This Power Point provides a description of challenging behaviors that occur in the classroom. In addition, this presentation discusses how school systems and various programs should assess children that exhibit challenging behaviors. It also shares assessment strategies in evaluating children that display challending behaviors. And finally, this presentation lays out the implications for instruction when instructing children with challenging behaviors.
1. For Distribution at the ECE Meeting July 24, 2012
EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENT AND INSTRUCTION FOR
CHILDREN WITH CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR
AMY HUNTER, LICSW
MARY LOUISE HEMMETER, PHD
2. Objectives
• Define persistent challenging behavior
• Describe assessment strategies for
children experiencing challenging
behavior
• Identify and share new tips and tools for
supporting young children with
challenging behavior
• Share T/TA experiences working with
programs around supporting children
with challenging behavior
3. What is Challenging Behavior?
Any repeated pattern of behavior, or
perception of behavior, that interferes with
or is at risk of interfering with optimal learning
or engagement in pro-social interactions with
peers and adults
4. Challenging Behavior
Behaviors that are not responsive to the use
of developmentally appropriate guidance
procedures
Defined by caregiver
Challenges caregivers’ sense of
competence
8. How do you Help Programs?
What works?
What does not?
9. Key messages about
challenging behavior
• All behavior has a
message/function/meaning
• A single behavior may have multiple functions
• Children often have “challenging behavior”
when they don’t have other skills to meet their
intended need (e.g., social, language)
10. Key messages about challenging
behavior
• Challenging behavior is context related
• Typically, to “obtain” something, to “get
away from” something or sensory related
• Effective interventions are based on a
thorough understanding of the child and
his or her challenging behavior
12. Assessment
• Deficits or delays in one or more
areas may lead to challenging
behavior
• Variety of settings
13. ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES
• Families involved
• Cultural and family beliefs
considered in assessment process
• Assessment tools are appropriatelinguistically, culturally and
developmentally
14. ASSESSING THE BEHAVIOR
Purpose: To identify activities and
events associated with occurrences
and non-occurrences of the problem
behavior.
16. ASSESSING THE BEHAVIOR
• Direct Observation (Consultants, Teachers,
and Families)
– Activity Analyses/Schedule Analyses
– Charts
– Checklists
• Functional Behavior Analysis
• Family engagement related to assessing
behavior
17. How are programs assessing
relationships, environments
and quality targeted
instruction ?
18. The Teaching Pyramid Model:
Promoting Social and Emotional Competence and Addressing
Challenging Behavior
Tertiary
Intervention:
Few Children
Secondary
Prevention:
Some Children
Universal
Promotion:
All Children
18
20. OLD WAY
• General intervention
for all behavior
problems
• Intervention is
reactive
• Focus on behavior
reduction
• Quick Fix
NEW WAY
• Intervention
matched to
purpose of the
behavior
• Intervention is
proactive
• Focus on teaching
new skills
• Long term
interventions
21. NATIONAL CENTERS - RESOURCES
Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning
(CSEFEL)
www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel
Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Interventions (TACSEI)
www.challengingbehavior.org
Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation
http://www.ecmhc.org/
22. National Center on Quality
National Center on Health
Teaching and Learning
877-731-0764
1-888-227-5125
ncqtl@uw.edu
nchinfo@aap.org
Mary Louise Hemmeter, PhD
Amy Hunter, LICSW
ml.hemmeter@vanderbilt.edu
AH1122@georgetown.edu
For more Information, contact us at: NCQTL@UW.EDU or 877-731-0764
This document was prepared under Grant #90HC0002 for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start, by the National Center on Quality Teaching and Learning.
Notes de l'éditeur
I took the distribution note off all slides except the first one
All challenging behavior is not persistent – top of the pyramid behavior is
Ask group about challenging behaviors in programs
Are systems in place to support and address children experiencing challenging behaviors?
Is it worse now or better than years ago? i.e. are programs more equipped than they used to be to effectively support and address children with challenging behavior
Is it mostly preK or infant/toddler?
What are the specific behaviors that most challenge staff?
This is a slide/exercise from the infant toddler mods. As the group brainstorms/shares the specific behaviors we write them in the two categories i.e. either “acting out behaviors” or “social withdrawing behaviors”. The point we want to make here is that often the “acting out” behaviors are the ones that get most of the attention and make everyone crazy. However, there are many “social withdrawing behaviors” that in fact might be more concerning in the long run than are “challenging” (i.e. persistent, frequent, intense, do not respond to regular developmentally appropriate guidance, etc.) but, often these behaviors do not command the attention. Sometimes children with social withdrawing behaviors are labeled as “the good baby” or “the good kid” b/c they are compliant or quiet and don’t attract attention. Just a note of caution to pay attention to not just the acting out behaviors but also the social withdrawing behaviors. Social withdrawing behaviors i.e.
Small group discussion then large group facilitated discussion
Consider sharing some of the ways “coaching” works best? i.e. using tools as a baseline/benchmark and agreed upon goals; frequency – ways of talking i.e. consultative stance?
Do programs you are working with understand this? How do you help them understand the “basics” of challenging behaivor?
Often programs may assess behavior as part of the emotional and behavioral health outcomes – however do they 1.) analyze and integrate assessment data i.e. look across domains (i.e. notice that a child may have delays for example in language and literacy and behavior; look across content areas i.e. health records, family needs assessment/ family goals, - for example the family partnership plan may identify that the family needs stable housing – perhaps they have been homeless or living in an unsafe place; the health record may indicate asthma, extreme tooth decay or poor nutirtion
Examples of goals in The Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework
Promoting Positive Outcomes in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children 3-5 Years Old
Expresses a range of emotions appropriately, such as excitement, happiness, sadness, and fear. • Refrains from disruptive, aggressive, angry, or defiant behaviors. • Adapts to new environments with appropriate emotions and behaviors.
Example of preschool goal:
Children will display levels of attention, emotional regulation, and behavior in the classroom that are appropriate to the situation and the supports available.
Children will begin to develop and demonstrate control over some of their feelings and behaviors (self-regulation).
For young infants, this includes allowing a trusted adult to help them calm with words and touch, along with self-soothing efforts such as finger-sucking or holding a comforting toy.
For older infants, this includes sometimes being able to calm with thumb sucking or a comforting toy, sometimes with an adult’s support. As they near 18 months, they begin to lose some control and may tantrum when distressed.
Infants, toddlers and very young children’s learning is interconnected i.e. when a toddler begins to talk they may regress in sleeping or walking. Very young children who have emotional struggles i.e. who are worried, anxious, scared, may be focusing much of their energy on staying safe, trying to get an adult’s attention, worrying about if their needs will be met and not freely experimenting with materials, playing and interacting with peers, trying new things, etc. Similarly if children are not healthy i.e. if they are in pain, ill, have a tooth ache they cannot engage in the learning and social opportunities that can help them develop. Example: Physical development i.e. obesity may impact a child’s gross motor development b/c it is hard for them to run, jump, swing, climb which may further restrict their activity and social interactions which then may impact their emotional health i.e. how they feel about themselves.
Of course as children get older challenging behavior may lead to deficits or delays in cognitive areas. As the demands of paying attention in order to learn information and processes increase -children engaging in challenging behavior may miss important information they need to develop skills, complete tasks and assignments causing them to fall behind.
Re: the family engagement, how are families engaged in assessing a child’s behavior? Are there many discussions prior to the assessment process? Are families given a checklist or is there an interview process to ask families about specific behaviors, their frequency and their intensity? Do families understand assessment process and questions re: their child’s development and behavior?
How are families helped to feel that they are not blamed for their child’s behavior? How is the message communicated that the family is an integral part of the team? How do we engage families in all phases of the assessment and then the planning process? How is the family’s input valued?
share the results of assessments— whether informal observations or more formal test results— with families in ways that are clear, respectful, culturally responsive, constructive, and use the language
that families are most comfortable with.
Parents have perspectives on their children and can provide teachers with valuable information, helping teachers to design activities to better meet children’s needs. Teachers/caregivers can provide information about a child’s progress in the classroom or on the home visits and/or relative to other children of the same age i.e. via normed screenings/assessments.
To assess young children’s strengths, progress, and needs, use assessment methods that are developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, tied to children’s daily activities, supported by professional
development, inclusive of families, and connected to specific, beneficial purposes: (1) making sound decisions about teaching and learning, (2) identifying significant concerns that may require
focused intervention for individual children, and (3) helping programs improve their educational and developmental interventions
By the year 2030, 40 percent of all school-age children will have a home language other than English (Thomas & Collier 1997).
Special attention should be given to whether an assessment was developed for and tested with children from similar backgrounds, languages, and cultures as those for whom the assessment will be used. When selecting assessments for children whose home language is not English, additional questions arise; for example, are the assessment instruments available in the primary languages of the children who are to be assessed?
In some cultures, because the behavior of the individual reflects on the family, any behavior that indicates lack of self-control may produce shame and guilt- reluctance to talk about that. Some cultures have a respect for the “authority of the teachers” so therefore would never disagree with an assessment even if it did not reflect what they believe or have seen in their child. Some cultures/families have very different values, beliefs about assessment and intervention in general. - Family, community beliefs about boy behavior, or “aggressive behavior”, or beliefs about gender and behavior,
Learn about the cultural traditions of the families.
Assess children across settings and in multiple ways
Pay close attention to body language, lack of response, or expressions of anxiety that may signal that the family is in conflict but perhaps hesitant to tell you.
Ask the family open-ended questions to gain more information about their assumptions and expectations.
Remain nonjudgmental when given information that reflects values that differ from yours.
Follow the advice given by families about appropriate ways to facilitate communication within families and between families and providers.
We could put in some videos here – I can do this
Re: the family engagement, how are families engaged in assessing a child’s behavior? Are there many discussions prior to the assessment process? Are families given a checklist or is there an interview process to ask families about specific behaviors, their frequency and their intensity? How are families helped to feel that they are not blamed for their child’s behavior? How is the message communicated that the family is an integral part of the team? How do we engage families in all phases of the assessment and then the planning process? How is the family’s input valued?
Small group then– large group discussion? Consider having some of the tools on the tables i.e. inventory or practices, Observation Toolkit, TIPTOS, T-POT, Facilitating
Individualized Interventions to Address Challenging Behavior for participants to review and discuss
How do you know? How do programs know? What tools are programs using to assess their prevention and intervention/teaching strategies for children with challenging behavior.
The hypothesis which is developed from the assessment drives the intervention