Managing Challenging Behavior in Young Children:
A Positive Approach

Presentation Outline

• Introduction

• Functional Assessment

• Interventions

• Environmental Arrangement

• Interventions that Honor the Function of the Behavior

• Interventions that Do Not Honor the Function of the Behavior

Traditional Reactive Strategies

• Reinforcing Alternative Behaviors

• Differential Reinforcement of Low Rate

• Extinction

• Timeout

• Response Cost

• Overcorrection

• Satiation

• Punishment

Antecedent Strategies: Why Are They Advantageous?

• Opportunities can be generated by the interventionist, rather than by challenging behavior.

• They may be less disruptive to the environment than reactive procedures.

• They are educative: New skills may be acquired in the absence of the frazzle that surrounds challenging behavior.

• Opportunities may be created that interrupt anticipatory chains of discriminative stimuli associated with challenging behavior. Do not have to deal with the behavior.

A functional assessment is:

• a process of determining the relationship between events in a person's environment and the occurrence of challenging behaviors.

Functional Assessment Methods

• Indirect Assessments

• Direct Observation Assessments

• Environmental Manipulation Assessments

Indirect Assessments

Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) (Durand & Crimmons, 1988)

Functional Analysis Interview (O'Neill, Horner, Albin, Storey, & Sprague, 1990)

Setting Event Checklist ( Gardner & Cole, 1990)

Information from the Interview Form

• What exactly does the behavior look like?

• What do you think is the possible motivation/function for behavior?

• What events/situations predict the behavior?

• What are the learning characteristics?

• What does the child like and not like?

• How does the child communicate needs, wants, etc.

• What are some other factors (medical, outside schedule) that may affect behavior?

Definition of Setting Event

“...conditions that occur concurrent with problem behaviors or are more distant in time and increase the probability that challenging behavior will occur” (Bijou & Baer, 1961; Wahler & Fox, 1981).

Setting Events

• staff changes
• medications were changed
• slept fewer/more hours than usual
• showed some symptoms of illness
• demand situations
• chaotic/demand environment
• surprise visits from people
• experienced a long waiting time
• was aggressed upon by another peer
• temperature of environment was too hot/cold

Direct Observation Strategies

• ABC Charts
• Scatterplots
• Functional Observation Analysis

Conducting Systematic Environmental Manipulations

• What are they?

• Controlled comparisons of at least two different antecedents or two different consequences that are hypothesized to influence the emission of challenging behavior

• Why should they be implemented?

– To clearly identify specific antecedents and/or consequences influencing challenging behavior that could not be isolated during direct observation

Guidelines for Conducting Environmental Manipulations

• Conduct manipulations only when you can readily control relevant situations

• Determine risk (employ protective equipment)

• Obtain permission

• Have a specific hypothesis prior to implementing

Environmental Arrangement

• Goal: Safe, easy-to-use, promoting desired behavior and preventing problems.

Key Ingredients for Structuring Your Program for Positive Behavior

• Create a physical arrangement that eases management, promotes interaction, and prevents problems.

• Establish program rules that help guide behavior of children and adults.

• Utilize staff in an efficient and effective manner.

• Provide materials that promote attention and persistence.

• Develop a daily schedule that establishes transitions and routines.

Tips for Arranging Activity Areas

• Activity areas - distinct areas, separated by low dividers that the teacher can easily see over.

• Separate areas by using low barriers, tape on floor, carpet, tables, shelving, room dividers.

• Label activity areas (e.g., a picture of children playing with blocks with the word BLOCKS).

• Activity areas should be arranged so that quiet activities are together (e.g., art, reading, and listening to tapes).

Tips for Arranging Activity Areas

• Louder activity areas should be together (e.g., blocks, dramatic play).

• Separate quiet and active areas (e.g., cars and reading).

• Check traffic patterns between activity areas, bathrooms, etc.

– Are they planned so that children can easily move from one area to another, with a pathway wide enough to accommodate children with orthopedic devices? Are there any large open spaces or “freeways”?

• Activity areas need to be accessible to all children in the room, including those with physical disabilities.

• Limit the number of children in an activity area (chairs, tickets, carpet squares, pictures of the number of children per activity, small rugs).

• Quiet area should be provided for relaxation or quiet time.

Sample Classroom Rules

• Share materials.

• Talk in an inside voice.

• Listen to the teacher.

• Touch gently.

• Walk in the classroom.

Materials

General Rules

• Have a plan in place for those items which cannot be shared (e.g., timer, list, necessary social skill “May I play with the phone next?”).

• Adaptive equipment may be needed to help children participate in all activities (e.g., clamps to hold paper, page turner)

Utilizing Staff

Arrangement

Zone vs. Child directed monitoring.

Responsibilities

• Each member of the staff should know what he or she should be doing at any given time.

• All responsibilities related to paperwork, teaching assignments, data collection, materials preparation, etc., should be clearly delineated. These responsibilities should be translated to the daily schedule.

Staff Planning

• Allocate sufficient time for:

- planning individual or group activities.

- preparing classroom materials. sharing observations,  information, and strategies with  each other, evaluating the effectiveness of  the activities and strategies.

• Communication

• Daily meetings (15 - 20 minutes) attended by teaching staff provides an opportunity to discuss:

- events of the day progress of individual children strategies to make instruction more effective plans for the future

• Weekly meetings attended by teaching staff and consultant-specialists provides an opportunity:

- for specialists to present assessment data for specialists to teach teaching staff therapeutic or instructional techniques for individual students for the team to develop instructional plans that target IFSP/IEP goals in the context of functional skills.

Scheduling Activities

• Schedule all activities including transitions, snack, and play.

• Alternate “work” and “play” to build natural rewards into your schedule.

• Order activities to reflect when they would occur in the natural environment.

•  Provide a variety of interesting activities. Interspersing active and quiet activities and utilizing changes in settings.

•  Follow your schedule but be flexible.

• If you find yourself falling behind, change your plans.

Peer-Mediated/Consequence Strategies

• Peer-Mediated Strategies

• Buddies or role models

• Consequence Strategies

- Have the child ring a bell when they get to the transitioning activity
- Have the child beat the buzzer when they transition to another activity
- Have the child receive directions for the new task by a novel method (e.g., off a tape recorder, turning a picture over).

Rearranging the Environment

Physical Arrangement

- Low Barriers
- Traffic patterns
- Space and density
- Similar activities
- Clearly defined areas

Staffing Patterns

- Zone vs. child directed
- Rotate children between activities

Materials

– Interesting and accessible Rotate Work and have extra batteries

Scheduling

– Planning of transitions
- Active to quiet
- Alternate work and play
- Schedule a variety of activities
- Adapt to children's schedule

Indicators of Disorganized Environment

• Noise level
• Staff placement/tone
• Schedule not followed
• Poor organization of space
• Transitions not planned
• Children waiting

Interventions that Do Honor the Function of the Behavior

Response Prompts

• Gestural prompt: Point to an untied shoe.

• Verbal prompt: Say, “Put your toys away.”

• Model prompt: Demonstrate how to put the toothpaste on the toothbrush.

• Partial physical prompt: Touch a student's hand to indicate that a sponge should be picked up.

• Full physical prompt: Place a hand over the student's hand and guide the spoon to the student's and guide the spoon to the student's mouth.

Rejecting

A socially acceptable act produced to avoid contact with an undesired person, object, or activity

– When given Brussels sprouts at dinner, Karen says “Don't want,” and they are removed. Right before gym time, Ryan signs “all done.”

Teaching Rejecting

Steps for Implementation

– Identify the earliest possible point at which individual attends to the approach of the undesired event without engaging in challenging behavior.
– Reinforce the absence of challenging behavior in the presence of the undesired event.
– Prompt or model the desired communicative alternative in the presence of the undesired event.
– Shape successively better approximations or gradually reduce the learner's reliance on response prompts.
– Ensure that rejecting is used conditionally.

Request a Break

A socially acceptable request to withdraw from an uncompleted task with the expectation of resuming engagement

– During a puzzle activity, Joanie touches her “break” symbol indicating that she needs a break.
– During work, Beth raises her hand to indicate that she needs a snack break.

Teaching “Requesting a Break”

Steps for Implementation

– Determine the amount of engagement prior to an escape attempt.
– Just prior to arriving at this point, release the child from the task.
– Once challenging behavior has diminished, prompt a request for a break at the critical point of engagement.
– After a correct response, the child should be immediately released to a break activity.
– Near the end of the designated break activity, it may be necessary to have an inducement to get back to work.

Request an Alternative Activity

A socially acceptable act that specifies a desire to engage in a different activity

– While working on the computer, Leah touches the symbol on her AAC device for “t.v." During painting, Cory holds up the top of a play-doh container, indicating his desire to change activities.

Steps for Implementation

The initial steps of this approach are identical to requesting a break

» The child may be taught to request one of several explicit activities or a general “can I do something else” response. This strategy is often implemented concurrently with efforts to teach communicative request.

Request Assistance

This strategy can be implemented when the interventionist is certain that providing unsolicited assistance reduces emission of challenging behavior

– During a cutting activity, Angie signs “help” and her teacher comes over to help her. When putting the dishes away after dinner, Becky requests “I need help, please.”

Teaching “Requesting Assistance”

Steps for Implementation

Provide unsolicited assistance in presence of a provoking activity.

-but-

in the absence of challenging behavior. Just prior to delivering unsolicited assistance, prompt a request.

Request Attention

Sometimes individuals who escape activities are more likely to engage if they have attention of others while they engage in the less preferred activity. If this is the case it will have been demonstrated during the assessment process.

– During a group activity, Mary gestures for the teaching assistant to “Come here” When a teacher walks by, Frank pushes a button on his communication device that says, “Stop and talk to me.”

Teaching Request for Attention

Steps for Implementation

– Upon the approach of the activity, the interventionist will offer their company and will stay contingent on child engagement in the unpreferred activity.
– Once this strategy has resulted in a greater likelihood of child engagement in the activity, the interventionist will begin to delay the delivery of attention and instead deliver a prompt to the individual to produce a request for attention.

Interventions that Do Not Honor the Function of Behavior

Tolerance for Delay of Reinforcement

Teaching the child to (a) stay engaged in a task/activity, or (b) wait for a desired object for longer periods of time.

Examples:

– At the lunch table, the child begins to get fidgety. Teacher says, “Two more bites.”
– At storytime, Margaret starts to complain that she wants to leave, the Teacher says, “Four more pages.”

Steps for Implementation

– Identify the situation. Identify the shortest amount of time that the child will wait before exhibiting behavior. (CTP)
– Choose a delay signal.
– Engage the child in the activity.
– Deliver the delay signal prior to the critical time period.
– Continue engagement for a short time longer.
– Deliver a safety signal and reinforcement (e.g., release student from task, deliver requested object/tangible).
– Gradually increase time child has to wait between signal and delivery of activity/object

Providing Choices

Choice making is a competency or skill which is demonstrated when a child selects a preference from among two or more options. Once a skill is established, choice making can be used as an intervention strategy to increase participation or to reduce the likelihood of disruptive escape and avoidance behaviors.

Steps for Implementation

– Identify a continuum of preferred/nonpreferred objects or activities.
– Determine whether it is acceptable for the child to engage in one or both of the offered activities.
– Present choices.

– Among Activities
Offering a choice between undesired activities often decreases challenging behavior in those activities.

– Within Activities
Offering choices between components of an nonpreferred activity often decreases challenging behavior.

Prespecified Reinforcers

Prespecifying the reinforcer means that prior to engaging the child in the target activity, the child is told or shown what he/she will receive when the task is finished. It is an “if/then” statement.

Steps for Implementation

– Identify items and events that have reinforcing qualities.
–  Identify situations in which the child engages in challenging behavior.
– Present request along with prespecified reinforcer.
– Consequate appropriately.

Preferred Items as Distractors

An intervention strategy in which a child is given a preferred item during an activity or event in which he or she typically emits escape/avoidance motivated challenging behaviors.

Pairing the preferred item with the undesired activity or event is intended to distract the child and decrease the likelihood that he or she will engage in challenging behaviors to escape.

Steps for Implementation

– Identify situations in which distractors may be useful.
– Identify how long the child will tolerate an activity before producing challenging behavior.
– Identify preferred items.
– Deliver distractor prior to engagement in challenging behavior.

Examples

• Giving a baby a toy to play with while bathing her.
• Letting a child listen to a tape recorder while riding in the car.

High-Probability Requests

An intervention strategy that can be implemented to increase children's participation in activities that generate escape-motivated challenging behavior. High-probability and low-probability requests must be chained together.

Steps for Implementation

• Identify a set of high-probability requests. (Those responded to 80% or more)
• Identify a set of low-probability requests. (Those responded to 30% or less)
• Ensure validity of Hi and Low P's
• Implement Hi-P request
• Deliver Low-P request

Collaborative Activities

Sharing the responsibilities of the task or activity in which a child typically exhibits challenging behaviors.

Steps for Implementation

– Identify critical activity or time period.
– Present offer to assist in undesired activity.
– Identify activity.
– Split the responsibilities of the task.
– Prior to the child's engaging in challenging behavior, present the task demand in a collaborative fashion.

NOTE: This intervention is effective for those children that engage in challenging behavior to escape from an activity and obtain attention.

 

The Multi-statewide Outreach Project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning (Grant #HO24D70015).

Preschool Behavior Project
Center for Early Education and Development (CEED)
University of Minnesota
40 Education Sciences Building, 56 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN, 55455
Christopher Watson, Project Coordinator
Phone: 612-625-2898 Fax: 612-625-6619

http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed/projects/preschoolbehavior/presentations/handout.htm