Classroom behaviour techiniques please

[workingmum]

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• Behaviour well managed , occasional lapses – but set guidelines, pre warnings , withheld privileges work , time out, heart to heart discussions work.

• An interesting fact – DC will tell us about his behaviour at school – good and not so good. Not sure what to make of that really. As a child myself, I will not tell my parents if I have been bad at school but DC will.

 

At school.

• Not coping at all - lots of withdrawals from the class due to continuous humming, chewing at pens, pencils, ignores class teachers and teaching assistants instructions

• Refuses to accept that he needs help – does not want any 1 to 1 support

• Goes into meltdown for minor triggers like wrong pens, where to sit, etc

• Would not respond when in meltdown situations – ignores all

• Used to respond to authoritative figures – SENCO, Strict class teacher, Head teacher - but not anymore

• Different class teacher this year – not as strict or firm shall i say – don’t know if this means anything – but have noticed in the past that – we had less problems with firm teachers than those that have been lax.

• Was recently rude to a teacher – won’t listen – went to school this morning with an apology letter

• School have tried lots of things like – having teachers that he is used to help out, now they are removing him from the class when he has his meltdowns so he works in a different place – not sure if this is counter productive – however we don’t want the other kids been disturbed as they prepare for SATS.

• Could he be using this – disruptive behaviours to get time out from stress in the classroom– I don’t know.

What do we do, please any one with classroom behavioural techniques – well appreciated. I have meeting with SENCO and class teacher on Monday.

[Yossarian]

I suggest your son needs more help than the school can provide. Does he have a statement?

Are outside agencies involved?

If statemented, ask for an interim review.

Ask for your son to see an educational pyschologist.

Write everything down

Sorry for short reply - school run

[Sally44]

Firstly you need to try to identify whether certain behaviour is due to not being able to cope with the demands of the lesson, task, environment. Are the language, social, communication, emotional or visual demands too much for him.

Refusing help is very common. My son is the same. He gets very frustrated that he cannot do certain things and he is well aware that other children are able to do them. He refuses support because he says it is offered "because you think i'm stupid" etc.

Remember that a "meltdown" is a very particular emotional and sensory state the person is in. In that state the best thing to do is to remove the child from the situation to a quiet area and have an adult sit with them until they have calmed down. Best not to talk to them or touch them until that is achieved. And the child should be familiar with this removal process before it happens so they know what to expect.

Supports within the class and lessons should be at a level that reduces stress and anxiety even if it is know that the child is capable of completing X, he may not be able to complete X, Y and Z all on the same day or within the same lesson.

So use alot of visual support. Keep language simple. A good technique teachers can use verbally and visually is to talk about the 'end aim' or goal of the lesson so that the child knows what they are working towards as they may not be able to pick up that information from the sequential steps when the other children will get them.

Anxiety and stress in an ASD child can be hard to recognise especially if they don't have the appropriate language, voice tone, expression/gestures/body language, that we would understand meant 'anxiety'. That turned out to be a major factor with my own son. Although he was saying he could not cope no-one was listening because he was not exhibiting the extent of his distress other than by vomitting and again school did not recognise that as a stress response.

There needs to be very clear consequences for bad behaviour, but the school also need to try things like building in extra breaks, allowing the pupil to move between classrooms earlier to avoid the rush etc. And to monitor how that affects the child's behaviour. There can also be other factors affecting the child that may not even be recognised yet. For example humming in class. Is that to block out other sensory stimulus, is it a self calming technique. Chewing on things can be a proprioceptive need and sometimes something as simple as OT supplying a certain kind of chair cushion can help reduce or remove that kind of behaviour.

In my own child's case it has now been proven that he has definate visual processing difficulties and has prosopoagnosia of some degree. My son does not get overly upset with changes in people and that was thought to be a good thing. But we now know that that is probably because he doesn't even notice the change of person. He is unable to recognise or name adults or children he has been with for years. And being in that daily environment does increase stress because you do not automatically know 'who' to say things to or who they are. Sometimes it takes years to find things like this out.

When your child is calm, also ask them what their experience was. My own son frequently appears deaf and that is a real sensory response. He then gets very angry with himself when he realises he has not heard what everyone else did and will harm himself by banging his head or scratching his face and saying "my brain is rubbish". And if/when that is happening without the child even knowing they will be continually confused because when they do occasionally "tune in" to what is being said it will not make sense. Teachers may think the child is ignoring them or being rude, and the same can apply to children thinking he is ignoring them when actually he is totally unaware of what is being said.

Try not to make assumptions that he can do things, or has certain skills until you have seen it demonstrated in a number of environments and with a number of different people.

Don't know if that helps at all.

[Sally44]

If school are frequently having to remove him from the class because he is not coping or is disruptive, and yet he is able to complete work outside the class without disruption, then that suggests he needs a small group teaching environment which may not be possible mainstream. This environment is usually achieved in autism units and specialist placements. And you need a placement that caters for his cognitive level. If the school is able they maybe able to remove him for part of lessons to complete work with a TA, but all that would need to be specified and quantified in a Statement.

Some on the spectrum can and do cope mainstream whilst others cannot.

[KezT]

my DS benefitted greatly from having his own desk, chair, pen ect which was aways in the same place, always his and no-one else could move things around etc.

 

A "safe" place to go when he needs time out is also helpful - especially as he starts to recognise when he is geting wound up

 

nothing beats daily contact with his teacher, discusing exactly what, where, who, why and when.... especially as he is being open and honest about problems. seeing you and school are on the same page will help

 

A visual reminder of key behaviours can help - my DS had a place mat spelling out his name and some key behaviours for each letter

[Karen A]

Hi.

We have certainly found that time out of class may become counter productive.I became aware of the issue when I overheard Ben describing to a friend how he had not taken his coat off.One teacher had previously sent Ben out of class for keeping his coat on.He did not much fancy group work which he does find a challenge so just ensured his coat remained firmly on his back with the desired result.

 

On occasions teachers send Ben out of class and then have to escalate sanctions because he would rather remain outside than come back in.

 

I appreciate that sanctions are needed and that it is not fair on other pupils if disruption is not dealt with.However in my opinion a sanction is not effective if it encourages the behaviour that is an issue.

 

We have found that some things are better ignored than challenged.For instance Ben takes pens to bits and fiddles with the pieces.This if anything is a way of helping him to focus.It does not inconvenience anyone but us who are forever buying pens.If challenged he would not concentrate and would become frustrated.I think the same thing could be said for chewing pens and it may be better for TAs to pick the issues that are a real problem .If TAs spend lots of time telling your son not to do things like chew pens he may not feel this is help he needs.

 

One last thought.How is the class teacher doing generally ?

We have found that often when a teacher is not firm or consistent this impacts discipline and organisation across the whole class.This then has a disproportionate impact on Ben because he becomes anxious and hence challenging in response to the atmosphere in the class.

 

We notice this more now because Ben is in year 8 with multiple teachers.There could be a wholeschool issue which is impacting your child.

 

Ben also becomes anxious and hence challenging in response to a general level of stress in the classroom.Could it be that the teacher is stressed out about SATS,pupils are stressed about SATS and your child is picking up on the atmosphere.He may not feel the need to comly and work for SATS if they do not feel relevant to him.

 

If your son has TA support and there is some flexability within the Statement it should not require a change of Stement for your son to have some time out of class during preparation for SATS if doing that would help.

 

 

Karen.

Edited March 21, 2011 by Karen A