Understanding and Supporting

Challenging StudentsSara Dilday and Lisa Tull

SMSD Behavior Specialists

Ultimate Goal? What do you feel is the ultimate goal for

students at Crosstrails? What do you feel is your role in helping

them to achieve that goal? How have you been prepared to help the

students reach this goal?

• More intense supplemental targeted skill interventions• Customized interventions• Frequent progress monitoring to guide intervention design

Kansas MultiKansas Multi--Tiered System of Support (MTSS)Tiered System of Support (MTSS)

• Student centered planning

• Customized function-based interventions• Frequent progress monitoring to guide intervention design

AcademicsAcademicsBehaviorBehavior

KSDE - July 2007 Draft

• All students• Evidence-based core curriculum & instruction• Assessment system and data-based decision making

• All students, All settings

• Positive behavioral expectationsexplicitly taught and reinforced

• Consistent approach to discipline• Assessment system and data-based decision making

• Supplemental targeted function-based interventions• Small groups or individual support• Frequent progress monitoring to guide intervention design

• Supplemental targeted skill interventions • Small groups• Frequent progress monitoring to guide intervention

design

80-90%

10-15%

1-5%

Characteristics of Explosive Children

Striking inflexibility Low frustration tolerance

“ ….these children do not choose to be explosive and noncompliant- any more than a child would chose to have a

reading disability—but are delayed in the process of developing the skills that are critical to being flexible and tolerating frustration or have significant difficulty applying

these skills when they most need to.” –Ross Greene.

Skill Deficits

Executive skills Shifting cognitive sets: the ability to shift from

one mind-set to another Organization and planning: the ability to organize

and plan how to deal with a problem or frustration

Separation of affect: the ability to separate your emotional response to a problem from the thinking you need to solve a problem

Skill Deficits (cont.)

Language Processing Skills Categorizing and expressing emotions Identifying and articulating one’s needs Solving problems

Skill Deficits (cont.)

Emotion Regulation Skills Depression, bi-polar, anxiety Or are these kiddos capacities for frustration

tolerance and flexibility compromised more often and therefore they haven’t acquired the skills for handling these situations?

Skills Deficit (cont.)

Cognitive Flexibility Skills Black and white thinkers in a “gray” world

Skills Deficit (cont.)

Social Skills the group of complex skills that one must have to

appropriately navigate social interactions.

They Would If They Could! Society tends to believe that all children are

created equal in terms of these skills. That leads to the belief that “Explosive

Children” want to be non-compliant and handle frustration in a maladaptive way.

In most cases this isn’t true. In most cases “…..Children do well if they can.”

What now? Our goal for students is to provide them

with the skills needed to be successful in their home schools.

Our role as professional educators is to: Model appropriate behavioral expectations Build meaningful relationships Provide a safe and supportive learning

community

The Power of Behavior Modeling When you are in the presence of your

students, you are a model for behavior. What do your words and actions

communicate? What are the students learning about

acceptable behavior during academic instruction, transitions, casual social interactions, etc.

Why Modeling? Albert Bandura: Social Learning Theory “The research of Albert Bandura supports

his hypothesis that behavior is strengthened, weakened, or maintained by the modeling of behavior by others.”

How to serve as an effective model? Awareness:

Adults can unintentionally serve as models of inappropriate behaviors by doing such things as using sarcasm or trivializing situations.

View yourself as a model when you are around students whether that is your intent or not.

When Am I A Model? ALWAYS! A student is verbally releasing at you. He/she is

engaging in inappropriate language and disrupting the environment.

The class assignment is for the student to be reading silently.

You are talking to a colleague in the hallway and a student is walking by.

You and a colleague are in the classroom with students who are working independently.

Building Relationships

Children don’t care what you know until they know that you care.

Some children are biologically predisposed to having more difficulty attaching and maintaining relationships, while others are naturally more capable of loving..

Hughes, 2001

Importance of Attachment

Attachment allows us to learn empathy, caring, sharing, inhibition of aggression, remorse -- the capacity to love and a host of other characteristics of a healthy, happy and productive person all of which are formed in infancy and early childhood.

Bruce Perry, 2008

It’s all about the relationship

Humans need relationships to survive, learn, work and love. (Bruce Perry, www.centerforabuseandtrauma.com) 

Research shows that close relationships between teachers and children are an important part of creating high-quality care environments and positive child outcomes. The student/teacher relationship is the #2 relationship in a child’s life after their parents. (http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/teaching/TC101-207.html)

Building A Community

“The sense of community is a feeling members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and the group, and a shared faith that member’s needs will be met through their commitment to be together.”

McMillan and Chavez

Elements Contributing To Community For Students.

1. An orderly, predictable environment.

2. Emotional safety.

3. Pro-social skills and interactions.

Four Attributes of Community Fairfield

Membership Occurs when people feel emotionally secure,

personally invested & a sense of belonging. Influence

Students must feel they have influence over what the group does.

Students are rewarded for participating Fundamental for maintaining community.

Shared emotional connection Critical feature necessary for people to

experience true community.

Bibliographyhttp://tip.psychology.org/bandura.html

http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/publications/tipsheets/preschoolbehaviortipsheets/modeling.pdf