Attention

Escape/avoidance

Power/control

Peer affiliation

Justice/revenge

Teacher:

Instructional strategies to promote desired alternative behavior

And/or

Instructional strategies to reduce the target behavior

[Note:  when alternate behavior is incompatible with target behavior, the same strategy may work both to promote & to reduce]

-          Teach negotiating and compromise

-          Teach and practice problem solving & conflict resolution

-          Role play

-          Teach to respect personal space

-          Teach to “read” body language

-          Teach about voice tone & volume

-          Remove audience

-          Use verbal de-escalation

-          Peer coaching

-          Identify triggers

-          Set clear and realistic expectations

-          Teach about feelings, emotions, ways to appropriately express

-          Teach relaxation & coping skills

-          Acknowledge feelings may be legitimate even if actions aren’t

-          Teach negotiating skills

-          Teach appropriate escape options that are developmentally reasonable

-          Can the student do the work?  Does he/she believe they can?  May need to reinforce this with the student

-          Is it a skill or performance deficit?

-          Sensory breaks; other break time

-          Minimize transition time

-          Minimize competition between students

-          Reinforce students for asking for help

-          Verbal de-escalation Visual and verbal schedules and/or cues such as a warning bell

-          Leadership activities

-          Choices

-          Flexible work schedule

-          Foreshadow what is to come

-          Be flexible in the nature of the task (reduce length, change order, etc.)

-          Non-verbal cues/signals

-          Minimize transition time

-          Stay near the student in order to intervene before behavior escalates

-          Visual and verbal schedules and/or cues such as a warning bell

-          Acknowledge feeling may be legitimate but actions aren’t

-          Conflict resolution, peer mediation

-          Anger management

-          Teach names of feelings, emotions; how to identify own feelings; ways to express them

-          Is the student mistargeting what they’re mad about?

-          Teach empathy, perspective taking

-          Provide sufficient structure to promote success but enough freedom for the student to expand his/her skills

Student:

Instructional consequences for alternative appropriate behavior

And/or

Instructional consequences for inappropriate target behavior

-          Allow choices for activity

-          Token economy

-          Positive feedback

-          Earned “down” time

-          Notify parents and other key adults

-          Corrective teaching or processing activity

-          Make up lost instructional time

-          Minimize punitive approach and maximize shifting the student back in

-          Have student identify how to get adult or peer attention appropriately

-          Errand runner

-          Homework coupons

-          Choices for activities

-          Earned “down” time

-          Raise student’s awareness of own competence

-          Praise

-          Notify parents and other key adults

-          Teach anger management; self control

-          Teach conflict resolution

-          Have student identify how to appropriately escape

-          Leadership role or privilege

-          Choose either a group or individual activity as reward

-          Reinforce/praise appropriate behavior

-          Notify parents and other key adults

-          Use vignettes, video clips, social stories

-          Teach anger management

-          Use feedback loop

-          Teach relaxation techniques

-          Teach social skills for dealing with authority figures

-          Have student identify appropriate ways to get power or control

-          Leadership role or privilege

-          Repairing the relationship

-          Acknowledge & praise the student’s skill

-          Student becomes a peer mediator

-          Notify parents and other key adults

-          Teach errors in thinking

-          Teach perspective taking, empathy

-          Teach student about rights and responsibilities

-          Teach student how to appropriately get justice

Avoid the use of

-          Ignoring

-          Threats to others

-          Power struggles

-          Raising voice

-          Overwhelming the student

-          Power struggles

-          Sensory overload

-          Removal of activity, allowing student to get out of doing it

-          Letting the student intimidate you

-          Power struggles

-          Physical & negative verbal interactions

-          Public reprimands

-          Cornering student

-          Power struggles

-          Sarcasm, demeaning comments

-          Disrespecting student

-          Embarrassing the student

Special considerations

What led to the behavior – what were the antecedents?  Are low level behaviors being allowed and then escalating?  Are there medical issues, mental health concerns, medications?   Are outside agencies involved (social services, mental health, physician)?    Are there similar patterns at home and in the community?  Is school culture reinforcing problem behavior?  Is the school environment and/or classroom setting a trigger for outbursts?  Are there academic tasks, times of day, activities, certain people that are problems for this student?