|
Early Childhood Behavior Project |
|
|
Skip
navigation
|
Summary Transcript of January 19,
2001 Judy Swanson: Welcome to a live chat with Dr. Mary McEvoy, Professor and Chair of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. Our topic today is Managing Challenging Behavior in Educators. Mary is joining us today from Tennessee. Mary McEvoy: Welcome to snowy Tennessee, where schools closed due to the prediction of snow! Now that is challenging behavior! Yes! It is true. Sometimes even educators have challenging behavior! Judy Swanson: Mary, with that title, tell us what you have in mind. Mary McEvoy: You know, we all see challenging behavior in kids, and sometimes it makes it very hard to teach! But sometimes the children see challenging behavior in adults! For example, ever walked into a room where the noise was so loud that it almost was uncomfortable? Or have you ever wondered why a teacher knows that she needs to give a child attention, but is afraid to because it is so rare that the child is nice and quiet? Or how about adults that praise children using terms like" that is pretty good for a child that usually always gets thing wrong"? These are just examples of things adults do that actually might set the occasion for challenging behavior to occur. Judy Swanson: Hi, MV and SN. Glad you could join us. Mary McEvoy: SN and MV, welcome! Do you have things to add? MV: Hello! Thought I'd break with tradition and just listen awhile. SN: Hi Mary. I'm currently working with a team of teachers who just want to send the child to another classroom. Do you have any ideas/strategies for helping teachers keep a child in the classroom? Mary McEvoy: Good question. The first thing that we could do is help the teacher early in the "challenging behavior cycle" by offering ideas and suggestions BEFORE the only solution is the child OUT! We could also help the teacher by videotaping and offering suggestions of ways to "catch the child being good." I think that the more direct and continuous assistance that we offer, the better! SN: What about making changes in the actual teaching practice? Sometimes I feel like I could talk until I was blue in the face and it still wouldn't make a difference. Mary McEvoy: That is a hard one, but very critical. For example, how many times have you heard a teacher say that on the 10th trial the child erupts? Of course, a logical solution is to only do 7-9 trials and work on extending the trials slowly. Or, perhaps using distributed trials instead of mass trials so you get the same amount of training but in smaller doses and spread over time. The issue is that educators often are so frustrated that they do not see that their own behavior may be the main issue. We have to be sensitive to their feelings when we point this out. SN: Do you have some suggestions on how we could word this feedback in a sensitive manner? Mary McEvoy: First and foremost is to develop a relationship with the teacher and affirm his feeling that the challenging behavior is an issue. Next, videotapes help as well, and offering a menu of suggestions that are both child- and adult-focused. I think that is so critical that those of us who provide "expert" assistance have been in the trenches so we know how hard it is to be a teacher. Support is critical! SN: I'm referring to the feedback we provide to teachers, not students. Mary McEvoy: SN, I was talking about ways to work with teachers too! Did it sound like I was treating them like children? Sorry...the point I am trying to make is how important relationship building between consultants and teachers is! SN: No, I just didn't know if I made the question clear enough. MV: If we take time to align our goals with those of the teacher, we can set off from point A to point B together. Too often we are at odds from the outset. Mary McEvoy: Yes, MV, that is so important. It should not be a "consultant" that blows in, makes recommendations, and goes away. Teaming is very critical. I like your suggestion very much. Judy Swanson: I've heard you refer to using the child's name most frequently when it is in response to a behavior and not very often used in praise. Mary McEvoy: Judy, I agree that we call children by name most often when we are angry. In fact in our data, we see kids being virtually ignored unless they are engaging in challenging behavior. A good test would be to see how many times we say a child's name calmly and positively during the day. Judy Swanson: Do you think using the child's name most frequently in a response to challenging behavior can actually increase challenging behavior? Mary McEvoy: I had not thought of that. I am not sure. If the behavior is attention-seeking, then that would work! But the main point is that saying a name is a cue for the teacher to either attend to challenging behavior or behavior that is incompatible with challenging behavior. There is a woman in California—Carol Cole—who has done a great deal of work on building relationships with children in order to address challenging behavior. I think she has also written about building relationships with adults as well. OK, don't get me wrong. I am not talking touchy feely here, but it is important that teachers trust your advise when you are making suggestions that it may be their behavior that is a major problem as well. How many times have you seen a really organized classroom...like no schedule, or no choices, or incompatible areas together, etc.? Those things will make even the mildest behavior seem challenging! MV, you must see a lot of this in the autism programs you work in, don't you? MV: Body language, facial expression, tone of voice, choice of words... Mary McEvoy: Indeed, MV, you are so right...the tone that we use with kids, exasperated looks. Judy Swanson: Give us some other ideas about things teachers should watch for in their own behavior that may indicate they are inadvertently contributing to a child's challenging behavior. Mary McEvoy: OK. First, ask yourself if you can PREDICT when the behavior is likely to occur. If so, what can you do to change the "scenery" so that the antecedents that set the occasion for the behavior change. Look at the schedule. How much time is spent in transitions, when the classroom is less organized and children are waiting? Can you change the amount of wait time? Have you organized those transition times? All contribute to the occurrence of challenging behavior. Have you looked at the classroom materials? Are they rotated, are they working, are the routines always the same and maybe boring? MV: I talk to the parents I serve about dealing with their kids with a "customer service" attitude. We all know how upset we can get if a customer service individual "handles us" incorrectly. Mary McEvoy: I like to think of us all being in this together—the parents, teachers, consultants, peers, child, etc. And the child may "own" the challenging behavior, .but we all play a role in its occurrence. MV: Yet the opposite is true. The teacher or parent can be in control, but still choose behavior and words that are conciliatory, supportive. Mary McEvoy: So we all have a role to play in its elimination. It also helps to think about the important role of adults TEACHING the child a replacement behavior. Eliminate the old form and teach a new form that will serve the same function or resolve the problem. MV: Yes, Mary. It's always a dynamic. Judy Swanson: Teach instead of control behavior - if only we'd remember that! Mary McEvoy: Yes Judy. They don't call us TEACHERS for nothin'! Mary McEvoy: By the way...I still love you guys in AHECSE...you are my heroes and I use you as examples of the way things should be all the time when I talk about teams! MV: I will pass that on! Mary McEvoy: It would be great to see an article about this in some journal. There is so much about what to do "to" the child to change challenging behavior. We need to see some things on what to do "with" the child! Well, I need to sign off. Need to get to the store to buy bread and milk before the 1/4 inch snowfall. The world is upside down here in TN! Take me home to MN soon! MV: Thanks. KA: Thank you, Mary! Mary McEvoy: MV, great chatting with you. Stay in touch! Goodbye. Judy Swanson: Thanks for joining us today. |
|
Early Childhood Behavior
Project Joe Reichle, Ph.D., Co-Principal
Investigators |
||
|
|
||
|
|
|
| University of Minnesota | ||
|
|
||
| Send questions or comments on the web site to Karen
Anderson, Web Site Coordinator. http://pebbles.cehd.umn.edu/ceed/projects/preschoolbehavior/discusschat/chat011901.htm This page was last updated on November 27, 2007. © 2005 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer. Online privacy statement |
||
|
|
||
|
||
[Home] | [Personnel] | [Presentations] | [Strategies] | [Case Studies] | [Discussion] | [Links] | [Contact Us] |
||
Chat Transcript
