Prevention of Challenging Behaviors: Social Context

What one must Consider about Social Context When Working to Prevent Challenging Behaviors in Young Children

Many scholars like Kaiser & Sklar (2012) and Steedy (2011) discuss social context as the environments that young children get the opportunity to develop their social skills. When it comes to behavior, these social skills are said to form a part of children’s behavior which enable them even at later stages of their lives to appreciate and easily fit in various social settings. This is expounded to educate that social skills model behavior in a way that a person can be able to: (a) identify and manage their emotions (b) be considerate about others, create and maintain good relationships (c) make decisions rationally (d) resolve challenges ethically and constructively. Thus, it is advocated that each social setting should be composed of opportunities that enable a child effectively develop suitable social skills.

How One Can Promote Prevention in the Classroom

To begin with, challenging behavior is suggested to be the types of behaviors that are not acceptable in any given social settings. Regardless of the types of behaviors, and just as it has been appreciated in the previous section of this paper, the environment is one that models a behavior. Thus to promote prevention of challenging behavior, efforts are initially built from the assumption that all sorts of behaviors are learned from the environment one is placed to grow in. Thus, these ill behaviors can be prevented by introducing good behaviors in the environment which means that suitable learning contexts can be modified to effect creation and reinforcement of good behaviors. Such modifications especially in the classroom are noted to include: (a) creating a positive teacher-students positive relationship that is also respectful (b) developing and maintaining suitable routines and rules for children to follow. This is said can be effected easily when the teacher discusses these routines and rules with the learners (c) reinforcing good behaviors with praises and/or rewards (d) administering fair punishment for any negative behavior expressed and ensuring that the child understands that what he/she has done is wrong (Irish National Teachers’ Organization & Cumman Muinteoiri Eireann, n.d: 4-6; Kaiser & Sklar, 2012: 146-148).

Teaching Strategies: Changing the Classroom Environment

Ruef, Higgins, Glaeser & Patnode (1998) inform that the following strategies are applicable in any teaching technique. One is changing the environment of the classroom to ensure that the environment meets the needs of the students. Some of these changes are mentioned to include: (a) the environment is quiet (b) have working areas defined clearly (c) each child’s space is also well defined and organized according to the needs of the child (d) allow the classroom to be adequately spaced and properly arranged so as to discourage disruptions. This spacing should not be too much or too little.

Application Examples of Using Change of Classroom Environment to Prevent Challenging Behavior

Classroom organization and spacing is found to be very important especially for teachers that work with disabled children. That is arrangement can be done as follows: (a) for those who have poor eyesight can be placed in front which is a position that is near the blackboard (b) those who have hearing problems can also be placed near the teaching area or near the teacher so that the student can hear the child well (c) those who are short can also be put at the front so as to see the blackboard properly. When it comes to spacing, adequate space is needed for those students that have walking disabilities and thus classroom arrangement should be one that allows them to use their walking equipments as needed to. In addition, they should also be allowed to sit at an appropriate area which is not too much at the back. A teacher who handles students from a different culture can consider placing the students near the teacher so as to ensure that the students fit in well with the classroom environment, is comfortable with the instruction delivery and is following up with the lesson as needed to (Kaiser & Sklar, 2012: 149-150).

Assignment

Effective Rules- One Strategy that Would Best Address Doug’s Goals

As the STAR sheet educates, suitable classroom rules that are clearly defined and adequately understood by the students are quite effective in delivering teacher’s expectations of them. In addition to this capability, these rules guide students while in class and thus enable them to regulate their behaviors individually. Hence, rules have the potential of preventing challenging behaviors. Applying this knowledge to Level B Case 1, Doug who is fond of hands-on activities seems to be unaware of what he is expected of him as a student. His challenging behavior is failing to write assignments even when in class while other students are doing it. In its place, he would rather chose to draw robots or playing with his scientific gadgets Doug’s teacher attempts to prevent this behavior by setting ups goals that are aimed to make him begin writing assignments and doing more of them (Curran, n.d).

Rules have been argued should form the foundation of preventing challenging behaviors especially in the classroom and to do this, the teacher needs to explain these rules to each students, show them how they are to be applied. Moreover, each student needs to understand and accept them. It is further said that rules may become weak if they are: complex, long, do not include consequences of breaking them, are not consistently followed, are not regularly recalled, rapidly changed, and are less adequate to cover classroom expectations. This weakness is conveyed when it is informed that Doug expresses this weakness in all subjects which implies that other teachers that have taught him have failed to reinforce the needful rules that prevent this behavior from occurring which is now becoming permanent (Curran, n.d; Kaiser & Sklar, 2012).

Implementation of the Effective Rules Strategy to Level B Case 1 Study

As Doug’s teacher, I would first review the existing classroom rules in effort to find out how effective they are in promoting positive behaviors in the classroom and make any necessary corrections. The next step would be to take the initiative to go through all the rules with all the students in effort to find out how much they know and understand them. This feedback I would evaluate from the classroom observation results I will have gathered beforehand. If these results deviate from the teacher’s expectations that are guided by the classroom rules, then I would know the source of Doug’s challenging problem which is that the students were not knowledgeable of this rules from the start of the learning process. But if the observational results matched with the teacher’s expectations as guided by the classroom rules, I would know that Doug’s issue is a special case and I would sit with him alone and go through all the rules one by one. This I would do ensuring that he understands first and foremost, the importance of this rules and how they facilitate his learning abilities while reinforcing good behaviors in him. The next step I would attempt to establish from him what makes him find difficulty in following the rules and at the same time making him know the consequences of breaking any of them. Assuming that he accepts them on the basis that he had not know what his teachers expected of him, I would begin giving him assignments and praising/rewarding him for all assignments he does. This I would do by also increasing the number of assignments he does. Moreover, I would continue monitoring his behavior while in class especially when other students are doing assignments. When he behaves positively I would also ask the rest of the class to praise him in effort to reinforce the positive behavior. In addition to this, I would also interview him to know how he feels about his new positive behavior. Also I would take the initiative to reinforce this good behavior more by gathering information from other teachers on how they observe his behavior while he is responding to assignments they give him and take necessary steps accordingly ((Kaiser & Sklar, 2012; Curran, n.d).  

References

Curran, C. M. (n.d). The IRIS Center: Case Study Unit: Encouraging Positive Behavior. Retrievedhttp://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/pub/content/dbae39c1-85db-4434-9bde-39073439fd13/Encouraging_Appropriate_Behavior.pdf.

Irish National Teachers’ Organization & Cumman Muinteoiri Eireann (n.d). Managing Challenging Behavior: Guidelines for Teachers. Retrievedhttps://www.into.ie/…/ManagingCha….

Kaiser, B. & Sklar, R. J. (2012). Challenging Behavior in Young Children 3^rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.

Ruef, M. B., Higgins, C., Glaeser, B. J. C. & Patnode, M. (1998). Positive Behavioral Support: Strategies for Teachers. Retrieved<digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032…gse…>.

Steedy, K. M. (2011). Social Skills and Academic Achievement. Retrieved< http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/social-skills/>.