Powerful Ways to Get Ahead of Challenging Student Behavior Blog Series: Part 4
You know that student who has been keeping you up at night?
The one you think about when you wake up in the morning.
The one you're thinking about on your way to school, wondering what fresh chaos awaits you today.
Will they make it through the morning? Will you have to call for help again? Will someone get hurt?
And somewhere in the back of your mind, you're already running through what you'll do if it happens.
You've talked about this student with colleagues, reached out to your supervisor, and tried just about everything you can think of.
You're exhausted. You're worried about the student. And you're worried about everyone else, too.
Maybe today will be different.
Maybe today they'll magically just stay in class, keep their hands to themselves, or make it through the day without a meltdown.
We hope. We cross our fingers. But mostly, we find ourselves bracing for another difficult day.
We're holding our breath and don't even realize it.
And while we can't fully control what today will bring, we can absolutely make a plan that gives both us and our students a better chance of success.
Our plan isn't just about what we want a student to do differently. It's also about what adults can do differently to help that student succeed.
We can start with three simple steps: Prevent, Teach, and Reinforce.
Prevent: What Can We Change?
Think back to the antecedents we examined in Blog 3. What tends to happen right before the challenging behavior?
Is there a particular time of day when a student struggles? A transition that's especially difficult? A task that regularly leads to frustration?
Can we adjust the task, change something in the environment, or provide additional support before the student begins to struggle?
Maybe a student regularly struggles when it's time to stop a preferred activity. Could a five-minute warning, a visual timer, or a little more choice make that transition easier?
Or perhaps a student becomes overwhelmed during independent work. Could we break the assignment into smaller pieces, offer a different starting point, or check in before frustration takes over?
Perhaps we're regularly sending an adult (or two!) to help a student de-escalate after an outburst. What if we sent that same adult to help the student navigate a difficult transition before the outburst happens?
Yes, we know just how limited we are with staffing! But consider how much time we spend responding to a student in crisis compared with the time it might take to provide extra support beforehand.
Chances are, providing that support proactively will take less time and require fewer resources. When we plan for this time, we can even build it into someone's schedule instead of scrambling to find coverage in the moment.
Sometimes the most effective intervention is simply changing when we provide the support we're already giving.
Teach: What Does the Student Need to Learn?
We spend a lot of time reminding students what we expect. But have we taught them what to do when things start getting difficult?
This is where our plan needs to get specific. What skills are we teaching? Who will teach them? And when will we provide opportunities to practice?
As we discussed earlier in this series, talking with the student is essential. But let's take that conversation one step further.
Ask them: “What were you thinking about right before this happened? While it was happening? What were you feeling? Did you notice anything change in your body, or physically right before the behavior? What sensations do you notice? Where do you first notice them?"
Sometimes it helps to share our own experiences. For example, Tiffany often tells students that when she starts to feel upset, she gets a lump in her throat and her heart beats faster.
She may also find herself rising onto her tiptoes or her heels beginning to climb up the leg of her chair.
Students might notice their hands getting restless, their chest tightening, their heart racing, or feeling like they just need to get away.
Once students begin to recognize their own early warning signs, we can help them figure out what to do when they notice those feelings, before the behavior escalates.
For our students, that might mean listening to the signals their body is sharing, then taking a deep breath and thinking before they act. While this isn't a quick fix, it is a step towards helping students begin to self-regulate.
Of course, we need to teach and practice those replacement skills when students are calm, not in the middle of a crisis.
For example, a teacher or trusted staff member might spend a few minutes each morning helping a student practice recognizing their warning signs and asking for a break before a difficult transition.
Teaching the replacement behavior is only part of the plan. We also need to make sure students understand what will happen when they engage in the challenging behavior, and what they can expect when they make a different choice.
Just-Right Consequences
What happens for the student as a result of the challenging behavior? And what happens when they make a different choice?
We want consequences that are clear, consistent, appropriate, and meaningful to the student.
Here's where we need to be thoughtful. A consequence that seems undesirable to us might actually be rewarding to the student.
For example, if a student is trying to escape a difficult math assignment, being sent out of class might be exactly what they were hoping for!
Think back to our student who repeatedly leaves school grounds. We might establish ahead of time that when they return safely and have an opportunity to regulate, they will miss a portion of a preferred activity.
The student knows what to expect, understands why leaving school grounds is unsafe, and has been taught what they can do instead when they feel the urge to leave.
Of course, the consequence needs to be appropriate for the individual student, and we wouldn't want to take away an activity or support they need to regulate.
The goal is to help students understand that their choices have consequences while making sure we're not inadvertently rewarding the behavior we're trying to discourage.
And just as importantly, what positive reinforcement will students receive when they use the skills we're teaching?
Students shouldn't have to guess what will happen next. These expectations and consequences should be discussed with them ahead of time, not introduced in the middle of a difficult moment.
Reinforce: Are We Encouraging What We Want to See More Of?
We all know how important it is to reinforce positive behavior. But sometimes, despite our best intentions, we're giving more attention and reinforcement to the behaviors we're trying to discourage.
Think back to our student who elopes.
When they leave school grounds, walkie-talkies crackle with an alert, staff immediately mobilize, and considerable time and resources go toward getting the student safely back inside.
What happens when that same student recognizes they're getting upset and asks for help instead?
Do we give that choice the same attention? Do we acknowledge how difficult it was for them to stop, think, and make a different decision?
Sometimes we're so busy responding to challenging behaviors that we miss opportunities to reinforce the behaviors we want to see more often.
And reinforcement doesn't always mean a tangible reward. It might be a little extra time with a trusted adult, an opportunity to do something the student enjoys, or simply recognizing their effort.
The important thing is understanding what motivates that particular student. What one student finds rewarding might mean very little to another.
We've all seen situations where several adults have tried to reason with a student, without much success. Eventually, someone else, perhaps the principal or a behavior specialist, arrives, takes the student aside, and has a quiet conversation. Suddenly, the student responds.
Is there something magical about this person? Probably not!
Perhaps the difference is that the student is now talking privately with one adult who has clear authority, rather than feeling overwhelmed by having to navigate a conversation with an audience.
That doesn't mean withholding support or ignoring unsafe behavior. It means making sure we're just as intentional about responding when students use the skills we're teaching.
After all, if we want students to make different choices, we need to make sure those choices are worth repeating.
Track: How Do We Know Our Plan Is Working?
Here's something we can easily overlook: Progress doesn't always mean the behavior disappears.
Maybe a student is still becoming upset, but those episodes now last five minutes instead of twenty.
Or perhaps they're still leaving the classroom, but it's happening once a week instead of every day.
That's progress! But if we're not tracking it, we might miss it.
One simple way to measure progress is to look at three things:
Intensity: How significant is the behavior?
Duration: How long does it last?
Frequency: How often does it occur?
Tracking these three measures helps us identify patterns, recognize improvements, and determine when our plan needs adjusting.
And we don't need another complicated data collection system!
We've created a simple CTC Behavior Planning Toolkit to help educators understand the behavior using the ABCs and EATS, develop a plan, and track intensity, duration, and frequency over time.
When we know what's working, we can build on it. And when something isn't working, we have the information we need to adjust our plan.
Next week, we'll explore how to Grow the Green by reinforcing the positive behaviors we want to see more often, and why fair doesn't always mean equal.
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Want to go deeper?
We recently hosted our training Escape the Behavior Trap, where we break down why traditional responses don’t work - and what to do instead.
