Behavior Management Policy

Below is a useful framework based on experience for defining and coming up with responses to any behavioral issues that may arise during the program.

Categories of Unsafe or Disruptive Behavior - We feel that these categories encapsulate almost all of the challenging behavior we see from students. Staff should be prepared to respond to or address any behavior that falls into these categories. If a student’s behavior presents a safety risk and the student persists in that behavior after staff attempts to resolve it, they should be referred to a Social Worker for a behavioral intervention. You can find Social workers in the Pier 3 trailer and Building 32. Please message them if you are bringing them a child with a brief description of what is happening  so that they can confirm the behavior merits intervention, and so they can be prepared to receive the child and have an idea of what is happening.

Responses: Here are the different types of responses that are best practice, and we’ve found to work.

1. Redirect: direct their focus elsewhere to stop their unwanted behavior

1. Start an activity or game.
2. Give them a task/ a job or move them to a different location.
3. Draw their attention to something happening in the environment.

2. Remind: Remind the student of expectations, start off gently and adjust tone and volume as needed

1. “Hey, remember we wear life jackets on the boats for safety”.
2. If you need to have a 1 on 1 conversation with a student, both of you should stay in sight, just have the convo further down the pier (try to reprimand in private).

3. Refresh: They may need a chance to step away from the situation, self regulate, move their body and come back. Offer a break (always maintain supervision) and see what they say.

1. “Why don't you go for a 5 minute walk and come back to it later?”

4. Resolve: Create an agreement or compromise that helps all parties move forward while feeling secure that their needs were met.

1. “I hear that you were using it, but _______ wants a turn.  Can we set up a time to switch off?”

5. Revoke: give a consequence like revoking a privilege. Note: do this only after several reminders, or for severe infractions

1. “I’ve asked the group to stop talking several times now, so we will not be picking boat groups on friday.  We can try again next week”.

6. Recruit: If you feel out of your depth, or have safety concerns about the behavior, contact your supervisor, or the SSS or Steps to Lead Coordinator.

1. If the matter is ongoing and urgent, snag someone right away, if not document it, and bring it up after kids leave.
2. If a student needs time away from the group to calm down, or if their behavior presents a safety concern, please bring them to a member of the social work team for an individual behavioral intervention.

7. Report: Document behavior if needed by writing incident reports together. Rule of thumb: if parents might ask about it, boat damage, injury… WRITE THE REPORT!!

1. Go to the front desk, or do it on your phone.  Fill out the form and it will notify YPD.

Step Specific Behaviour Trends and Challenges to Watch Out For

Individual Behavioral Intervention Steps (What happens in the Trailer)

Our approach: We want to have a functional program, but also an inclusive one.  We start from a place of including youth voice and choice in coming up with plans to address behavior.  We believe this leads to better results for staff and students. We felt that a further explanation of this process will help with trust and expectations between social workers and other staff.

1. Assess the state the child is in and try to bring them back to neutral and establish a safe space. Check that the student’s physical and bodily needs are met (Food, water, clothing, break in cool shelter). Offer them a snack or an activity to do if they need to de-escalate.
2. Have a conversation that asks the student what happened.  Articulate what happened in order to understand and incorporate their perspective into the solution.
3. Create a behavioral plan/contract.  With student input, come up with an agreement to rectify the misbehavior and address student needs. Include:

1.  Specific steps to prevent the issue from happening again
2. Strategies for self-management or self-regulation, if applicable.
3. Include what the consequences will be for repeated misbehavior.
4. Once the plan/contract has been discussed, make sure it is written down and then have the student acknowledge what is expected of them by signing the contract or verbally agreeing to it.
5. Contact the parents/guardians and fill them in on what happened after talking with the student.

4. Upon returning the student to their group, explain to staff what was discussed, what the behavioral plan is, and share a hard copy of the written plan with instructors.
5. Document this behavioral issue in an incident report so that the Youth Program Director and other social workers know what is going on.

What should social workers know? What are the instructors’ main concerns and needs?

• Needs Concerns to Water Safety: please consider these points when creating behavioral interventions.

• Sitting down, especially for young campers is NON negotiable, if they can’t stay seated they CANNOT sail
• Keeping body parts in the boat near the dock is paramount
• Students must be able to respond promptly to direct sailing related commands on the water, or unsafe situations will develop. For example keeping hands and feet inside the boat, ducking the boom, and handling lines efficiently.
• An instructor is in a dynamic and constantly changing environment, and their attention needs to be IN and OUTside of the boat at all times to ensure safety

• Basically, all their attention cannot be focused on one child, so if there is a student that needs constant one-on-one attention, sailing is not a safe activity for them.

• Curriculum and Learning Needs

• A student’s ability to learn the concepts being taught is part of ensuring safety
• We aim to give increasing levels of independence as the steps go on (there are no instructors in the boat for Steps 3 on)
• By step 4 and 5 the expectation is that they are a sailor and that they participate in the activities the group is doing, so if they cannot regularly participate, they may be sent to a step with more supervision, or asked to leave the program.

What Should Instructors/Staff Know?

• Social workers need to be able to build rapport with the children, and so sometimes they will offer kids things like snack, rest, and fun activities in pursuit of this
• Kids have behavior issues, and sometimes it takes a few conversations to stick
• Sometimes kids are annoying, don’t understand commands, and might be less focused on sailing than we want them to be, but on-water staff need to be able to navigate those challenges and be patient as students learn.
• We appreciate follow up and communication as to if the plan works for not

Staff Responsibilities:

• Prevention: Most of the bad behavior we see can be managed without intervention by proactively engaging students.

• Build rapport/ bond with students so that they are on your team and will listen to your directions. Kids generally don’t listen to people they don’t like! Get to know your student’s hobbies, interests, and personalities. Treat them with respect and kindness from the get-go and they will respond in kind.
• Manage your student’s time and attention: When kids are bored, they mess around. When kids are busy, interested, and active, they don’t have the time or attention to act negatively. During lunch, or other “down time” make sure that all kids still have an activity to do or game to play. During lessons, make sure your content is engaging and interesting enough to keep their attention.

• Rule of thumb: kids can only focus on presentations for roughly the same number of minutes as their age before they will need a hands-on activity. This is why land drills and activities can be great ways to get kids learning even when they are having a hard time focusing on a chalk talk.

• Address both positive and negative behavior: Studies show that students receive up to 6 times more negative feedback than positive- imagine how that must feel when almost everything an adult is saying to you throughout the day is negative!  Teachers who use more positive feedback develop supportive relationships with their students, teachers who use more negative feedback tend to develop conflictual relationships with students - so remember that even your problem kiddos need praise!
• ALL staff members are required to participate in discipline as well as fun

• Sometimes in groups, one counselor (unfortunately, often the female counselor) is generally “bad cop”, while other counselors are the “good cop” or “fun” instructor.  This is something that should be a conscious effort by both parties to avoid for everyone’s sake. It’s not fair and if often less effective if only one person is doing the hard job of enforcing discipline, and kids have an easier time understanding rules and boundaries if they are evenly enforced across the board.