The manner in which a teacher responds to a student’s challenging behavior can result in positive and negative outcomes. Often students have been conditioned that by engaging in certain behaviors their needs or wants will be met, thus making the challenging behavior an adaptive behavior. Teachers need to be aware of how they respond to challenging behavior to avoid inadvertently reinforcing the challenging behavior. However, by teaching and positively reinforcing replacement behaviors, students will learn to engage in more appropriate behaviors to get what they want and need.

 

Coordinate with a certified special education teacher to work with a student or small group of students who have behavior plans in place. Teach an activity of your mentor teacher’s choice to the students and observe the following:

1. Setting: What is the setting like surrounding where the students are participating in the activity?
2. Interventions/Plans: What are the interventions, replacement behaviors, and/or goals in place for the students?
3. Crisis Plan in place by mentor/district: Refer to Topic 6 assignment. What plans are in place to ensure students’ safety?
4. Activity: What is the activity you are facilitating? How does it support the behavior needs of the students? If it does not fully support the student behavior needs, how could it be adapted?
5. General behavior during activity: How did the students engage with the activity, you (as the teacher), and any other students?
6. Misbehavior or disruptive behavior: Did the students display any misbehavior or disruptive behavior? Why do you think they did or did not behave appropriately? Or, if they behaved appropriately, what do you feel contributed to them following the expectations without misbehavior?

Use any remaining field experience hours to assist the teacher in providing instruction and support to the class.

Part 1

In 250‐500 words, summarize and reflect upon the above observation points in your clinical field experience. 

Part 2

In an additional 250‐500 words, explain how you will use what you have learned from the clinical field experiences in this course in your future professional practices relating to behavior management and addressing any crisis situations observed or discussed with mentor. Cite the Ethical Principles and Professional Practice Standards in your response.

APA format is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.

Proposal for Behavior Change Template

Part 1: ABC Chart

ABC Chart

Student Name: Joseph

Class	Activity What was the activity or task during the time of the behavior?	Antecedent What was the trigger or situation right before the behavior occurred?	Behavior What was the observed behavior?	Consequence What happened because of the behavior?
Reading	It was during a one-hour science reading lesson.	The teacher told all students to stay inside their seats and read.	Joseph went out of his seat fifteen times and in total, he went out of his seat 25 times.	Asking the teacher several off-topic questions, drinking water and sharpening pencils.
Reading	During science class reading hours.	The teacher tells everyone to pay attention and read.	Tapping his foot against the desk to attract other student’s attention.	Does not complete his classwork on time.
Science	During afternoon science class reading hours.	The teacher tells everyone to pay attention and read.	Joseph only went out of his seat four times in 40 minutes.	More engaged.
Science	During afternoon science class reading hours.	The teacher tells everyone to pay attention and read.	Joseph sharpened his pencils twice and gets a Kleenex once.	More engaged.
Science	During afternoon science class reading hours.	The teacher tells everyone to pay attention and read.	Get another lab worksheet once.	More engaged.

Operational definition for Joseph’s target behavior

Operational definition for Joseph’s target behavior: Joseph asks irrelevant questions in class without seeking permission from the science teacher. He also went out of his seat fifteen times and in total, he went out of his seat 25 times.

Analysis: Joseph is not finishing his classwork on time because he does not stay on his seat most of the time. Also he loves tapping his foot against the desk thus unnecessarily attracting other student’s attention. Nonetheless, he sometimes during science class only went out of his seat four times in 40 minutes, and started engaging in classwork unlike previously.

Operational definition for Joseph’s target behavior: Moreover, Joseph asking the teacher several off-topic questions, drinking water and sharpening pencils.

Analysis: The above description of Joseph’s behavior shows that Joseph sometimes loses his senses and asks the teacher meaningless questions. Therefore, asking unnecessary questions would mean that Joseph is partly mentally affected and needs proper mental assessment and invention.

Operational definition for Joseph’s target behavior: Joseph starts concentrating on what is being taught in class and improves overall performance. This means that he begins to mental improvement and reduce the suffering loss of memory during science class.

Part 2: Analysis of Data

Hypothesis of target behavior including the function of behavior:

The insufficient dopamine transporter or lack of magnesium due to hyper-excretion may be the major cause of the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Blanco‐Vieira et al., 2019). But most likely ADD will not really be understood till it is broken out into multiple sub-groups. Some forms of ADD are, arguably, towards the normal end of the autism spectrum which would mean that things like ubiquinol which help improve anti-oxidant status in some people with autism might also help people with ADD.

Analysis of case study:

Unfortunately, an accurate diagnosis of ADHD is sketchy in younger children under the age of six (Ferreira et al., 2019). As observed with Joseph in the case study, the inability to focus, lack of concentration, lack of social skills, executive function disorders are among the symptoms of ADHD, and babies exhibit it because they have not had time to develop these traits/skills, yet. While we are now able to diagnose ADHD earlier than say ten years ago, it is still not an exact science.

Considering the case of Joseph, the first 5-minutes, the child is so focused on the science class reading, a team of class members could not dislodge their focus. Fast forward 15-minutes and trying to get them to sit still until a fish bites are like trying to herd cats. Add a couple of years, being overstimulated from the age of 6-months, by the Electronic Babysitter, and anyone would exhibit signs of ADHD (Leon, Sharma & Kaur, 2019), and the best thing their teacher can do is to start them early by having dedicated “learning” time”, when they must sit for periods to learn something. At first, it is perhaps 1-minute and then over time, working up to 30-minutes as they approach Kindergarten. By the time they are six or so, any signs of ADHD will be much more pronounced and distinguishable from normal childhood behavior.

Medication is a beautiful advantage, if/when it is needed, but if it is not required, your child is much better off without it (Marx, Reis & Berger, 2019). While ADHD medications in adults are a well-studied concept, understand that the first medicated kids are just now entering working age, so long-term effects of stimulant medications on children are just now beginning to be published and even then it is only on one or two generations. Don’t be too eager to medicate your child because you “think” they might have ADHD. If you are concerned, take your child to see a reputable mental health professional who specializes in ADHD AND Holistic approaches to ADHD (Marx, Reis & Berger, 2019). Once they get into school, there will be plenty of teachers who will suggest stimulant medications to calm normally active kids. From my experience, there could be anywhere from 15–50% of kids on Stimulant Meds who shouldn’t be (This is my opinion and not based on recent research). Will stimulant medications on younger children affect their chances later in life? Only time will tell.

Part 3: Intervention Ideas and Replacement Behaviors

Motivational and Instructional Intervention Ideas
1	Mention the student’s name when giving instructions and they may also stand nearby.
2	Remove distractions. Have the student sit alone or with studious kids.
3	Break down the assignment to smaller parts and ensure that each section is done on schedule.
4	Use encouragement and positive statements especially when the student stays on task for longer periods of time.
5	Schedule breaks during class times, especially if it is a block scheduled day.

Part 4: Proposed Intervention Plan

Goal 1 (Identify one functional behavior focus: attention, tangible, or escape):

Replacement behavior: Attention.

Specific steps to change behavior (antecedent modifications): Schedule breaks during class times, especially if it is a block scheduled day. Evidence-based shows that, there are a few different ways to deal with heavy study habits and breaks. A student can set a timer to focus on a particular subject for 30–45 minutes and then take a break for 10 minutes. Then, they can switch to a different subject afterward to help break up the monotony. If they are studying multiple subjects, they need to do a little “review” session at the end of the time period to see what they have retained. Another option is to commit to a few hours on the same subject and insert 10–15 minute breaks every hour. Anything less than 30 minutes does not really merit the effort. It usually takes your brain 5–8 minutes to tune into what you’re studying and the rest is actual input time.

Strategies to manage situations (to reduce target behavior) using collaboration with general educators and other colleagues:

Attentive, obedient students and hardworking will always get along with others in the first place. The regular feedbacks- good and bad is a strategy to draw students’ attention. Tell them that they are appreciated, this goes both ways. Badly treated students will take it out on one another and to the customers. Not micromanaging them, and being completely fair to all students. No favoritism because it destroys any kind of morals when one student is treated better and is unfair to others. Therefore, the teacher should be friendly and kind, but not too informal.

Rewards and reinforcements: a reward in the classroom is part of the feedback from the environment. When a student interacts with the classroom environment, he can observe the changes in the state and reward signal through his actions, if there is change. He can then use this reward signal-can be positive for a good action or negative for a bad action-to draw conclusions about how to behave in a class. The goal, in general, is to solve a given task with the maximum reward possible. That is why many algorithms have a very small negative reward for each action the student takes to animate him to solve the task as fast as possible.

Progress monitoring (what data will be collected and in what manner, including data from colleagues and student’s family): a teacher can inquire about an assignment’s progress or give feedback via the task’s assigned comments or dedicated discussions area. The best part is that Paymo is free for 1 year for anyone – be it a student, teacher, or academic staff – who is currently enrolled at a university or college. They need to learn more about other features that can help you manage marketing and curricula.

Steps to resolve any escalation:

1. Follow the school procedure.

2. If the school does not have a procedure, then ask for one in writing.

3. If the procedure is not sufficient then point out the issues to management in writing.

4. If you fear for your safety (since you cannot legally defend yourself) or the safety of the students make the school aware of the issue in writing.

5. Be clear about what is expected from management (a panic button) with an expected response time in writing.

6. Finally, if it comes to it let the school know in advance that if certain conditions happen then you will call the police and press charges.

Part 5: Reflection

I think one of the major causes of ADHD in students is the teacher’s teaching style. Some teachers take a liking to a few classmates over others. This may leave the rest of the class feeling left out, and which will cause some to be more motivated than others. I have had teachers who single others out as the “lazy” student. They make jokes about them laughing in front of the class saying “Devin! Where is that homework? You did do it right?” And it was only them called out, and this happened frequently. That made these students value the teacher less and be less interested in what he said while others felt he was disrespecting them. If a teacher makes everything about work and speed, it can decline student interest. If you come in, hand in lengthy homework, say “go, we have a lab to do not much time!!”, then briefly mention next assignment over all the commotion, speed through a PowerPoint that you are slowly reading line by line, it is just going to make students tune out during lectures and feel overwhelmed. They will lose interest in the subject and do the work for the grade; half assign most of it because of the quantity of work.

I like when a teacher steps away from all the strictness and seriousness and talks from his own point of interest to teach. Makes jokes that do not involve students, I like that. I like just hearing him/her talk about the subject they are passionate about, and being honest with students and talking to them as equals, teaching with empathy (i.e. the teacher being aware of what it’d be like to be in the shoes of a student in his/her own class). It also helps if the teacher teaches with a simple view of their subject, breaking it down to bite-sized bits that would make sense to anyone. When a teacher focuses on how complex something is or how difficult it is to understand, the students feel more stressed as if understanding it will be near impossible. When the teacher has the mindset of “this is easy, just start small here, we’ll build to here,” it really helps students have less stress and quicker learning.

It is important for teachers to address students in their class that is prone to talking just to hear their own voice. Some individual persons will take up half the class telling personal stories or asking questions that tangent off the subject. This is because it is taking away learning time for 20+ students in the class. While a student is talking aloud toward the teacher, wasting class time, going on and on, it will take the student’s focus away from the subject that the teacher had worked so hard to get.

Big auditorium classes in university that hold hundreds of students per class really need to test volume levels before the beginning of a semester. I’ve been in one of those classes before and was unable to hear much and wasn’t sure what the teacher was teaching. I started skipping classes and trying to learn on my own from the books. The first test I flunked and I was really discouraged. As well my professor was extremely monotone pointing to a screen and reading line by line. It was very boring. I feel like the professor did not have much awareness for the students’ perspective in that situation and was thinking of how he could sound very intellectual instead. Students aren’t there to hear the professor get his dander upon how smart he is. He can be a good professor by getting the students to know what he knows and not drift off in his own thoughts aloud, confusing everyone.

References

Blanco‐Vieira, T., Santos, M., Ferrão, Y. A., Torres, A. R., Miguel, E. C., Bloch, M. H., … & do Rosario, M. C. (2019). The impact of

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in obsessive‐compulsive disorder subjects. Depression and anxiety.

Ferreira, S., Zeron, R., Carvalho, G., Gandra, L., Carestiato, V., Bastos, A., … & Mujanović, A. (2019, May). Therapeutic Aspects and

Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder—ADHD in Adults. International Conference on Medical and Biological

Engineering (pp. 769-773). Springer, Cham.

Leon, C., Sharma, R., & Kaur, S. (2019). Attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder: missing the bull’s eye. Evidence-based mental

health, 22(1), e1-e1.

Marx, I., Reis, O., & Berger, C. (2019). Perceptual timing in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as

measured by computer-based experiments versus real-life tasks: protocol for a cross-sectional experimental study in an ambulatory

setting. BMJ Open, 9(4), e027651.