulus control:    There is typically a predictable response to a stimulus as observed over time.  If the stimulus is removed or manipulated this may result in a decrease in the inappropriate behaviour. 

Tier 3 strategies are systematically implemented after a FBA has been completed and a behaviour support plan has been developed.  Some strategies may include:  Social skills training, video modelling, cognitive strategies, anger management, conflict resolution, restorative strategies, Parental involvement, wrap around approaches involving outside agencies.

The goal for Positive Behaviour Support is to encourage growth, self-control, self-awareness, independence, belonging, problem solving and decision making skills.  However as this is being accomplished students will make mistakes and will exhibit non-compliance as they are learning new ways to respond.

Colvin (2009) suggest using the following strategies when confronted with non-compliance and difficult behaviour. 

1.        Continue with the flow of the lesson:  The teacher should continue with instruction unless the student becomes unsafe or becomes severely disruptive.  The stopping of instruction when the student exhibits a particular behaviour will only reinforce that behaviour and it will typically continue. 

2.       Delay Responding or Planned Ignoring:  Address the behaviour but not while it is occurring.   

3.       Redirection Prompts:

4.       Rule Reinstatement:

The first two strategies are referred to as Extinction strategies.  The intention is to reduce the consequence or reinforcer of the inappropriate behaviour.  This reaction by an authoritive individual withholds the consequence which should lead to extinguishing the inappropriate behaviour. 

Assessing Non-Compliant Behavior

Non-compliant behaviour can be one of the most stressful issues that present to teachers today.  The constant disruption can interfere with the learning of not only the student with the difficulty but the peers around him/her.  Finding solutions is not an easy task and there is no magic bullet.  A systemic, documented approach is required when trying to determine the reasons a  student may be responding in the way they do.  If an assessment is not completed then the strategies have no basis and the intervention is likely to fail.  Some students may not be following directions because they do not have the appropriate skills to do so.  Other students may have the skills required to complete the task but avoid the task due to another explanation (they would rather do something else). 

Colvin (2009) has laid out a simple chart that defines specific groups of defiant students. 

PROBLEM BEHAVIOUR “Not following directions”	Assessment	Strategies
Group 1	Lack of skills necessary to complete the task	Focusing on teaching skills or adapt tasks
Group 2	Not attending or attending to something else	Ensure attention is secured before direction is given
Group 3	Students want to avoid the task	Ensure student is able to complete the required task – address motivational factors

As this chart points out there can be many factors that contribute to difficult or non-compliant behaviour.  In order to identify the function or reasons the student is behaving in a particular way , a functional assessment should be completed.  The functional behavioural assessment (FBA) gathers information on all the factors that may be contributing to a student’s behaviour.  The identification of these factors aide the team in implementing a comprehensive intervention plan that can help increase appropriate behaviour while decreasing the inappropriate.  Difficulties can then be effectively managed and disruption to learning kept to a minimum. 

The factors that are contributing to a student’s behaviour needed to be tested and manipulated in order to make them valid.  A student with a bad attitude or naughty cannot be tested and is not specific enough to provide adequate information to design an intervention plan. 

The FBA consists of four different components:

1.        The setting event:  Include earlier events or continuing events that set the stage for problem behaviour.

2.       Immediate triggers (antecedent to behaviour):  These events could occur just prior to the problem behaviour or concurrent with the problem behaviour. 

3.       Problem behaviour:  Identification of the problem behaviour within the setting. ( Can be rated as low level to extreme).   Described in observable terms.

4.       Effects or consequences of problem behaviour:  Assuming the problem behaviour serves a function or purpose, this is where the team will ask the question “What does the student gain or avoid from exhibiting this type of behaviour”.  The student may also receive positive reinforcement from their behaviour – gain a desirable affect, object, response...This behaviour will be reinforced to continue (The student steals something so he/she obtains the object for free or a student is speaking out in class gains the attention of the teacher)  Therefore positive reinforcement can also reinforce inappropriate behaviour.  Negative reinforcement is defined as something that is aversive or undesirable and is removed from the student.  For example... A student does not like math equations so acts out to avoid the math questions.  The student is sent away from the class but avoids the math equations.  She has avoided an aversive task which actually reinforces the behaviour to continue as she does not want to embarrass herself in the future because she does not feel competent in completing the task.

The student enters into this cycle and will continue to exhibit the difficult behaviour until another element is implemented to discourage the difficult behaviour from continuing.
 
To obtain adequate and sufficient data to summarize the underlying factors that contribute to the student’s behaviour, a number of methods can be utilized:  Direct observations, FBA interviews with all stakeholders, teachers, parents, and the student if appropriate. A review of school records is also useful in formulating an intervention.

Understanding Non-Compliant Behavior

Teachers are continually being asked to do more, more, more within their classrooms.  The lack of resources, funds and people are making it difficult for teachers to do their jobs.  Non-compliance has also become highly prevalent within the classroom and teachers have cited this problem as one of the greatest stressors and concerns they encounter.  Colvin(2009) states that non-compliant behaviour has been the overall highest ranking reason for sending students to the office(Pg.7). 

To define non-compliant behaviour certain conditions must be met.

1.   The student exhibits non-compliance if a person in authority gives a direction and it is not followed by the student.  The person in authority can mean anyone at the school including administrators, teachers, teacher assistants, substitute teacher and volunteers that come into the school.  As we all know some students are only non-compliant with certain people so school personnel must make sure they communicate to all students that they must follow directions and cooperate with any “authorized adult” (as long as the directions are reasonable in nature)  in the building regardless of position. 
2. Following either implicit or explicit directions given by the “person in authority”.  The teacher must understand that typically students who are exhibiting difficult behaviour respond more effectively to explicit direction as these directions cannot be misinterpreted. 
3. Directions must be given in a clear concise manner which may help the student understand the expectations.  The language needs to be age appropriate and specific which will also be helpful for the child to complete the required task.
4. The child must be capable of accomplishing the task that has been asked of them.  The student must have the skills required of him/her to complete to task.  As well the student must believe they are competent in beginning a task that may cause them anxiety.
5. The tone an instruction is delivered must also be taken into consideration.  The student may perceive the teacher as sarcastic, angry, or disrespectful. 
6. Ensure that when giving direction student attention is secured.  Disengage the student from what they are currently doing, and present the direction. 

There can be variations of non-compliant behaviour:  Latency, Task completion time, Substandard response, competing reinforcers.  Understanding non-compliance and the student’s response to direction allows the teacher to implement the appropriate strategies and interventions.

Non-compliance can therefore be defined as not completing an instruction or direction in a satisfactory manner.  (Satisfactory manner being defined as a standard set for an acceptable response.)

The following may help to determine whether a response is satisfactory or not:

1.  Set a standard based on performance of the majority of the class
2. Ensure the student has the ability to make the response at the level of the rest of the class.

Colvin G. (2009).  Managing Non-Compliance and Defiance in the Classroom. Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications.

Effects of the Behaviour Education Program

The Behaviour Education Program (BEP; Crone et al 2004) is a modified check in, check out program for students who may not respond to school wide behaviour plans. The groups of students who may benefit from this type of secondary intervention are those with:
a. poor peer relations
b. low academic outcomes
c. chaotic home environments

These type of students may require more practice in behavioural expectations as well as academic modificitions to ensure success.

The daily check in, check out program provides these students with positive adult interaction as well as targeting these students for other secondary interventions that may aid in decreasing future inappropriate behaviour.

The study was conducted in the following manner:

Students were selected for participation in the study if they (a) entered the BEP intervention after at least 2 months of school (to establish a baseline office discipline referral rate), (b) received the BEP intervention for at least 6 weeks, (c) had received at least two office discipline referrals, and (d) were nominated by instructional staff to receive additional behavior support. Students selected for the study also had to demonstrate problem behavior throughout the school day rather than during one academic period (i.e., math, language arts) or only during unstructured times (i.e., recess or lunch). Of the 17 students who received the BEP intervention during the school year, only 13 met the criteria to be included in the study, with parental permission being secured for 12 students. The 4 students who were excluded from the study were already receiving the support of the BEP at the beginning of the school year; thus, a baseline measure of the dependent
variable could not be established. Of the 12 students included in the study, 10 were boys and 2 were girls,with 2 from ethnic minority backgrounds. Eight of these 12 students qualified for free or reduced lunch. One of the 12 students in the study was receiving special education services for a learning disability in reading.
Students engaged in a range of problem behaviors, including talking out; making inappropriate comments; failing to complete work; and failing to keep hands, feet,
and objects to self (e.g., playing with another student’s hair, throwing paper). None of the students in the study engaged in severe problem behavior, such as physical aggression, property destruction, or self-injurious behavior.

Implementation of the Behaviour Program

Once parental and student permission was obtained for a student, the BEP was implemented. The BEP process involved the following five elements: First, students were required to “check in” with a paraprofessional before school.
The paraprofessional provided the student with a Daily Progress Report (DPR) form that was carried to class for feedback throughout the day. When students checked in, they were asked if they had their DPR from the day before signed by their parents and if they had their materials ready for the school day. They received praise and a lottery ticket for a weekly drawing for checking in. Also during check in, students were prompted to identify daily goals and given feedback to encourage success. For some of the younger students, the paraprofessional delivered the DPR to their classrooms.

Second, during natural transitions in the school day (i.e., after language arts, after math), teachers would provide students with feedback on their DPRs. Teachers provided feedback on student behavior at the end of each time period by rating either 0 (did not meet expectations), 1 (somewhat met expectations), or 2 (met expectations). The expectations for all students were the same as the schoolwide
expectations: (a) keep hands, feet, and objects to self; b) use kind words and actions; (c) follow directions; and (d) work in class. Teachers also provided immediate verbal praise for students who met behavioral expectations for that time period and corrective feedback if students did not meet the expectations.

Third, at the end of the school day, students took the DPR to the paraprofessional to check out. Student percentage of points for the day was calculated, and students received praise and rewards if they met their daily point goal. Rewards were randomly selected each day using a spinner system and included small pieces of candy, schoolwide tokens, or a bonus move on a sticker chart system. Daily point goals were developed during a meeting among the BEP coordinator, teacher, and student before the student was placed in the BEP. For all students in this study,
80% of the total points earned (i.e., 40 out of 50 total points) was their daily point goal. If students did not meet their daily goal, the paraprofessional would provide information on what to work on for the following school day.

Fourth, students then took their DPR home to be signed by a parent/guardian, and fifth, the Daily Progress Report was signed by a parent and returned the next morning. Student data on the BEP were summarized daily, and the schoolwide behavior support team met bimonthly to examine student progress on the intervention. Students were considered to be making progress on the BEP if they were receiving 80% or more of their possible points each day.

OUTCOMES

Although more research is needed to further document the effectiveness of the BEP, the data from this study as well from previous research encourage the addition of this type of intervention to a school’s system of behavior support.
The BEP can be modified by incorporating functional assessment procedures, and this modification may lead to the BEP being effective with more students (Crone et al.,
2004). For example, for students who are motivated by peer attention, the BEP can be modified to allow students to earn reinforcers to share with their peers (e.g., free gym time, extra recess for the class). For students who are engaging in problem behavior to escape from math that is too difficult, the BEP could be combined with academic supports to improve the student’s math and organization skills. To strengthen the research base for the BEP, future studies should investigate the effectiveness of including functional assessment procedures for students who are not
responding to the basic BEP intervention.

Hawken, L.,Macloed,S.,& Rawlings, L(2007); Effects of the Behavior Education Program
(BEP) on Office Discipline Referrals of Elementary School Students; Journal of Positive Behaviour Interventions, 9(2), 94-101

The ASD Nest Program

Lord and McGee (2001) believe that education is still the primary form of treatment for children with ASD, parents and teachers. The classroom has the potential to impact the lives of children with ASD. The ASD Nest Program was developed to help higher functioning ASD children learn how to socially and academically function in school and their community.
The idea of the "nest" provides the children with supportive structure in a nurturing environment. The Nest Program typically starts in kindergarten and moves the children throuhg the grade levels. The Nest Program utilizes the required support systems for the child to function successfully. Teams are set up within the classroom to meet the complex needs of the child. Strategies are then employed by the therapists and teachers to modify the enviroment so the child can excel within the classroom. The strategies are research based and consist of positive behaviour support and social stories, relationship based strategies and other social cognitive strategies.
Basic instructional supports include:
* Daily class schedule
* Visual aids
* Choice making opportunities
* Role playing
* Classroom environmental modifications
* "Catch them being good"

The Key Elements of the Program:

1. Class Size:
2. Co-teaching model:
3. Targeted Goal Areas:
4. Social Developmental Curriculum:
5. Home School Connection:
6. Specialized preservice training:
7. Teaming:
8. Ongoing site support:
9. Additional Learning Opportunities: Peer Supports

Organization of the Classroom Environment: (Children with ASD have difficulty with sensory processing and can become overloaded. Ensure classroom is not overwhelming)

* Display only those materials that are being used in a lesson or that are needed for ongoing reference. Put them out of sight when they are no longer useful.

* Use drop cloths to cover shelves holding play items that may be distracting when they are not being used.

* Reserve on particular bulletin board or area of the room to display children's work and only display items that are relevant to current learning.

* Be mindful of the child's visual point of view. Children should be able to easily view relevant material.

* Clearly mark areas used for group and individual work, including learning centers.

* Set a quiet area with a bean bag chair and tools for self calming such as headphones for listening and manipulatives.

* Avoid the clutter that may be created by unnecessary furniture and materials or poorly organized materials.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTION

1. Experience Sharing: Promote engagement and interaction: Build a "we-fort" Assign roles that together are needed to complete the structure, thereby encouraging communication. Creating a shared memory.

2. Language Comprehension: Become aware of pragmatic language weaknesses as well as the use of educator language. "Person of the Week" (Winner, 2005). Tell the children to find out as much as they can about a peer. Collect information througout the week and put it on a tree or friendship file. Encourage questioning techniques and information gathering.

3. Problem Solving: Promote flexibility in problem solving both in the academic and social domains.

4. Social Cognition or Social Thinking: Encourage social thinking through the use of vocabulary and model situations that require us to think about others. "Social Detective Agency" Students study photograph, illustrations from familiar literature and movie clips collecting clues to make "smart guesses" as to what the character may be thinking, feeling and planning. Have studens look at non verbal clues in order to assess a situation.

5. Flexibility/Self Regulation: Model flexible thinking and encourage the use of flexible vocabulary. "Identify Your Team of Unthinkables" Help the children identify their unthinkables, the characters that get in the way of being good social thinkers. The Unthinkables are enemies of Superflex, or Rockbrain that we can defeat if we train ourselves to recognize when we are being inflexible.

6. Incorporating Strengths and Preferred Interests: Capitalize on preferred interests to help with the student's thinking.

As the authors of this article state there can be many barriers to implementing a best practice program. Funding, inappropriate staff, and a lack of dedicaiton or motivation to find news ways to help children with ASD. The Nest Program tiries to address these issues as a team and is supportive of everyone involved. Maybe worth looking at!!

Bleiweiss, J., Brennan, S., Cohen, S., Koenig, K., & Siegel, D.,(2009); A model for inclusive public education for students with autism spectrum disorders. The ASD Nest Program. Teaching Exceptional Children, 6-13

Auditory Prompting Systems to Reduce Problem Behaviour

Results of this study confirm self-operated auditory prompting systems to be a socially valid function-based intervention for use in public community settings with
students with moderate mental retardation who have attention- or escape-maintained behavior when the prompts provide functionally equivalent reinforcement. This study
expands the literature on self-operated auditory prompting systems by matching the prompts to the function of problem behavior and confirming the social validity of the
intervention by including nondisabled coworkers.

Although previous studies (Alberto et al., 1999; Davis et al., 1992) documented that self-operated auditory prompts were an effective intervention for the reduction of
problem behavior in public community settings for students with moderate mental retardation, the function of behavior was not determined prior to intervention. It was unclear if the prompts inadvertently achieved functional equivalence or if stimuli other than the prompts were responsible for the behavioral change. Results of this study suggest that self-operated prompts function as an effective behavior intervention for students with mental retardation and attention- or escape-maintained behavior by systematically introducing prompts that provide functionally
equivalent reinforcement. Attention-maintained behavior reduced to criterion only during conditions with prompts providing attention in the form of verbal praise. Escape maintained behavior reduced to criterion only during conditions with prompts providing reminders of escape in the form of a break from the task. Problem behaviors were reduced for escape-maintained behavior during the attention prompt condition, but behavior only reduced to criterion during escape prompts.

Alberto P, Frederick L, & Hughes M (2006). Self operated auditory prompting systems as a function based intervention in public settings. Journal of Positive Behavioural Interventions. 8(4)230-243.

Auditory Prompting
Taber et al., (1999) provide a notable example of using auditory prompts to decrease off-task behavior for a student with autism and moderate mental retardation. Using a multiple probe across settings design, a 12-year old male student with autism was taught to use a self-operated auditory prompting system. The system contained recorded music interspersed between auditory verbal prompts (e.g., "keep working," "pay attention," etc.). The result was a decrease in inappropriate and off-task behavior at home and school with a concurrent decrease in teacher-delivered prompts.

A more recent study used auditory prompts to cue in-class self-monitoring as an intervention for decreasing off-task behavior in a classroom setting (Coyle & Cole, 2004). For three children with autism (aged between 9 and 11), an auditory timer (available from Jadco[R] was used to prompt self-monitoring of on-task behavior every 30 s of a 5 min work interval, with interval time increasing to 1 min for 1 of the participants. Using reversal designs, researchers were able to show that off-task behavior was significantly decreased during intervention phases.

Auditory prompting devices often require less manpower to result in positive change which is a critical benefit given the increasing number of children with autism served in local school settings where teacher resources may be scarce. Modern auditory prompts such as auditory pagers, portable compact disc players, and MP3 players are relatively small and unobtrusive and are used by enough children to minimize any stigma associated with carrying one for therapeutic purposes. Despite these apparent benefits, the paucity of literature focusing on technology-based auditory prompting for children with autism makes generalization of current findings difficult. Future research, as suggested by Taber et al. (1999), should continue to examine the effectiveness of self-operated auditory prompting systems with this population. Although Taber et al. (1999) & Coyle and Cole (2004) focused on decreasing off-task behavior, future investigations should also evaluate the effectiveness of auditory prompting for skill acquisition.

Goldsmith T, & Leblanc L(2004). Use of technology in intervention with children with autism. Journal of Early and Intensive Behavioural Intervention.