Understanding Challenging Behavior in the Home

Effective strategies for supporting students' emotional needs

Renae Kotchman

Intermediate Unit One

Renae.Kotchman@iu1.org

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Objectives:

• Explain challenging behavior as a form of communication
• Provide strategies to deal with challenging behaviors

Breathing Square

Old Way of Thinking vs. New Way of Thinking

• Intervention is reactive

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• Quick Fix

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• Focus on behavior reduction

• Intervention is proactive

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• Long term intervention skills
• Focus on teaching new skills

Think about this:

• “If a child doesn’t know how to read, we teach”
• “If a child doesn’t know how to swim, we teach”
• “If a child doesn’t know how to multiply, we teach”
• “If a child doesn’t know how to drive, we teach”
• “If a child doesn’t know how to behave, we …….. Punish? ……….Teach?”

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• Why can’t we finish the last sentence as automatically as we do the others?

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• Tom Herner

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Let’s start with What is Behavior

It’s anything anyone does:

• Good
• Bad
• Neutral

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Jonathan Tarbox, PhD Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Why do children (and adults) do things they shouldn’t?

Just about all the reasons can be explained as either:

• Getting good stuff (positive reinforcement)
• Avoiding bad stuff (negative reinforcement)

It’s basically a way of telling you what they want; it’s communication

• They may not know that their way of telling you is not the “appropriate” way
• Children with developmental disorders may not have the language to ask for what they want

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Jonathan Tarbox, PhD Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Behavior=Communication

• All behaviors (adaptive or maladaptive) are a form of communication. The question is, what are children communicating when they engage in problem behavior?

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Michael Boardman, MA, BCBA

Developmental Delays: Communication

• A child who has limited means of requesting preferred items/ activities, assistance, termination of an activity, or other forms of attention from an adult or peer often develop maladaptive behaviors as a way to compensate for their inability to communicate successfully.

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• For example, the child who cannot tell you that he is done with his meal (termination of an activity) may engage in behaviors such as throwing food and utensils, crying, dropping to the floor, or running away from the table.

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Michael Boardman, MA, BCBA

Developmental Delays: Cognitive

A child with a cognitive delay:

• may not understand our verbal directions (e.g., never respond to “come here” on “no”)
• may be unable to understand how his actions effect the materials and people in his environment (e.g., flipping tables over to see it’s trajectory)
• may not understand how objects work and engage with toys inappropriately or not as they are intended (e.g., spinning the wheels of a toy car with his hands)
• may not be able to discriminate between objects and people and engage with his peers as other toys in his environment (e.g., pulling Sally’s hair to feel the sensation in his hands or biting Richie to hear the sound that he produces)

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Michael Boardman, MA, BCBA

Challenging Behavior�Escape Behavior�

Jonathan Tarbox, PhD Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Bathtime Intervention

• Create a schedule that lists the activities that Jacob will engage in before bath. Briefly prime him by pointing to each picture at the beginning of the bathtime routine so he sees and begins to understand the sequence of events.
• Plan the schedule so that highly preferred activities follow the activities he may find aversive (i.e., bathtime). This way he sees that good things will come after bathtime. Only allow him to engage in certain highly preferred activities contingent upon finishing his bath.
• Imbed choices (e.g.., bath vs. shower, spiderman soap or Spongebob soap) throughout the bathtime routine so that he has some control over the activities proceedings.
• Use a timer to indicate how long bathtime will occur. OR count aloud to him to a predetermined # so that he knows when the activity will end.

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Avoidance (Preventative Strategies)�(activity, demands, social interactions)�

• Provide choices
• Provide an activity schedule
• Select reinforcer prior to activity
• Incorporate child’s interest
• Use a timer
• Follow a least preferred activity by a most preferred

Challenging Behavior

Jonathan Tarbox, PhD Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Giving up Toy Intervention

• Create a visual schedule, allowing Jenny the opportunity to anticipate future activities (and when she will get to play again).
• When first giving up the toy without whining, allow Jenny to have it back immediately. Extend the time gradually.
• Create reinforcement contingencies wherein Jenny receives positive reinforcement in the form of a preferred activity, or tangible item following completion of a less preferred or non-preferred activity(giving up her toy).
• Use a timer to indicate how long Jenny must engage in the less preferred activity before she can move on to a preferred activity.

Obtain (Preventative Strategies)� (attention, objects, activity)

• Provide more frequent attention/reinforcement for appropriate behaviors
• Catch being “Good”
• Remind them of expectations before the activity
• Set a schedule and show when they will get the desired item/activity/attention

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• Attention seeking

A Tree Bend to It’s Surroundings

Set the Tone

Be Generous with Praise

• Find opportunities to build-up/compliment the child.
• Be specific with praise.
• Let him know what he is doing right!

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Thanks for holding the door open

Simplify Language

• Keep your language concise and simple.

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• Tell your child specifically what to do.

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• Break down tasks into components.

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Be Clear and Concise with your Language

Goal: Get My Boys to Quickly Clean-up the Heap of Toys They Had in the Living Room.

This Is What They Gave Me.

Intermediate Unit One

Challenging Behavior

The take home point:

• People do what they do because they get something they want or need out of it
• Would your child keep doing the problematic behavior if he/she didn’t get what they want out of it anymore?
• What if he/she was able to get what they want for doing something more appropriate?
• What if the appropriate behavior got them what they want, and was easier than the problematic behavior?

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Jonathan Tarbox, PhD Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Recap

Whenever a child wants something, he/she has two choices:

• 1. Try to get it in an appropriate way
• 2. Try to get it in an inappropriate way

Helping your child have appropriate behavior means making that choice easy for them by:

• 1. Give them what they want for good behavior
• 2. Don’t give them what they want for destructive behavior
• 3. Make it EASY for them to do the good behavior(take baby steps)

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Jonathan Tarbox, PhD Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Dr. David Erikson

• “The simple reality is I can’t actually control my child. But I can control myself. And I can help them learn how to control their own behavior. That will have a profound influence on my child.”

Be Realistic

THANK YOU!!!!!!

• Thank you for taking time out of your very busy schedule to spend this time with me.

Resources

www.behaviordoctor.org

www.cdc.gov/parents/essentials/index.html

www.childmind.org

www.do2learn.com

https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/

www.ocali.org

https://pealcenter.org/

www.thewatsoninstitute.org/

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