NICHCY is pleased to connect you with sources of information for helping children with disabilities with respect to behavior at school. School presents a unique challenge for children with behavior issues. Teachers need tools to use to help provide support and guidance, and administrators need methods for creating a positive learning atmosphere within the entire school. We've included resources in this Connections page that, hopefully, will give teachers and schools the tools they need to create safe and positive learning environments for all children, while providing the informed and positive behavior support that some students need to flourish.
Without a doubt, "behavior" is a huge topic. In order to make the subject more managable, we have split it up into separate A-Z pages, as follows:
The list below isn't intended to be exhaustive of the behavior resources available for addressing school issues, but it will certainly get you started and lead you to yet more resources you can use to address behavior issues at school.
Using Positive Methods for Change in the Classroom
- Don't miss this quick training on behavior problems in school.
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/qf/behaviorprob_qt
You'll love the brief overviews on topics such as, "Behavior Problems. What's a School to do?" Check out the fact sheets on behaviors like Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD), and Conduct Disorder. You'll also find tools and handouts, model programs, and additional resources.
- Arm yourself with this knowledge and stop problem behaviors before they start.
http://smhp.psych.ucla.edu/pdfdocs/rhythms.pdf
This 65-page guide helps teachers anticipate common problems throughout the year and plan prevention and early intervention to minimize them. Suggestions provided on a monthly basis.
- Play at being good: The good behavior game.
http://www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/promisingprograms/BPP06.html
This is one fun way to involve the whole class in supporting positive behavior. Especially good for elementary students demonstrating early high-risk behavior.
- Discipline: What works, what doesn't.
http://www.nasponline.org/communications/spawareness/effdiscipfs.pdf
This guide discusses the failure of punitive disciplinary practices and promotes supportive discipline strategies. It provides great tips on research-based approaches to positive behavior change.
- Dodging the power-struggle trap: Ideas for teachers.
http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/interventions/behavior/behtrap.php
A conflict requires two people. If a teacher remains cool and calm, a conflict can often be avoided. This guide offers practical advice for disengaging, interrupting, and deescalating problem behavior, and gives specific examples of how to react in different scenarios.
- From the experts on positive behavior supports in schools.
http://www.pbis.org/common/pbisresources/tools/Lewis_additional_classroom_resources.doc
From the PBIS center, this document includes (1) Top 17 Classroom Management Strategies that should be emphasized in every classroom, (2) Effective Teaching Strategies, (3) Promoting Positive & Effective Learning Environments Classroom Checklist, (4) Effective Classroom Plan, and (5) an environmental inventory checklist.
- Check out Intervention Central.
http://www.interventioncentral.org/index.php#ideas
The link above will take you to the Intervention Ideas page, where you'll find ideas and materials to address classroom management, behavioral interventions, and bullying. (Lots more topics are there, too!)
- Teaching children to manage their own behavior.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/kits/wwbtk7.pdf
What Works briefs from the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) summarize effective practices for supporting children's social-emotional development and preventing challenging behaviors. This 4-pager describes practical strategies for helping children learn to manage their own behavior and provides references to more information.
- More of What Works.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/resources/what_works.html
There are plenty of other What Works briefs at CSEFEL to help teachers deal with behavior problems in the classroom. See if the long list of possibilities holds info relevant to your classroom concerns. Three example titles are: What are Children Trying to Tell Us? Assessing the Function of Their Behavior (Brief 9), Positive Behavior Support: An Individualized Approach for Addressing Challenging Behavior (Brief 10), and Using Choice and Preference to Promote Improved Behavior (Brief 15). And they're available in Spanish, too, on the same page!
- Just for teachers.
http://specialed.about.com/od/teacherstrategies/u/forteachers.htm#s2
The link above will take you to a wealth of resources, tips, tricks, and classroom tried and true strategies to help identify and curb inappropriate behaviors.
- Practical strategies for teachers: Tools for developing behavior support plans.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/resources/strategies.html#toolsplans
- The ABCs of behavior analysis.
http://www.schoolbehavior.com/behavior_abc.htm
One of the components of a functional behavior analysis (FBA) or any systematic study of behavior is to note what happened prior to the event, what the behavior looked liked, and what happened after the behavior. The acronym "ABC" in this case stands for "Antecedent, Behavior, Consequences."
- Download the Classroom Behavior Report Card Resource Book.
http://www.interventioncentral.org/htmdocs/interventions/behavior/behrptcd.php
This resource book contains pre-formatted teacher and student behavior report cards, along with customized graphs, for common types of behavioral concerns in the classroom. It was designed to give teachers and other school professionals a convenient collection of forms for rating the behaviors of students in such areas of concern as physical aggression, inattention/hyperactivity, and verbal behaviors.
- Create daily and weekly behavior report cards online.
http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/tbrc/tbrc.php
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Behavior and Specific Disabilities
- Watch out for these behavior plan pitfalls!
www.schoolbehavior.com/Files/pitfalls.PDF
This 3-page guide gives descriptions of 12 common mistakes in implementing behavior plans, then offers solutions.
- AD/HD and behavior.
http://www.help4adhd.org/en/treatment/behavioral
If you have a student with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), you'll find a lot of useful info at the National Resource Center on AD/HD.
- AD/HD, impulsivity, and behavior.
http://specialed.about.com/od/behavioremotiona1/p/impulsive.htm
The title of this article is How to Help and Support Impulsive Students.
- Asperger syndrome and behavior.
http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/LWA_Behavior.pdf?docID=4181
How to support appropriate behaviors in a student with Asperger syndrome.
- Autism, schoolwide discipline, and individual supports for behavior.
http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/Looking_Beyond_Behavior.pdf?docID=13921
From the Autism Society of America.
- Autism and positive behavior supports.
http://www.autism-society.org/site/DocServer/Carr_Pratt_article.pdf?docID=7681
- Behavioral disorders and behavior plans.
http://www.ehow.com/how_13758_create-behavior-modification.html
Public school administrators and special educators are required to assess and evaluate the need for behavior intervention or modification plans for students with disabilities whose behavior impedes their learning or the learning of classmates. The link above will take you to an introduction to assessing negative behavior and creating interventions to correct negative behavior in the classroom.
- Bipolar disorder/depression and behavior.
www.schoolbehavior.com/Files/tips_mood.pdf
Read about accommodations for medication side-effects, sleep disturbances, impaired concentration, focus, and memory, testing, homework and more.
- Down syndrome and behavior.
http://www.ndsccenter.org/?page_id=780
This "Position Statement On the Management Of Challenging Behaviors" from the National Down Syndrome Congress (NDSC) identifies key features consistent with quality programs for the individuals with Down syndrome.
- More on Down syndrome and behavior.
http://www.ndss.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=90&showall=1
This description of behavioral challenges in people with Down syndrome comes from the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS).
- Learning disabilities and behavior.
www.ldonline.org/article/6030
This article, available at LDOnline, comes from the book published by Paul H. Brookes entitled Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviors: A Guide to Intervention and Classroom Management.
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What's the Law Require of Schools?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has well-specified requirements of how schools must address behavior issues with respect to students with disabilities. Find out more about those requirements via the resources we've listed below.
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