Give children the opportunity to respond to a direction

1

• Promoting Social Emotional Competence

Promoting Childrens Success Building
Relationships and Creating Supportive Environments
1
CSEFEL
2
Agenda

• Introduction
• Examining attitudes
• Relationship between challenging behavior and
  social emotional development
• Creating environments
• Building relationships
• Designing physical environment
• Schedules, routines transitions
• Activities that promote engagement
• Giving directions
• Following rules directions
• Ignoring/redirecting
• Ongoing monitoring and positive attention
• Using positive feedback encouragement
• Pulling it all together

CSEFEL
3
Learner Objectives

• Participants will be able to describe the
  relationship between childrens social emotional
  development and challenging behaviors
• Participants will be able to describe the
  importance of building relationships with
  children, families, and colleagues
• Participants will be able to describe the
  relationship between a number of environmental
  variables and childrens challenging behaviors
• Participants will be able to identify strategies
  to build positive relationships
• Participants will use positive feedback and
  encouragement appropriately
• Participants will evaluate their work

1
CSEFEL
4
Examining Our Attitudes about Challenging Behavior

• What behaviors make you crazy or
• push your buttons?
• How do these behaviors make you
• feel?

1
CSEFEL
5
Managing Personal Stress Thought Control
Calming Thoughts This child is testing to see
where the limits are. My job is to stay calm
and help him learn better ways to behave. I
can handle this. I am in control. They have
just learned some powerful ways to get control.
I will teach them more appropriate ways to
behave.
Upsetting Thoughts That child is a monster.
This is getting ridiculous. Hell never
change. Im sick of putting out fires!


6
Managing Personal Stress Thought Control
Upsetting Thought I wonder if Wal-Mart is
hiring? He ruins everything! This is going
to be the worst year of my career.
Calming Thoughts I feel undervalued right now
I need to seek support from my peers and
supervisor. Having him in my class is going
to be a wonderful Professional Development
experience.


7
Key Social Emotional SkillsChildren Need asThey
Enter School

• Key Skills
• Confidence
• Capacity to develop good relationships
• with peers
• Concentration and persistence on
• challenging tasks
• Ability to effectively communicate emotions
• Ability to listen to instructions and be
• attentive
• When children dont have these skills, they
• often exhibit challenging behaviors
• We must focus on teaching the skills!!

1
CSEFEL
8
Some Basic Assumptions

• Challenging behavior is most often
• related to some skill deficit (e.g.,
• language, social)
• Behavior that persists over time is
• working for the child
• When we have positive relationships
• with children, supportive classroom
• environments, and focus on teaching
• social and communication skills, we
• reduce the likelihood of challenging
• behavior

1
CSEFEL
9
Classroom Preventive Practices - Promoting
Childrens Success

• Create a context that makes EVERY
• child feel 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

1
CSEFEL
10
Intensive Individualized Interventions
Social Emotional Teaching Strategies

Creating Supportive Environments
Positive Relationships with Children, Families,
and Colleagues
11
Building Relationshipswith Children

• Why is it important?
• Creating a safe environment for
• children
• Ensuring that all children, even
• those with the most challenging
• behaviors, have access to ongoing
• positive relationships
• How do we build relationships with
• children?

1
CSEFEL
12
Strategies for Building Relationships

• Select a partner
• Brainstorm a list of things you could do to
• build or strengthen relationships with
  children, families, or other colleagues
• From that list, identify 2-3 things you are going
  
• to work on in order to build stronger
• relationships with the children, families, or
  colleagues

1
CSEFEL
13
Intensive Individualized Interventions
Social Emotional Teaching Strategies

Creating Supportive Environments
Positive Relationships with Children, Families,
and Colleagues
14
Classroom Arrangement and Design Traffic Patterns

• Carefully plan traffic patterns
• Minimize large open spaces
• Minimize obstacles and other
• hazards
• Consider the needs of children
• with physical and sensory
• disabilities

1
CSEFEL
15
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

1
CSEFEL
16
Classroom Arrangement and Design Learning Centers

• Create Meaningful and Engaging
• Learning Centers
• Relevant to childrens needs,
• interests, and lives
• Highly engaging and interesting
• Variety of materials in each center
• Changed and rotated on a regular
• basis

1
CSEFEL
17
Classroom Arrangement and Design Activity

• With a partner, sketch a
• classroom. Review item 3 on the
• Inventory and consider what
• changes need to be made in the
• classroom based on what you heard
• or what is in the Inventory
• Revise your sketch of the
• environment and then share major
• changes with other participants at
• the table

1
CSEFEL
18
Schedules and Routines

• Develop a schedule that promotes child
• engagement and success
• Minimize the number of transitions
• Balance active and quiet activities, small
• group and large group activities, teacher-
• directed and child-directed activities
• Teach children the schedule
• Establish a routine and follow it consistently
• When changes are necessary, prepare
• children ahead of time

1
CSEFEL
19
Transitions

• Plan for transitions
• 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

1
CSEFEL
20
1
CSEFEL
21
1
CSEFEL
22
1
CSEFEL
23
1
CSEFEL
24
1
CSEFEL
25
1
CSEFEL
26
1
CSEFEL
27
1
CSEFEL
28
1
CSEFEL
29
Schedule Activity

• Divide into groups of people who currently
• work together
• Write down a schedule from one of the
• participants classroom
• Consider the things we have just talked
• about. What changes could you make in the
• schedule that might increase engagement
• and prevent challenging behaviors?
• Share your major changes with others at
• your table and brainstorm possible
• solutions

1
CSEFEL
30
Large Group Activities

• Planning the activity
• Consider the length
• Be clear about the purpose and goals of the
• activities
• Use circle time to teach new things
• Implementing the activity
• Provide opportunities to be actively involved
• Assign jobs to children
• Vary your speech and intonation patterns
• Have children lead activities
• Pay attention to childrens behavior

1
CSEFEL
31
Circle Activity

• Clip 1.2
• Are the children engaged?
• What tells you that?
• Describe the teachers behavior in this clip.
• Clip 1.3
• Are the children engaged?
• What tells you that?
• What is the teacher doing that engages the
  children?
• Both Clips
• What strategies can you suggest that would help
  the teacher engage the children even more?

1
CSEFEL
32
Small Group Activities

• Importance of small group activities
• Skill building
• Individualized attention
• Planning and implementing
• Be clear about the goal
• Use peers as models
• Ensure participation by all children
• Make them fun
• Provide feedback throughout

1
CSEFEL
33
Adaptations and Modifications(Sandall
Schwartz, 2002)

• Environmental support
• Materials adaptation
• Simplify the activity
• Use child preferences
• Special equipment
• Adult support
• Peer support

1
CSEFEL
34
Giving Directions

• Make sure you have the childrens attention
  before you give the direction
• Minimize the number of directions given to
  children
• Individualize the way directions are given
• Give clear directions

1
CSEFEL
35
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
  childrens behavior

1
CSEFEL
36
General Guidelines about Rules and Directions

• Have a few simple classroom rules
• Involve the children in developing
• the rules
• Post the rules visually
• Teach the rules systematically
• Reinforce the rules at high rates
• initially and at lower rates throughout
• the year

1
CSEFEL
37
Involving Children in Developing the Rules

• Have children help generate the rules
• Name the rule and have a child
• demonstrate the rule
• Name the rule and have the children
• identify the visuals that might go on a
• poster
• Have children help decorate a rules
• poster

1
CSEFEL
38
Rules

• Should Address
• Noise level
• Movement inside
• Interactions with property
• Interactions with adults
• Interactions with peers

1
CSEFEL
39
Rules Activity

• Develop a list of 3-5 rules you use or would
  use in a classroom
• Discuss these rules with others at the table
• Brainstorm fun and creative ways for teaching
  the rules

1
CSEFEL
40
Fun Ways to Reinforce the Rules

• Rules Bingo!
• Make a big book about school
• rules
• Homework what are your rules
• at home?
• Play rule charades

1
CSEFEL
41
Ignoring Misbehavior

• Is one of the most effective techniques that can
  be used with students
• Maintains positive teacher-student relationships
  based on respect rather than fear
• Requires that adults give attention for positive
  behaviors as opposed to negative ones
• Can be a powerful tool for changing behavior
  since access to attention is such a positive
  thing for children

1
CSEFEL
42
Ignoring Misbehavior

• Will only be effective with students who desire
  teacher attention
• Is probably the hardest teaching strategy for
  teachers to carry out
• Is unnatural - our natural tendency is to attend
  to students who are being disruptive

1
CSEFEL
43
To Use Ignoring

• Identify the specific behaviors you want to
  focus on
• Plan carefully to provide attention and positive
  feedback to the prosocial behaviors
• Neutralize your reaction to what the student is
  doing
• Return your attention by acknowledging
  appropriate behavior as soon as student begins to
  behave appropriately
• Teach other students to ignore inappropriate
  behaviors

1
CSEFEL
44
When You Ignore

• Most children will initially react to ignoring
  with an increase in the challenging behavior to
  see if they can recruit the adults attention
• Be prepared to wait out the testing period
• Remember that consistency is the key to using
  ignoring!

1
CSEFEL
45
Redirecting

• When children are withdrawn or off task, it is
  important that teachers do not ignore them. That
  can send the message that the teacher has low
  expectations for them or does not care.

1
CSEFEL
46
Redirection

• Can be nonverbal, verbal, or physical in nature
• Should not be confrontational
• Should focus on the behavior you saw and provide
  specific feedback

1
CSEFEL
47
Ongoing Monitoring and Positive Attention

• Give children attention when they
• are engaging in appropriate
• behaviors
• Monitor our behavior to ensure that
  we are spending more time using positive
  descriptive language and less time giving
  directions or correcting inappropriate behavior

1
CSEFEL
48
Positive Attention Activity

• Count the number of positive comments
• the teacher makes (and positive
• nonverbals)
• Have a large group discussion about what
• types of comments and nonverbal
• behaviors the teacher exhibited
• Generate some ideas to help adults
• remain focused on the positive throughout
• the day
• Encourage participants to include some of
• these ideas on their Action Planning Form

1
CSEFEL
49
Using Positive Feedback and Encouragement 4
Principles

• Contingent on appropriate
• behavior
• Descriptive
• Conveyed with enthusiasm
• Contingent on effort

1
CSEFEL
50
Using Positive Feedbackand Encouragement

• Remember to use nonverbal forms
• of positive feedback and encouragement
• Individualize use of positive feedback and
  encouragement based on childrens needs and
  preferences
• Encourage other adults and peers to use
  positive feedback and encouragement

1
CSEFEL
51
Increasing PositiveBehaviors Activity

• What are 3-5 behaviors you
• would like to see increase in your
• setting?
• Review item 8 on the Inventory
• What changes might you make in
• your use of positive feedback and
• encouragement in order to
• increase the behaviors you just
• identified.
• Add this to your Action Plan

1
CSEFEL
52
Sample Certificate

• SUPER FRIEND AWARD!!!
• This certificate is to certify that Marleco
  is a SUPER FRIEND!!
• Today, Marleco used his words to ask Malen nicely
  for a turn on the swing. When he was done
  swinging, he asked Malen if she wanted another
  turn and then helped to push her. At circle
  time, he gave his friend Cesar a compliment!
  YAY Marleco!! What a Super Friend you are!!
• Give yourself a pat on the back!!
• Signed by Miss Gail Mr. Jim
• Date January 7, 2003

53
Major Messages

• The first and most important thing that we can
• do is to build positive relationships with
  every
• child and family
• 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

1
CSEFEL