Behavioral Support Plans Chenequa S Wallace ECE201: Intro to Early Childhood Behavior Management Instructor: Gayla Lloyd November 26, 2012

Behavior management is the most important topics in early childhood education. Parents and teachers become very frustrated when they are dealing with a child that has behavior issues. In this essay I’m going to explain to you the purpose of early childhood educations and the different strategies that can be used when dealing with early childhood behavior problems. When you have an are dealing with a group of kids that are all different they all have to be handled in a different way. Having classroom management is having a discipline system those teachers’ parents and others that in the school has put into place to help stop the challenging behavior problems. When you have a behavior management in place you will spend more time teaching your kids and less time dealing with disruption in the classroom. When you are dealing with challenging behavior you have to be consistent with whatever rule or method that you have put into place for that child or children. When a child know that you are not being consistent with the method that you are using than they will continue to try test you and see what going to happen next so being consistent is very important when dealing with a child and challenging behavior. Being proactive when dealing with certain situations is very important because you will know how to deal with the problem when it has accrued. When you are being proactive with a child’s challenging behavior than you have a chance to gather all important information that is needed to deal with the problem and solve it. Know that being proactive is the single best thing that an educator can do to support children who have problem behavior. Being proactive means that you are acting in advance - before a problem occurs. When you and the collaborative team understand a child's behavior and the times that the behavior is likely to occur, you can begin to intervene before situations with the child escalate into severe problem behavior. When a child has difficulty learning his alphabet or writing his name, we do not remove that child from the class or send him to the office; instead we teach that child how to do his alphabet. Responding to and preventing problem behavior is no different. If a child is having difficulty knowing how to behave or respond, then we teach that child what is expected in positive, engaging ways. Inadvertently, you can fall into a trap where behavior is punished rather than taught. Being proactive enables us to teach children how to respond in various situations in effective ways. Teachers can effectively prevent problem behavior from occurring in their classrooms when comprehensive supports are in place. Many children have behavior concerns and it should be addressed and handled in a timely manner. Some teachers believe that if they develop strategies that help support one particular child who is having difficulty that the classroom will run much more smoothly. Gaining increasing acceptance within schools and early childhood programs is positive behavior support. When positive behavior supports it helps the children develop social and communication skills. While creating a positive environment for the learning growth. As a classroom teacher you should always have a support system for the children with challenging behavior. You can come up with a support system not just for the child that has challenging behavior but for the children that does not have challenging behavior also. Establishing positive ways to support children who meet those expectations. You always have to make sure that the rules that you are establishing is clear so that the child would understand what he or she is suppose to be doing. Having individual support is also good to because working with someone on a one on one basic will help that child more than it will as a group. Individual support is great because you will be able to sit down and examine the problem that the child is having and you will know how to deal with it on a one on one basic. When dealing with a child that has challenging behavior than you have to come up with some strategies that will help you to deal with that child and change the challenging behavior. When I see that there is a behavior problem that is going on than I would first identify the challenging behavior. When identifying the challenging behavior you should first see what the student was doing when the challenging behavior started or if someone provoked the challenging behavior. You always want to know what was going on before the behavior started. You also want to identify the behavior and know what the behavior was. It could have been kicking screaming punching something that causes the child to become aggressive towards another child or teacher. When you have a child that’s in the class that has challenging behavior you can try altering the classroom Environment. When you are altering the classroom environment this would mean that you would remove or modify environmental conditions within their classroom has triggered challenging behavior. Some students have their own environmental needs. For example if you have a child that has ADHD you should place them an away from noisy, high traffic areas. And you also have students that is easily distracted you should place them in a quite learning center this way they will not be distracted by anything that is a distraction. When a child is ways from the problem than you will a smaller chance of having to deal with the challenging behavior that will accrue if they were keep in the environment with the problem. Working with the kids and around their needs is also important when you are trying to teach a child how to overcome their challenging behavior. You can also transition a student from one activity to another can increase the likelihood of appropriate behavior. This will give students the opportunity to finish doing what are doing and putting it away. Increasing choice making is also a very important when you are dealing with children that have behavior problems or some kids just don’t make the right decisions when it comes to certain things that they do in life. Many people with a disability (especially students with limited motor skills, verbal skills or challenging behaviors) are not provided with the opportunity to make choices in their daily lives. Most people with a disability are often told what task they must perform. This makes it difficult to express their choices or them opinion. Providing a student with challenging behavior with the opportunities to make choices is another way of teaching them that they can influence others without having to resort to challenging behavior. When you are providing choices does not mean that you are allowing them to control situations in which they do not pose a danger to themselves or others nor does it mean allowing students to make choices as part of an approach aimed at increasing student’s inclusion, productivity and independence.
By giving a student the opportunity to make choices, teaches can help lessen student feelings of powerlessness. Teachers, parents, and students together can create a list of choices. A student always wants to feel like they are independent and that they can do things on their own. When you have a child that is showing that they are trying to change the challenging behavior you have to show that they are appreciated that they are trying to control the challenging behavior. Taking advantage of positive reinforcement is very important. Using positive reinforcement will teach a child how to act in certain by rewarding that person for correct behavior. When a student with challenging behavior is rewarded they are most likely to use to same positive behavior in the future. Challenging behavior can also occur when a child doesn’t an appropriate way to achieve an important outcome. By teaching appropriate, alternative responses that serve the same purpose as the challenging behavior will reduce the chance of the challenging behavior occurring. You have to teach a child how to replace the bad behavior with good behavior. When you are a teacher or even a parent you a have to come up with a support plan to help the child with the challenging behavior. Individualized intensive intervention involves an ongoing process of observation, reflection, assessment, planning, and intervention. The purpose is to gain information and insight regarding a child’s behavior, to develop an individualized support plan, and to consistently use agreed upon strategies designed to help a child learn more appropriate behaviors. Furthermore, individualized support plans help determine if (and what types of) additional support may be needed for a child. Programs and families may also consider working with the
Child’s health care provider to rule out any underlying medical cause for the behavior. Although the following steps imply a sequential order to the process, these steps may (and often should) occur simultaneously and be repeated over time.
You should create a team to explore the behavior, share concerns, and develop goals. Potential members should include parents and family members, direct service staff, a mental health consultant, program administrators, health care providers, and any other adult who is concerned and knowledgeable about the child. This process builds upon relationships and previous conversations between family and
Staff members to determine issues and design ongoing communication procedures. The
Program’s mental health consultant may also be included during the initial steps to
Provide guidance and expertise. Gather information and data on the child’s behavior including observations of the child in the environment where the behavior occurs. The goal is to determine the meaning behind the behavior or the purpose the child has in using the behavior. Develop and implement a consistent plan based on a hypothesis (best guess) about the meaning behind the behavior. The plan should include: Strategies designed to prevent the behavior. Strategies may include modifying the curriculum, environment, routines, activities, and interactions. Procedures to teach the child new skills to replace the challenging behavior such as using words, gestures, and gentle touches. New responses for adults to use when the behavior occurs. For example, a teacher
Who usually tells a child to “Use indoor voices” when a child screams from frustration
Might need a more specific strategy, such as of reminding the child to say, “Help.” Assurance that everyone understands the plan and that they are able to consistently
Implement the strategies. The plan should fit into the values, care giving styles, and
Activities of the parents and staff in order to facilitate implementation.
Description(s) of staff and/or family support needed to implement the plan. For
Example, the program will supply an additional teacher to the classroom for certain
Amount of days or for specific time frames so that the primary teacher can focus more
On the individual child. You can create Timelines to assess and monitor the child’s progress. This includes allowing time for staff and family to meet on a regular basis to evaluate progress. Remember, it takes time for young children to master new skills, and oftentimes, a
Behavior can get worse before it gets better. Behavior planning discussions should also include information about the child’s developmental age and stage. Some challenging behaviors are developmentally expected, and changes in the behavior will emerge with appropriate guidance, time, and maturity. There are many different plans that you can come up to help a child that has challenging behavior but in order to keep the challenging behavior under control you have to be consistent with that plan that you have put in place for that student to replace that challenging behavior.

References www.challengingbehavior.org www.pbs.org/parents/.../challenging_behavior
Kaiser, B. & Sklar Rasminsky, J. (2012). Challenging behavior in young children. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.