Seminar 2

1. Seminar 2 Behaviour that challenges

2. The Oxford dictionary defines “behaviour” as: • “A way of behaving: treatment of others; manners” • Reflection: • What do we expect of children in school in the way they behave? • Do we expect them to behave in the same way that they do at home? • Or when they visit an elderly relative? Or out shopping?

3. We expect different modes of behaviour from children on different occasions and in different venues, but children don’t always know what is appropriate behaviour for which event and may need our guidance so as to know how to behave in school.

4. What do we view as acceptable and unacceptable behaviour by students in school and why? • What shapes our attitudes?

5. It is generally understood that our own background of school, family life and society shapes what we deem acceptable behaviour in others, children included. • We know this, from our own experiences, by seeing how some families tolerate some behaviour while others don’t!

6. Cultural differences play a part in shaping attitudes. • A West Indian child may be viewed as cheeky and rude if he makes eye contact with an adult who is speaking to him where a European child may be regarded as cheeky and rude if he looks away - “Look at me when I’m speaking to you!” may well be a phrase we remember from our own childhood

7. In school, the personality and make-up of the teacher is significant. Some classrooms are full of “working noise” while other teachers insist on silence. • In some classrooms the children are allowed to move freely around the room, while others are expected to stay in their seats all day. • E.g. in some classrooms, children must ask to go to the toilet, while in others the child just goes out without permission

8. The relationship between the teacher and the children is also a factor to be taken into account. • While an individual child fares well with one teacher, his behaviour may be unacceptable to another teacher. • Teachers have individual views on what constitutes ‘good’ behaviour.

9. As special needs assistants, we also have tolerance levels for certain behaviour. • Some of us can tolerate noise better than others; some of us insist on good manners and some of us don’t. • Observe yourself during the next few days in the classroom: - keep an eye out for differences in tolerance and acceptance between adults in the classroom. • How do your expectations differ from others? • The children quickly pick up on our expectations of them - see if they fulfilyour expectations.

10. Most people would accept that the following would not be acceptable ways of behaving in school: • running around the classroom • fighting • bullying • bad language • not sharing • cheekiness • shouting out • climbing on furniture

11. But why do some children, even when they know that these are unacceptable ways of behaving continue to do these and other “anti-social” things in school and what can we do about these types of behaviours?

12. As stated in the INTO booklet on Managing Challenging Behaviour this behaviour can be anything which: • Challenges day to day functioning of the school • Challenges the rights of staff and pupils to a safe and orderly environment • Has a duration, frequency, intensity or persistence that is beyond the normal range

13. COMMON CAUSES OF EMOTIONAL/BEHAVIOURAL DIFFICULTIES: • Some of the more common causes of challenging behaviour and emotional / behavioural difficulties include:

14. ·     Physical or sensory impairment • ·     Autism or Autistic tendencies (Persuasive Developmental Disorders) • ·     Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, commonly termed A.D.H.D. • ·     Learning impairment • ·     High abilities • ·     Depression • ·     Child abuse • ·     Emotional difficulties (this includes frequent changes and separation from caregiver / parent, difficulties with parenting, for example, lack of physical care affection, inconsistent rule setting etc.)

15. TYPES OF BEHAVIOURS • While the causes of children’s disruptive behaviour differ, the types of behaviour displayed are often quite similar. It can include:

16. ·     Withdrawal • ·     Inappropriate behaviour socially, e.g. indiscriminate signs of affection or inhibited behaviour • ·    Aggression e.g. kicking, biting, bullying etc. • ·    Verbal aggression • ·     Sleep disruption (often little sleep in younger children) •    Bedwetting (termed enuresis) • ·     Soiling (termed encopresis) • ·     Head banging, rocking, finger / hand flapping • ·     Breath holding • ·     Temper tantrums beyond those expected for the developmental age • ·     Restlessness • ·     Short attention and concentration span • ·     Irrational fears (e.g. lights on or off, water, closing doors) • ·     Difficulty in forming and maintaining relationships. Trusting others also seems to be a difficulty.

17. Dare & O’Donovan (1997) advocate that behaviour can be subdivided into Externalisation and Internalisation. • 1. Externalisation: • Here the behaviour is directed outwards to the world in general and there is a disturbance of conduct (at others and things). • 2. Internalisation: • Here the behaviour is largely directed internally (at one’s self). • (See Good Practice in Caring for Young Children with Special Needs 1997, p. 278.) • There are, however, additional indicators that can occur with special conditions.

18. HIGH ABILITY CHILDREN • While it is important to recognise that not all children who have high ability present with behavioural difficulties, children who have ‘abnormally’ high ability or are, as they are sometimes called ‘fast learners’ are often overlooked as coming into the category of children with special needs. • The other term, which is sometimes used to describe such children, is ‘gifted’.

19. Children with high ability may have accelerated learning in a specific area, such as maths or music, or may be all-round fast learners. Ogilvie (1973) emphasises six areas in which children are likely to show high ability: • 1.    Physical talent • 2.    Mechanical ingenuity • 3.    Visual / performing abilities • 4.    Outstanding leadership / social awareness • 5.    Creativity • 6.    High intelligence

20. Parents are not always the best judges of whether their child is of a particularly high ability because they lack the experience of dealing with large numbers of children over long periods of time and are therefore not familiar with normal ability range. • High ability children often present with behavioural difficulties, which may be the result of boredom or frustration. Some children with high ability may have social or personal problems and find it difficult to mix with other children. Children who have high ability in selected skill areas may underachieve in other areas.

21. This is often the case when parents have concentrated their efforts on developing the ‘gift’ of the child, rather than the child’s Holistic Development (i.e. all-round development). • The recent introduction of computers into schools has meant that these children are less frustrated as they can have an individual programme to work on and do not have to undertake the same activities as their peers.

22. However, some children whose needs are not planned for or recognised appear as: • ·      verbally cheeky • ·      constantly questioning • ·      lacking concentration as he or she finishes tasks quickly • ·      disruptive • ·      possibly becoming the class comic / clown • ·      limitless physical energy • ·      need little sleep

23. CHILDHOOD DEPRESSION • This is relatively recently recognised as occurring in young children. Indeed, specific life events, for example, divorce, death, bereavement etc. or reaction to a parent who is depressed or seriously ill, can cause a child to exhibit signs of: • ·      guilt and fear • ·      denial • ·      sleep disturbance • ·      enuresis (bed wetting) • ·      difficulties concentrating • ·      terror parting from parents / primary caregivers

24. EMOTIONAL DEPRIVATION • Children who fail to have their needs met will show this physically and in their behaviour. • Some of these signs may include: • ·      failure to thrive • ·      delay in meeting their developmental milestones • ·      enuresis and encopresis • ·      volatile emotions

25. ·      inappropriate social responses • ·      limited differentiation between primary caregivers and unfamiliar adults • ·      aggression with their toys and during play • ·      constant need for approval and recognition • ·      constant need for attention • ·      difficulties forming and maintaining relationships

26. This is where the ABC model of understanding children’s behaviour becomes relevant. • This model suggests that there are certain reasons and Antecedents as to why a child behaves in the way he does. • We need to understand these before we can look at the child’s actual Behaviour and what we do about it, in other words the Consequences that follow.

27. ANTECEDENTS • The important things that happen before the behaviour occurs. • When a child behaves inappropriately we must examine the underlying reasons and the incidents or situation before the behaviour occurs.

28. Outline Situation • Inappropriate expectations for child’s developmental level by the adult? • Health problems? • Allergies? • Poor nutrition? • Hunger? • Thirst?

29. Sensory deficits, perhaps the child isn’t hearing very well? • Over-sensitivity to stimulation - too much going on? • Bored - too little going on? • Family stress or change - new baby in the house? • Physical environment - too cramped, too hot, too cold? • Inconsistent messages from the adult? (See handout on child’s interpretation of adult’s language) • Lack of clear-cut guidelines - classroom rules? • Personality? • Poor social skills?

30. BEHAVIOUR • The actual observable behaviour that the child produces. • It’s very easy to “label” a child as “bold” when sometimes by actually observing carefully and writing down what the child does during the day, we can see that there may not be such a problem and it may be our own attitude that needs dealing with. • There are checklists available to structure this observation.

31. Descriptions of the behaviour should be: • Factual, not emotional. • Precise about frequency, not vague. • Specific, not general. • Situational, not general.

32. CONSEQUENCES • What happens as a result of the behaviour to the child and others? • Children’s behaviour usually has consequences and affects him, others and what we do about it.

33. Consequences include the effect of the child’s behaviour on: • The child (satisfaction, attention, guilt). • The other children (fear, pleasure, sadness). • Staff (frustration, anger). • Child’s parents (upsets them). • There are both natural and logical consequences for the child.

34. Natural consequences of inappropriate behaviour are the things that go wrong, are broken or damaged by the behaviour. • E.g. If a child is running around unsafely in the classroom, he may fall and hurt himself and thus be less likely to repeat the behaviour.

35. Natural consequences don’t always occur so if we want to change or modify a child’s behaviour, we use logical consequences. • We set a rule and if it’s broken we impose a sanction. E.g. Rule - we sit in our seats during break-time. • Anyone who breaks this rule will get extra homework. Thus the logical consequence (extra homework) can be imposed each time this occurs.

36. Another example of logical consequences can be viewed in a positive way. • If the children keep the rules, they get a reward. • e.g. Rule - we sit in our seats during break-time. • Reward - if you keep the rule, you get a star/team point.

37. Schools, nowadays tend to be more positive in their approach to discipline. We need to concentrate on the positive, what children do right not wrong! • Rewarding for good behaviour is called reinforcement.

38. Remember that we can often reinforce “bad” behaviour - • If something that the child regards as positive follows one of his actions - high probability he will repeat the same action • Negative outcome of action, lower probability of child repeating action • Child may like something even though his assistant or teacher may not think he will! • Child will “identify” with an adult he respects/loves and will imitate some of her behaviour.

39. Strategies to encourage positive behaviour • Body language • Positive discipline • Active listening • Clear language usage for appropriate age group • Rewarding good behaviour • Clear rules • The four question technique

40. RULES • Classroom rules need to be negotiated and discussed between staff and the children concerned. • These can help children because they • know what is expected of them • can predict how others will probably behave (consequences) and what the rewards and punishments will be • feel safe and secure.

41. These can help staff because they • know what to expect from the children • can predict how the children will probably behave • find their job easier • Rules should be stated in positive terms i.e. they should tell the children what is expected of them rather than a list of don’ts.

42. THE FOUR QUESTION TECHNIQUE (DR DAVID CAREY) • As stated by Dr. David Carey (2005) This technique is very useful when working with children with some behavioural difficulties. • Here we ask the children a series of questions at a time when the student has calmed after the event

43. What did you do? • This question focuses on the behaviour. • It should be asked in a manner of concern. • As Dr. Carey states if the answer is that another child “made him”, you would simply say “I will be asking the other child what he did soon. • Right now I want to know what you did”. • Remember it is important to remain non-judgmental in manner. This is believed to bring about a more truthful answer if asked respectfully.

44. What happened when you did it? • This question is to show the child that each action has a reaction (cause and effect). • When looking at some disabilities such as Attention Deficit Disorders you shall see that for many of these children they do not understand the effect of their actions. • Here you want the child to gain an understanding that something has happened when they reacted in a certain way

45. What could you have done differently? • Here you are giving the child strategies to deal with such situations if they arise again such as going to tell the teacher, just walking away from the situation.

46. What would have happened if you did it differently? • What you are doing here is training the child to link their behaviour with its impact on others. • The important point when using this technique is that you remain calm at all times. The goal of this technique is that the child will learn from their mistakes and think of the outcome before reacting.

47. Discipline • "Children need sufficient discipline to control them, to keep them from danger, and to make them pleasant people to live with. • They require discipline from their parents (carers) throughout childhood so that by the time they become adults, they have learnt to control their own behaviour by self control (Self Discipline)." • (Minett ,Childcare & Development)

48. So discipline is needed in a child's life to empower that child to make choices in accordance with the social and moral standards of the society in which the child lives. • Here we see discipline is not just punishment but rather training in the ways and means of gradually meeting one's own needs. • The way one trains a child varies according to that child's age, developmental stage, personality needs, past experiences, motivational level and specific special needs

49. THE PRINCIPLES OF DISCIPLINE • Use positive instead of negative reinforcing where possible. • Concentrate on praise instead of punishment. • Be reasonable in what is expected. • Match expectation with ability and learning stages.

50. Be consistent. • Inconsistency can cause confusion, frustration and anger, leading either to compliance and conformity, eventually leading to rebellion or overt rebellious behaviour. • Mean what you say. • Threats are an insult to the dignity of any human person, young or old: • say what you mean and follow it through.