2. Challenging behaviors
• Interfere with children’s learning,
development and/or play
• Are harmful to the child or others around
them
• Put the child at risk for future social and
school challenges
3. Skills children need to succeed
• Confidence
• Ability to develop positive and healthy
relationships with peers and adults
• Concentration and persistence on
challenging tasks
• Ability to effectively communicate
emotions
• Ability to listen to instructions and be
attentive
• Ability to solve social problems
4. What we know…
• Challenging behavior usually has a
message (I am bored, I am sad, you hurt
my feelings, I need some attention)
• Children often use challenging behavior
when they don’t have the social or
communication skills they need to engage
in more appropriate interactions
• Behavior that persists over time is usually
working for the child
• We need to focus on teaching children
what to do in place of the challenging
behavior
5. Promoting children’s success
• Create an environment where EVERY child
feels good about coming to school
• Design an environment that promotes
child engagement
• Focus on teaching children what to do!
– Teach expectations and routines
– Teach skills that children can use in place of
challenging behaviors
6. Major Messages
• The 1st and most important thing we can do is
build positive relationships
• Focus on prevention and teaching
appropriate skills
• Promoting social emotional development is
not easy. There are no quick fixes to
challenging behavior
• It requires a comprehensive approach that
includes building relationships, evaluating our
own classrooms and behaviors and
TEACHING
7. Building relationships
• Helps children feel accepted in the group
• Assists children and learning to
communicate get along with others
• Encourages feelings of empathy and
mutual respect among children and adults
• Provides a supportive environment in
which children can learn practice
appropriate and acceptable behaviors as
individuals and as a group
8. Ideas for making deposits
• Greet each child by name as they arrive
• Post children’s work around the room
• Have a “star” of the week
• Allow children to bring in items from home
and share during circle time
• Call it the child’s parent in front of them to
say what a great day they are having
• Call a child after a difficult day and say, “I’m
sorry we had a tough day today. I know
tomorrow will be better”
9. Ideas for making deposits
• Give hugs, high-fives and thumbs up for
accomplishing tasks
• When they are absent, tell them how much
you missed them
• Write on a T-shirt all the special things about
a given child and let them wear it
• Find out a child’s favorite book and read it to
the whole class
• Play with children, following their lead
• Have children create an “All About Me” book
and share them at circle time
10. Classroom arrangement and design
Traffic patterns:
• Minimize large open spaces
• Minimize obstacles and other hazards
• Consider the needs of children with
physical and sensory disabilities
11. Classroom arrangement and design
Learning Centers: Physical Design
• Clear boundaries
• Visibility
• Visual prompts when centers are not an option
• Adequate number of centers
• Size and location of centers
• Number of children in centers
• Organization of materials
• Preparation of centers
12. Classroom arrangement and design
Learning Centers:
• Create meaningful and engaging learning
centers that:
– Are relevant to children’s needs, interests and
lives
– Are highly engaging and interesting
– Provide a variety of materials in each center
– Are changed and rotated on a regular basis
13. Schedules and routines
Develop a schedule that promotes child
engagement and success. To do this:
• Balance activities
– Active and quiet
– Small group and large group
– Teacher directed and child directed
• Teach children the schedule
• Establish a routine and follow it consistently
– When changes are necessary, prepare children ahead of time
14. Transitions
Plan for transitions
• Minimize the number of transitions that children have
during the day.
• Minimize the length of time children spend waiting with
nothing to do.
• Prepare children for transitions by providing a warning.
• Structure the transitions so that children have something
to do while they wait.
• Teach children the expectations related to transitions.
• Individualize supports and cues.
15. Giving directions
• Make sure you have the children’s
attention before you give the direction
• Minimize the number directions given
• Individualize the way directions are given
• Give clear directions
16. Giving directions
• Give directions that are positive
• Give children the opportunity to respond
to a direction
• When appropriate, give the child choices
and options for following directions
• Follow through with positive
acknowledgment of children’s behavior
17. General guidelines for rules
• Few and simple
• Involve the children in developing
• Post visually
• Teach them systematically
• They generally address:
– Noise level
– Movement inside
– Interactions with property
– Interactions with adults
– Interactions with peers
18. Ongoing monitoring and positive attention
• Give children attention when they’re
engaging inappropriate behaviors
• Monitor our behavior to ensure that we’re
spending more time using positive,
productive language and less time giving
directions or correcting inappropriate
behavior
19. Positive Feedback and
Encouragement
1. Contingent on appropriate behavior
2. Descriptive
3. Conveyed with enthusiasm
4. Contingent on effort
20. Using positive feedback and
encouragement
• Use both verbal and nonverbal forms
• Individualized use based on child’s needs
and preferences
• Encourage other adults and peers to use
positive feedback and encouragement
21. Stages of Learning
• Acquisition – new skill or concept
• Fluency – the ability to immediately use
the skill or concept without a prompt
• Maintenance – continuing to use the skill
or concept over time
• Generalization – applying the skill or
concept to new situations, people,
activities, ideas, and settings
22. Play Organizers
• Describe skill
– Get a friend’s attention
– Give a friend a toy
– Offer suggestions of what to do with
toys/materials
• Demonstrate skill
• Practice
• Promote
23. Sharing
• Describe skill
– Child has materials
– Offers or responds to request from peer for
materials
• Demonstrate skill
• Practice
• Promote
24. Being Helpful – Team Player
• Describe skill
– Children might assist each other
– Tell or show a friend how to do something
– Assist a friend in distress
• Demonstrate skill
• Practice
• Promote
25. Taking Turns
• Describe skill
– “You take a turn, I take a turn”
– Might ask for a turn with a toy
– Might initiate turn taking games
• Demonstrate skill
• Practice
• Promote
26. Giving Compliments
• Describe skill
– Verbal – say things like: “Good job _____! or I
like the way you _____!”
– Physical – Do things like: Hug, pat on the
shoulder, high five
• Demonstrate skill
• Practice
• Promote
27. Knowing How & When to Apologize
• Describe skill
– Children might say, “I’m sorry I hit you when
you took my ball.”
– “I didn’t mean to push you.”
• Demonstrate skill
• Practice
• Promote
28. Setting the Stage for Friendship
• Inclusive setting
• Cooperative use toys
• Embed opportunities
• Social interaction goals and objectives
• Atmosphere of friendship
29. Strategies for Developing
Friendship Skills
• Modeling
• Preparing peer partners
• Buddy system
• Reinforcement
30. Activities to Support Friendship
Skill Development
• Friendship Can
• Planting Seeds of Friendship
• Friendship Tree/Compliment Tree
• Books about Friendships
• Friendship Quilt
• Friendship Journal
• Music/Songs
