Managing Disruptive Behaviour

[Guest]

I was wondering if anyone would be able to give me some advise regarding a boy I have coming into my year 1 class next year. He has some behavioural issues, however he was recently visited by someone who did an assessment and she felt that it was just a slight developmental delay rather than anything else. Her feeling was that he had come in behind in terms of behaviour due to issues at home and that some of the strataegies being used, whilst good when they were put in place, were no longer appropriate in helping him move forwards.

 

Her advice was that low level disruptive/attention seeking behaviour should be ignored as much as possible and that all other behaviour should be dealt with in terms of consequences. Basically she was saying no bribes! So no "if you do this you can do this" or "you can have the toy back if you do this". Her feeling was that he was becomming too reliant on this and not developing any internal motivation. She was clear that this didn't mean no rewards, it just meant that rewards should be given afterwards not used as bribes to make him do things, so we would still use cubes/shiny pebbles etc as a reward system for after he has done something positive.

 

I have to say my instinct was to agree with her, however I was wondering what other people thought about this? I was also hoping someone had some good advice for how to pass this on to my team of TAs (there are about 4 who come in at different times!) They have just been on some training where they were actually told to use this approach and how told how wonderful and effective it was; however the training was mostly aimed at severe SEN children. I also know from experience of the moving up days we've had that a couple of them rely heavily on this approach (one of them completely disrupting my lesson whilst she tried to negotiate extremely loudly with him!) How would you deal with this bearing in mind that they are mostly much older and more experienced than me? I'm very keen to start as we mean to go on from the second he steps into my classroom.

[Guest LornaW]

There is a great book called You Can't Come to my Party which has excellent ideas for this kind of behaviour and it is all about consequences.

 

I would agree entirely about not bribing but making sure he knows the rules and the consequences of breaking the rules. An excellent DVD is High/Scope's Conflict Resolution. Here are their six steps :-

 

Conflict resolution steps

• Approach calmly, stopping any hurtful actions. Place yourself between the children, on their level; use a calm voice and gentle touch; remain neutral rather than take sides.
  
• Acknowledge children's feelings. Say something simple such as “You look really upset;” let children know you need to hold any object in question.
  
• Gather information. Ask “What's the problem?” Do not ask “why” questions as young children focus on that what the problem is rather than understanding the reasons behind it.
  
• Restate the problem: “So the problem is...” Use and extend the children’s vocabulary, substituting neutral words for hurtful or judgmental ones (such as “stupid”) if needed.
  
• Ask for solutions and choose one together. Ask “What can we do to solve this problem?” Encourage children to think of a solution but offer options if the children are unable to at first.
  
• Be prepared to give follow-up support. Acknowledge children’s accomplishments, e.g., “You solved the problem!” Stay nearby in case anyone is not happy with the solution and the process needs repeating.
  

Adults respect children’s ideas for solving problems, even if the options they offer don’t seem fair to adults. What’s important is that children agree on the solution and see themselves as competent problem-solvers.

 

And I have attached a document from their website that may be useful

 

Lorna

Working With a Challenging Child2.pdf

Edited August 1, 2012 by LornaW

[AnonyMouse_79]

Kariana, you have my sympathies re the TAs. You need, as you are aware, to have your own strategies etc worked out and systems in place that will operate in your classroom and make sure that the TAs all know this. There will need to be consistency anyway for all the children to cope and not be confused by the changing support staff.

Bill Rodgers behaviour books are also easy to read.

Good luck

[AnonyMouse_30128]

Have you also tried the strategy of setting your expectations out before you start. i,e we are going to .....you are going to...i am expecting you to...... then if you do x then y will happen.(if the last step is appropriate) that way he knows the 'rules' before he starts and is more likely (in theory) to follow them.

BYW intersting approach regarding sen...are you sure that they have this message exactly right? my feeling would be thet this would be the 'first this then that ' approach which is subtly different from a bribe!

[SueFinanceManager]

Twenty top tips for helping to develop self-discipline for positive behaviour management in young children

 

Any helpful tips in this FSF article?

[AnonyMouse_6721]

All brilliant advice. I have printed all to look at when I write a new behaviour plan next term.

 

I know from my own son that bribes don't work 'naughty, good, reward' against 'good, good, little or no reward' Children learn very quickly which approach gives rewards. This would be different from first -coat on next outside.

 

I can't see anywhere mentioned a behaviour plan for this child. We would write one in pre-school for this child and all adults to follow to achieve a consistent approach. If an adult didn't follow the plan, me as the manager would speak to the adult. Persume you have a headteacher / head of year to do this.

 

Good luck.

[Guest]

Thanks Sue and Lorna for those links, I will be reading through them for tips. I've tried to purchase "You Can't Come to My Party" before but unfortuanetly it is extremely expensive!

 

Thank you for your sympathies Susan, much appreciated! It is very hard to get everyone on board and I'm not sure how he is going to cope with having so many staff coming and going when he's been used to one teacher and one TA all year.

 

Finleysmaid I haven't had chance to try any strategies yet as he only joins my class in September, but that is definitely one I'll be trying!

BYW intersting approach regarding sen...are you sure that they have this message exactly right? my feeling would be that this would be the 'first this then that ' approach which is subtly different from a bribe!"

With regards to this Diesel's post explains much more clearly what the behavioural specialist was saying, I just wasn't very good at paraphrasing what she said even though I knew what she meant myself! At the moment he is getting the "naughty, good, reward" pattern and this is what she felt was not doing him any favours at all as her feeling is that there isn't really any reason why he can't behave himself (again that doesn't sound quite right but what she was saying much more eloquently than me is he isn't on the spectrum/doesn't have ADHD etc)

 

Diesel - we do have a behaviour plan in terms of something that looks like an IEP with small behaviour targets on it, however this obviously addresses only a couple of the issues (such as "I will sit for 5 minutes on the carpet"). I think perhaps I'll have to write something more detailed about actions and consequences that can apply more generally and share that with the TAs.

[AnonyMouse_38512]

I've been following this with great interest as I have a couple of children coming into my reception class next year who have been flagged by their pre-schools as being 'potentially' rather challenging. I appreciate all the links and will be reading them and discussing the main points with my TA before writing a new behaviour plan

[Guest LornaW]

 

I've tried to purchase "You Can't Come to My Party" before but unfortuanetly it is extremely expensive!

 

 

Wow saw the price on Amazon have a look here it looks more reasonable!

 

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?kn=you+can%27t+come+to+my+birthday+party&sts=t&x=35&y=14

 

Lorna

[Guest]

Hi Kariana I too have been watching this post as I am moving into year 1 in Sept having been in nursery for 5 years. I am obviously going to be having the class that I had last year and in this group I have a boy who is very challenging with his behaviour. This child is very intelligent and very gifted in terms of his ability, however he has no friends because he socially cannot get on with others and often hurts others and ruins play. As he is very clever he often shouts out answers during whole class tending not to give others a chance so ideas on how i can over come this would be a great help. Articles are very useful i will definately be reading them for ideas.

 

kate

[AnonyMouse_30128]

katiepotatie...there are perhaps two ways to deal with this ...you could try to have a toy which you throw to the person you want to answer the question....you only get to answer if you have the toy, because this is physical it sometimes works. I guess the other thing you could try is for everyone to write down the answer and then show you their responses (small white boards might work well)... i think i would be inclined to pay particular attention to his answers so that he gets rewarded for doing the right thing.....i'm not school though so these are only suggestions, kind of an extension to what we might do at pre-school

[Guest]

thanks finleysmaid yeh was thinking about doing a whiteboard thing but i like the thought of the toy too. thank you foryour ideas

[AnonyMouse_44055]

Katie - Something we have used with quite a bit of success in our school is lolly sticks with each childs name on. Rather than asking for hands up which brings with it a multitude of problems (the pick me pick me straining noises, the child that never puts their hand up, the one that yells out etc..) the teacher pulls a lolly stick out and asks for the thoughts of the person whose name is on the stick. The children soon begin to respect the impatiality of the lolly stick and, knowing that they may be picked, those children who previously preferred not to participate tend to be a little more on the all and it has reduced (though not erradicated) calling out.

 

I have nursery at the moment so haven't employed this as much as the reception and KS1 teachers but when I have covered other classes it works well and the other teachers are pleased with it.

 

Mel

Edited August 26, 2012 by Melcatfish

[Guest]

Hi mel sorry for the late reply been on holiday that is a fab idea i love it!!!! think i will give that a go and see what effect its has thank you