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This practice guide is an updated version of Supporting and Responding to Student Behavior (Office of Special Education Programs, 2015). "Supporting and Responding" summarizes evidence-based, positive, and proactive practices that support and respond to students' social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) needs in classrooms and similar teaching and learning environments (e.g., small-group activity).

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Center on PBIS | Resource: Supporting and Responding to Students' Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Needs: Evidence-Based Practices for Educators

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PDF: This practice guide is an updated version of Supporting and Responding to Student Behavior (Office of Special Education Programs, 2015). "Supporting and Responding" summarizes evidence-based, positive, and proactive practices that support and respond to students' social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) needs in classrooms and similar teaching and learning environments (e.g., small-group activity).

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Differentiated Instruction

Elementary students have a better chance of showing what they've learned when they have a choice about how to show it.

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Most classrooms are filled with students of varying academic abilities. Even within a gifted and talented classroom like mine, the ability levels can range drastically. As teachers strive to meet each student's individual needs, differentiation is key because it's about giving more opportunities for students to grow to their highest potential, and it is beneficial for all students.

In the digital era, we can provide all of our students with technological ways to enhance their learning, no matter their academic label. Every student is different and needs to be offered a variety of ways to show what they've learned in a way that reflects their individuality.

One way to differentiate within the curriculum is to provide students with choices for completing an assignment. Students learn in various ways, and we can let them show their learning in various ways. When I give my students a choice on how they'll complete a project, they have to meet certain criteria, but I allow them to find an outlet they find most enjoyable, such as creating a Google Slides presentation, a trifold board, or a pamphlet. Giving students a choice allows them to take ownership of their learning as well as create a product that feels authentic to them. They work on something that they're good at creating, or try something they want to get better at.

An excellent way to ensure differentiation is to have each student create an e-portfolio-a technology-based assessment tool that collects a student's authentic work samples, providing a quick way for a teacher to assess growth and skills. In a sense, the e-portfolio is a window into a student's learning, one that allows the student to choose what to include.

An e-portfolio can follow the student across grades, too. And once the time is spent creating one, the process of adding content becomes easier and quicker as the student adds to it in later grades. Since e-portfolios offer a way for students to show authentic learning, they allow students to exhibit their individual growth through their academic experiences.

Differentiating by Giving Choices

The best way to differentiate instruction is to give students a choice in how they show their learning. All students learn in their own way, and they need to be able to show their individual skills and interests. As long as they're able to demonstrate a certain skill, assessment should be more about the process than the product.

Giving choices may seem like more work for the teacher, and it can be, but it's also worthwhile because it encourages more students to take more ownership of their learning.

Adding a technology component to an assignment can drastically increase student engagement, especially if they haven't been given such options in the past. Using a novel app, such as Flipgrid, adds an element of fun while also giving students practice with tech skills.

But technology is not the only way to provide choice-try using choice boards, which provide students with many options for presenting content. Students may present the water cycle stages in a song, for example, or create a comic that lays out those stages. Such choices can be fun for the students, and can show teachers hidden talents their students possess that they wouldn't see otherwise.

Differentiating With Portfolios

Few applications offer the opportunity for students to reflect on their learning, but pushing students to do that is important in getting them to think about how they learn best and take an active role in their own learning. Quick assessment applications such as Flipgrid and Kahoot allow for student reflection, but the e-portfolio-which showcases an individual student's personality-is even better.

With e-portfolios, students reflect on their learning while putting their own mark on their assignments. Students are able to showcase their learning and the process they used to create their final product while individualizing it with their likes and interests.

A teacher may require some items to be present-such as name, class section, pictures of hobbies, or content-related materials-but seeing the ways that students make the e-portfolio their own is what a teacher wants. The e-portfolio is a tool that students can use to express their thinking in a way that is unique to them.

Teachers can assess e-portfolios to measure growth and skills instead of just knowledge of course content. Students are able to take ownership of what they have learned, choose how they present the content, and take control of their learning.

Differentiating allows students to have their voice heard, which can lead them to become self-motivated learners. And that in turn can help increase both their learning growth and their self-awareness of that growth.

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Elementary students have a better chance of showing what they're learning when they have a choice about how to show it.

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Choice Boards enhance student motivation and engagement in the classroom while using differentiated instruction to promote learning.
Why use Choice Boards in the Classroom?
It is best to give students plenty of opportunities to practice and master the concepts taught in class. However, structuring such activities is no easy task, as teachers need to take into consideration the need for differentiated instruction and varied learning styles; all while ensuring that it is both interesting and challenging for the students. Use of Choice Boards is a strategy that can help simplify lesson planning and address learning requirements. It is easy and simple to design and implement in the classroom and can help promote learning, as well as stimulate student motivation and engagement.

Here we will learn more about Choice Boards and how they can be used to differentiate instruction.
What are Choice Boards?
Choice boards are graphic organizers that comprise of different amounts of squares. Each square is an activity. The activities help students learn or practice a primary concept, while allowing them a choice. Students can be instructed to choose one or more of these activities to complete. They can progress from one activity to another either in an organized or random order.
Benefits of using Choice Boards
Choice Boards provide students with the power to choose "how" to learn a particular subject or concept. This freedom encourages them to be more responsible, accountable and independent in their learning. It also allows them to work on the activities at their own pace. The boards are useful for teachers as it enables them to identify and use student interests and preferences to stimulate active learning and student engagement.
Designing Choice Boards
The board should revolve around a particular concept or learning goal and each activity is structured to stimulate learning, practice or mastery of that subject. The first step in designing a Choice Board is to identify the core concept or academic goal that the students need to complete. Second, plan the activities so that it provides students with a variety of mediums or methods for learning the concept. To do this, first identify the students' interests, preferences and even levels of readiness. The activities can be different levels of complexity and can be arranged on the board in an increasing order of difficulty. Additional instructions for each task can be included and students are instructed to perform the tasks either as individual activities or in groups. One square can also be a "FREE CHOICE" allowing students to create and perform an activity of their own choice.
Differentiating Instruction through Choice Boards
The following are tips to using Choice Boards for differentiated learning:

1. When creating the boards be sure to have activities that cater to every learning style such as visual, auditory, read-write and kinesthetic.

2. Boards can be created for weekly tasks, homework, projects and even assessments. Detailed instructions and requirements can be given for each task. An extra credit slot can be included to encourage students to better their learning.

3. Tic-Tac-Toe: Encourage students to perform a set of three activities so that it forms a Tic-Tac-Toe. Students can choose these activities horizontally, vertically or diagonally. In this method the "FREE CHOICE" square can be in the middle.

Use of Choice Boards help to improve student motivation, engagement and learning by empowering them to learn to the best of their ability.
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How to Use Choice Boards in the Classroom?

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Teachers need to take into consideration the need for differentiated instruction and varied learning styles; all while ensuring that it is both interesting and challenging for the students. Use of Choice Boards is a strategy that can help simplify lesson planning and address learning requirements.

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The lesson planning steps highlighted below outline some areas of focus when planning lessons. When creating a lesson plan, I preferred not to write out a detailed lesson plan, but instead focus on the objectives, Agenda and well designed tasks that will incorporate multiple TEKS. I also had a list of student engagement strategies from which I selected on a daily basis. Our main for teaching is to ensure that students are learning and applying knowledge gained.

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The lesson planning steps highlighted below outline some areas of focus when planning lessons. When creating a lesson plan, I preferred not to write out a detailed lesson plan, but instead focus on the objectives, Agenda and well designed tasks that will incorporate multiple TEKS.

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Here are some suggestions on specific choices to give your students.

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Anxiety is a huge barrier to learning and very difficult for educators to identify. "When anxiety is fueling the behavior, it's the most confusing and complicated to figure out," Minahan said. That's because a student isn't always anxious; it tends to come and go based on events in their lives, so their difficulties aren't consistent. When we are anxious our working memory tanks, making it very difficult to recall any salient information.

Researchers surveyed a group of first graders none of whom had any reading or math disabilities. Those who had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder were eight times more likely to be in the lowest achieving group in reading, and two-point-five times more likely to be in the lowest quartile in math achievement by the spring.

"Anxiety is a learning disability; it inhibits your ability to learn," Minahan said. But it isn't usually recognized as a learning disability and there is almost never a plan for how to address it in the classroom. "For kids with anxiety, the 'can'ts fluctuate," Minahan said. "When they're calm they can. When they're anxious they can't. And that's very deceiving."

Anxiety isn't about ability, it's about interference, which means that traditional rewards and consequences don't often work with this group of learners.

"Rewards and consequences are super helpful to increase motivation for something I'm able to do," Minahan said. But an anxious person's brain has shut down and they aren't able in that moment to complete the task being asked of them. The best way to combat this tricky problem is to try to prevent anxiety triggers and build up students' social and emotional skills to cope with the moments when anxiety sets in.

When kids are in the throes of bad behavior they have poor self-regulation skills, often get into negative thinking cycles that they can't stop, have poor executive functioning, become inflexible thinkers and lose social skills like the ability to think about another person's perspective. That's why kids can seem so unempathetic when teachers ask, "how do you think that made Sam feel?" At that moment, the student acting out has no ability to take Sam's perspective, but a few hours later or the next day, he might be able to show the remorse educators want to see.

ALL BEHAVIOR HAS A FUNCTION

Bad behavior is often connected to seeking attention, and when kids act out, they can see the results.* "Negative attention is way easier to get and hands down easier to understand," Minahan said. "It's much more efficient." Adults tend to be unpredictable with attention when a student is doing what she is supposed to do, but as soon as there's a dramatic, obvious tantrum, the student has the teacher's attention. And negative attention is powerful -- one student can hijack a whole classroom.

A common teacher response to low-level negative attention seeking is to ignore the student. The teacher doesn't want to reward bad behavior. "I want to caution you about ignoring someone with anxiety because their anxiety goes up," Minahan said. Ignoring an already anxious student can accidentally convey the message that the teacher doesn't care about the student, and worse might escalate the situation. Perhaps a teacher can ignore a student tapping his pencil or banging on his desk, but threatening behavior can't be ignored. And the student learns exactly what level of behavior he must exhibit to get attention.

TIP 1: Instead, "what you need to do is make positive attention compete better," Minahan said. She often suggests that teachers actively engage the most difficult student at the beginning of class saying something like, "I can't wait to see what you think of this assignment. I'm going to check on you in 5 minutes." When the teacher actually comes back in five minutes, validates the student's progress, and tells her another check-in is coming in ten minutes it sets up a pattern of predictable attention for positive behavior. And while it might seem unfair to take that extra time and care with one student, it ultimately saves instruction time when a teacher doesn't have to deal with a tantrum that sends the student out of the room.

TIP 2: Often in an attempt to form a positive relationship with a student teachers will publicly praise positive behavior. That can backfire, especially with anxious kids who don't want any extra attention from peers. Private or non-verbal praise is often better. Minahan recommends pulling students aside at the beginning of the year to ask how teachers can best tell them they're proud. "It's a gift to your February self if you can figure out a system now, otherwise you'll get stuck on the negative attention scale," Minahan said.

Tip 2.1: She also recommends fact-based praise as opposed to general praise. Vague praise is easy to dismiss.
ANTECEDENTS TO BAD BEHAVIOR
Many kids have predictable anxiety triggers like unstructured time, transitions, writing tasks, social demands or any unexpected change. Similarly the antecedents of negative behavior are fairly predictable: unfacilitated social interactions, interaction with an authoritative adult, being asked to wait, when demands are placed, being told no, writing, and transitions.**

Tip 3: "Teach waiting now," Minahan said. "When you are anxious, despite your age, it's very hard to wait." She was asked to observe a boy who constantly disrupted class. Minahan soon noticed the boy often did his work, but if he finished early or there was downtime in the class, he would start causing trouble. When Minahan pointed this out to him he had no idea what "wait time" was. She had to spell out to him that when he finished a task he should apply a strategy, like turning over the paper and doodling appropriately on the back. After this small intervention the student's behavior was so improved that his teacher thought he'd gone on medication.

'You can have really bright, able children whose anxiety is interfering so much.'

For kids with anxiety, there are a number of strategies teachers can employ. The first is not to take any student behavior personally. The student isn't trying to manipulate or torture the teacher, his behavior is reflecting something going on internally. Often a short movement break can help relieve anxiety, but not the way they are commonly given.

Minahan described a seventh grade girl who was recovering from an eating disorder. The girl was scraping her arms so badly they would bleed. After lunch, predictably, the behavior was worse, so her teachers were letting her color and draw to relieve her anxiety. Another common break is to tell a student to go get a drink of water down the hall. The coloring break wasn't working for this seventh grader and Minahan soon figured out why. "We accidentally left her alone to fester in her anxious thoughts," she said.

Tip 4: Leaving class doesn't give the student a break from internal negative thoughts like "I'm fat," or "I'm not smart enough," which paralyze thinking. But a break paired with a cognitive distraction does offer respite from the "all or nothing" thinking that's so common with anxious students. An older student might take a break and record herself reading a book out loud for a younger student with dyslexia. It's impossible to read out loud and think another thought. Other distractions could include sports trivia, sudoku or crossword puzzles. Little kids might do a Where's Waldo or look through a Highlight magazine for the hidden picture.

Tip 5: When teachers want to wrap up a task they often use a countdown. "Silent reading time is going to be over in five minutes." But counting down doesn't support a high achieving anxious child who feels she must finish. And it takes a lot of executive function skills and cognitive flexibility to fight the urge to keep going after the time is up. So instead of counting down, a teacher might walk over to that student and say, let's find a good stopping point. She may stop a minute later than the rest of the class when she reaches the designated point, but it won't escalate into a tug-of-war.

Transitions are another common time for kids to act out. Younger students often don't want to come in from recess, for example. But when a teacher says, "Line up. Recess is over. It's time for your spelling quiz," it's no wonder the student doesn't want to go from something he loves to something he hates.

Tip 6: The teacher can give students an in-between step to make the transition more palatable. Go from recess, to two minutes of coloring, to the spelling quiz. The intermediary step gives that non-compliant student behavioral momentum. He's already sitting down, quiet, with pen in hand, so the jump to spelling isn't as jarring.

For middle and high school students, school is all about being social, but the only times students get to see their friends are in the two to five minute passing periods between classes. Again, the transition is from something they love to something they hate, so don't make that transition extra hard by collecting homework as they come in the door. The toughest kids are probably already not doing well in the class, and a reminder of the homework exacerbates feelings of inadequacy.

Tip 7: One high school geometry teacher started playing two minute YouTube videos about geometry as students came into class. It got students from the hallway into the classroom without thinking negatively and her class started to run more smoothly. She didn't have the same interruptions she used to, which made the lost two minutes seem worth it.

Tip 8: Minahan also likes some of the biofeedback tools that are now available, like the EmWave. A wound up student puts a sensor on his finger and calming down becomes a game. He might start out with a picture of a black and white forest, but as he calms down (and the sensor monitors his heart rate) the colors start to pop in. It can take as little as two to five minutes to completely calm a kid down when they can see the feedback so clearly.

"I like it because it's so concrete," Minahan said. A student with high functioning autism might not even know what a teacher means by "calm down," but with the biofeedback device she can see what it means.

WORK AVOIDANCE

Minahan says it's very common for students to have trouble initiating work, persisting through work and asking for help, but there are strategies to help kids build the skills to get better in these areas.

"You can have really bright, able children whose anxiety is interfering so much," Minahan said. The anxiety isn't coming from nowhere; it's coming from prior experiences of feeling frozen and stupid. In that moment the child's working memory isn't working, so teachers need to find ways to bypass it until the anxiety passes.

Tip 9: One way is to let students preview the work for the day. In the morning, an elementary school teacher might work on the first few problems with the anxious child so she knows she can do it. Then, when it's time for that work later in the day, that child receives the sheet she's already started and can go from there.

Tip 9.1: In high school, teachers can give students with trouble initiating the preview as homework. Students can start at home without any pressure and continue at school. "Fight or flight is the worst when they first see it," Minahan said, so try to bypass that moment and prevent a breakdown.

Tip 10: At the same time, when the teacher names the strategies a student is employing, he is helping the student build a toolbox that can be used independently. Strategies might include, asking a teacher to help her start when she feels frozen, or asking to preview the homework. For perfectionist students, difficulty starting can stem from a fear of messing up. Give those students dry erase boards, where the mess ups can be easily erased. It helps when teachers treat the difficulty starting as a small problem and say something like, "Looks like you're not initiating. What strategy are you going to use?"

'When I shift the reinforcement to skills, I've noticed the skills go up and that's what makes the difference for the kids who have mental health difficulties.'

Tip 11: Some strategies to build persistence include skipping the hard ones and doing the ones a student knows first, working with a buddy, and double checking work on problems that have been completed.

Giving help in class is often a tricky balance, especially if a student is too embarrassed to ask vocally. Instead of acting out because she can't do the work, the student might raise her hand, pass the teacher a note or make eye contact. Then the teacher has to be careful not to give too much help. "We accidentally create dependency because we help so much," Minahan said.

That goes for academics as well as behavior. Often a teacher will notice a student becoming agitated and dysregulated and tell him to take a short walk. But ultimately the student will be better served if he can learn to monitor himself and implement strategies when he notices early signs of agitation. "Kids have to learn how to catch themselves on the way up and calm down there," Minahan said, because that's when the strategies work. But kids need to be taught how to recognize the signs.

Tip 12: Teach kids how to do a body check. With younger students a teacher can describe the signs of agitation as they are happening so the student starts to recognize them. With older students, ask them where in their body they feel anxious, for example, "in your belly?" "Give them the data every day," Minahan said. "This is your body on the way up." After the groundwork has been laid, a teacher can just say "body check, please" to let a student know it's time to check in with themselves and start using a strategy.

But what can you do when a kid is already exploding? Minahan says, not much because the child will have a very hard time reacting in a reasonable way once he or she is riled up.

Tip 13: What educators can do is anticipate those moments and rehearse self-calming strategies when the child is calm.

In one case, Minahan knew an elementary student she was working with was going to have a traumatic change in her life. The child's mom was giving her up to foster care and the date had been set. To prepare for what would undoubtedly be a moment when the student couldn't control herself, Minahan had her practice self-calming in the social worker's office, where she would probably go on the day. Twice a day for five minutes she rehearsed a self-calming routine when she was already calm so her working memory was available and she was learning the strategies.

When the day came and the child did freak out, Minahan quickly got her into the office with very little touching or verbal interaction which might further set her off. Once there, the girl got into her routine, and started singing to herself as a cognitive distraction. "The rehearsal allowed for automaticity and did not require cognition or working memory in that moment," Minahan said.

Tip 14: Rehearse replies to confrontations. Minahan worked with a high school student who constantly got in fights. If he felt disrespected he'd start swinging. Together they rehearsed over and over him saying, "I don't have time for this," and walking away. During the rehearsals, Minahan gave him something to hold in his hands as he said this. And soon, he stopped getting in fights. It gave him the moment he needed to make a decision not to use his fists and a go-to automatic reply.

Tip 15: Use data to disprove negative thinking. Writing is a common barrier for kids with anxiety, Minahan said. But one way to begin getting students past this hurdle is to ask them how hard a task will be before they start and again after they've completed it. Almost always the perception of the task is worse than the actual task. With several weeks of data you can show students the pattern in their responses.

Minahan worked with a girl who hated writing so much that she was skipping school twice a week. She would often say that writing was torture to her. Minahan broke writing down into component parts with corresponding strategies for getting started on each part. When the student worked on a writing task Minahan would ask her how many strategies she employed. Often the girl didn't use that many strategies, which didn't fit with her own conception of herself. "We reframed her whole thinking and she felt more empowered to solve her problems," Minahan said.

INTERACTION STRATEGIES

In any interaction with students teachers can only control their own behavior, but that's actually a lot of power. "We are 50% of every interaction with a child," Minahan said. "We have a lot of control over that interaction."

Tip 16: If a teacher gets off on the wrong foot with a student early in the year, try randomly being kind to the child, rather than only giving positive attention based on his or her behavior. This kind of noncontingent reinforcement helps the child to see the teacher likes him for who he is, not because he does math well or reads perfectly, Minahan said.

Tip 17: In areas where the difficult student is competent, give her a leadership role. Maybe let her take a younger child to the nurse or start an activity club. This helps change the child's perception of herself and also her relationship to the teacher.

Tip 18: When demanding something of a student, don't ask yes or no questions and teach kids not to ask yes or no questions. In that scenario, someone has a 50 percent chance of being disappointed with the answer. By changing the question, the teacher opens the door for the answer to be diffusing, rather than an escalation of defiance. For example, if a student asks, "Can I work with Jack?" The teacher can reframe the question: "Oh, did you want to know when you could work with Jack? You can ask: When can I work with Jack." The student might not like the answer, but it likely won't produce the same explosive reaction as getting an outright "no."

Tip 19: Give kids time and space. If a student is prone to arguing, eye contact and physical proximity can escalate potential protests.*** For example, if a kid is humming in an annoying way, a typical teacher move might be to make eye contact with the child and shake your head to get him to stop. But in this situation eye-contact is non-verbally asking the child for a response, which he may be incapable of giving at that moment. Instead, calmly walk over and put a note on his desk that says, "please stop humming." Then run away and do not make eye contact with that student for a few minutes.

"The initial reaction is not pleasant and you have to wait for them to de-escalate before they can comply," Minahan said. Sometimes the mere presence of the teacher prevents that de-escalation.

Tip 20: Reward practice or strategy use, not performance. "When I shift the reinforcement to skills, I've noticed the skills go up and that's what makes the difference for the kids who have mental health difficulties," Minahan said. Ultimately, educators are teaching kids the skills and strategies that they can then use throughout their life when they're anxious, so rewarding practice makes sense.

The more teachers can empathize with students, teaching skill building and focus on preventing challenging behavior, the smoother the classroom will run. Often that means learning about the student in order to identify triggers and design new ways of interacting with even the most challenging students.

*An earlier version of this post overstated the connection between bad behavior and seeking attention.
**An earlier version of this sentence highlighted only one type of negative behavior -- fighting.
*** This section was updated to include the situations under which eye contact could make a situation worse for a student. We regret these errors.

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Behavior-Specific Praise: Elementary School Example & Non-Example

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Definition of Praise

Praise is a form of positive reinforcement that combines attention with a positive verbal statement.

Definition of Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is when an event (usually a pleasant one) occurs immediately following a behavior and as a result, the behavior occurs more often in the future.

Advantages of Using Praise

Strengthens (positively reinforces) behavior

Builds self-esteem

Promotes relationship development

Leads to a more positive environment

When and How to Use Praise

Occasions for Using Praise:

Use praise when the individual's behavior matches the program's expectations

Use praise to reinforce any behavior you would like to see more often

Use praise any time there is a small improvement in behavior

Praising effectively includes the use of both Behavior Specific Praise and Non-Specific Praise, at a 4-1 ratio.

In other words, staff should strive to praise an individual 4 times for every negative or corrective statement given.

Using praise is like building a bank account. The more you deposit, the bigger the "account" (i.e. the better the relationship). When a "withdrawal" must be made (i.e. delivering a negative or corrective statement) the account will be able to withstand the withdrawal.

Behavior Specific Praise

Behavior Specific Praise is a positive statement intended to reinforce the desired behavior of an individual that acknowledges the individual by name (or in a manner in which he/she knows who is being praised), specifically describes/identifies the individual's behavior, and incorporates a term of praise.

Examples:

"Jon, nice work - you cleaned up your area!"

"Way to go. You're using your coping skills, Lynn."

"Great job waiting your turn." (while standing near and looking at the individual)

"Good matching." (while teaching/interacting with the individual 1:1)

Non-Specific Praise

Non-Specific Praise (a.k.a. Positive "Other") is a positive statement intended to reinforce the desired behavior of an individual that does not include all of the elements and steps of Behavior Specific Praise.

Examples:

"Jon, your area is cleaned up - it looks nice."

"Thanks for using your coping skills, Lynn."

"Alex, good job not being disruptive."

"Great job." "Thanks." "Awesome." "That's nice." "Good work."

Elements of Behavior Specific Praise

Includes the individual's name or other acknowledgment so that the individual knows he/she is being praised

Describes the individual's positive behavior

Is convincing

Is varied

Is not disruptive

Steps for Delivering Behavior Specific Praise

1. Identify the specific behavior to praise.

2. Decide if the behavior qualifies for praise.

3. If so, acknowledge the individual by name (or in a manner in which he/she knows who is being praised).

4. Incorporate a term of praise*.

5. Describe the behavior.

Note: Steps 3, 4 and 5 can be performed in any order.
*Terms of Praise (Step 4)

Examples:

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Praise is a form of positive reinforcement that combines attention with a positive verbal statement. Positive reinforcement is when an event (usually a pleasant one) occurs immediately following a behavior and as a result, the behavior occurs more often in the future.

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One of the most important keys to minimizing problem behavior is making sure that kids are getting the message you're trying to send. When it comes to parenting, sometimes the way instructions are given can be just as important as what you're trying to communicate.

Here are ways to present information to your children to make it more likely that they'll hear you, and comply:

Be direct. Make statements rather than asking questions: "Please sit down," as opposed to "Are you ready to get out your homework?"

Be close. Give instructions when you are near the child, rather than calling out from across the room.

Use clear and specific commands. Instead of "Go ahead," say, "Please go start your reading assignment."

Give age-appropriate instructions. Speak to your child at a level he will understand. If your child is younger, keep things simple and use words you know he knows: "Please pick up the ball." With older children, who are so often keenly aware of not being "babies anymore" it's important to be clear without being patronizing.

Give instructions one at a time. Especially for kids who have attention challenges, try to avoid giving a series of instructions: "Please put on your sneakers, get your lunch off the kitchen counter, and meet me in the front hall."

Keep explanations simple. Giving a rationale can increase the likelihood children will listen to a command, but not if the commands gets lost in it. For instance: "Go get your coat on because it's raining and I don't want you to catch a cold." Instead, try: "It's raining and I don't want you to catch a cold. Go get your coat on."

Give kids time to process. After you give an instruction, wait a few seconds, without repeating what you said. Children then learn to listen to calm instructions given once rather than learning that they don't need to listen because the instructions will be repeated. Watching and waiting also helps keep adults from doing what we've requested of our kids for them.

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One of the most important keys to minimizing problem behavior is making sure that kids are getting the message you're trying to send. When it comes to parenting, sometimes the way instructions are given can be just as important as what you're trying to communicate.

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Operant conditioning: Schedules of reinforcement | Behavior | MCAT | Khan Academy

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The Premack Principle (or First: Then Rule),  Positive Reinforcement Strategy

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Positive Reinforcement and Planned Ignoring

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4 Steps To Setting Limits With Your Kids - Kim DeMarchi, MEd

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Training packet with info and check lists 

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Training packet with info and check lists 

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The suspension or expulsion of students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) has been problematic and controversial. Requirements of IDEA, and case law before that, have indicated that long-term suspension or expulsion violate the Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) guarantee for students with disabilities. Schools have struggled to meet these requirements, but the problems with suspension and expulsion are larger than issues of EBD or disability.

Today, many schools are rightfully concerned about the numbers of all types of students who are being suspended or expelled for their behavior. This concern is driven by the over-representation of some minority groups among those who are suspended or expelled from school (Wu, Pink, Crain & Moles, 1982; Townsend, 2000; Skiba, Michael, Nardo & Peterson, 2002). Equally important is the emerging research that indicates that these consequences are not likely to change the inappropriate behavior of the students involved, nor do they serve to deter other students from engaging in the same behaviors (Skiba, Peterson & Williams, 1999, 1997). Instead, these consequences make the suspended student's academic progress more difficult, and they may increase the likelihood of the student dropping out of school or having other negative outcomes.

As a result, many schools are beginning to examine their school discipline policies with an eye to making them both more effective and less reliant on traditional exclusionary consequences. These changes may also help schools to better serve students with EBD. Schools that try to improve their discipline system ask the questions "What do we use in place of exclusionary consequences in our discipline policies?" and "What are some disciplinary consequences which might be more effective?" The examples that follow illustrate the kinds of actions that could be built into a school's formal disciplinary code of conduct as part of an array of consequences for inappropriate behavior. Each of these examples has at least some research demonstrating positive behavioral-change outcomes for students, and is an opportunity to maintain or re-engage students in school rather than pushing them out of school. While additional information beyond that provided here will be needed for appropriate implementation, the examples below describe multiple promising alternatives to suspension:

Problem solving/contracting. Negotiation and problem-solving approaches can be used to assist students in identifying alternative behavior choices. The next step should involve developing a contract that reminds the student to engage in a problem-solving process, and which includes reinforcers for success and consequences for continuing problem behaviors.

Restitution. In-kind restitution (rather than financial restitution, which often falls on the parents) permits the student to help to restore or improve the school environment either by directly addressing the problems caused by the student's behavior (e.g., in cases of vandalism students can work to repair things they damaged), or by having the student improve the school environment more broadly (e.g., picking up trash, washing lockers).

Mini-courses or skill modules. Short courses or self-study modules can be assigned as a disciplinary consequence. These should be on topics related to the student's inappropriate behavior, and should be designed to teach the student to have increased awareness or knowledge about the topic, thus facilitating behavior change. These modules might include readings, videos, workbooks, tests, and oral reports on a range of topics such as alcohol/drug use or abuse, strategies for conflict resolution, anger control strategies, social skills (e.g., getting along with peers, making behavior appropriate for the setting), and appropriate communication skills (e.g., appropriate and inappropriate language, how to express disagreement).

Parent involvement/supervision. Parents should be invited to brainstorm ways they can provide closer supervision or be more involved in their child's schooling. Better communication and more frequent contacts between teachers and parents, as well as coordinated behavior-change approaches, are very useful and could be formalized into a disciplinary consequence.

Counseling. Students may be required to receive additional supports or individual counseling from trained helping professionals (e.g., counselor, school psychologist) focused on problem solving or personal issues interfering with learning.

Community service. Programs that permit the student to perform a required amount of time in supervised community service outside of school hours (e.g., volunteer at another school or an organization) should be created.

Behavior monitoring. Closely monitoring behavior and academic progress (e.g., self-charting of behaviors, feedback sessions for the student) will permit rewards to be provided for successful performance.

Coordinated behavior plans. Creation of a structured, coordinated behavior support plan specific to the student and based on a hypothesis about the function of the target behavior to be reduced should be created. It should focus on increasing desirable behavior, and replacing inappropriate behaviors.

Alternative programming. Provide short- or long-term changes in the student schedule, classes or course content or offer the option of participating in an independent study or work-experience program. Programming should be tailored to student needs, and permit appropriate credit accrual and progress toward graduation. Change of placement or programming must be made by the IEP (Individualized Education Program) team for students with EBD or other disabilities.

Appropriate in-school suspension. In-school suspension should be provided and include academic tutoring, instruction on skill-building related to the student behavior problem (e.g., social skills), and a clearly defined procedure for returning to class contingent on student progress or behavior. The environment should be carefully managed to guard against using in-school suspension as a way to avoid attending classes.

Many of these will be familiar to teachers who have worked with students who have EBD and there is a promising research base for these alternatives. Other alternatives might also be generated. Some schools are already using some of these, but few are using very many of these, and fewer yet use these systematically as a coordinated behavior improvement strategy built into their disciplinary codes of conduct.

To make these alternative options work as a disciplinary consequence, some "prerequisites" may also be needed. A school climate supportive of positive behavior, efforts to build positive interactions, appropriate instruction, and ongoing close supervision may prevent behavior problems from growing to crisis proportions and requiring disciplinary consequences. Here are several examples of programs that support the previous alternatives to suspension:

Creating a caring school community and climate. Programs that attend to patterns of good communication and problem solving, having clear patterns of authority and decision making, procedures for developing and implementing rules, helping students feel they belong and are welcome, good curriculum and instructional practices, and having a clean and positive physical environment.

Efforts to build adult-student relationships. Programs offering opportunities for students to develop individual relationships with staff.

Increased parent involvement. Programs that involve a variety of parents and community members in functions and activities within the school, and maintain communication about their children.

Character education/consistent school values. School curriculum and organization features that promote the development of fundamental values in children. Typically these list desirable goals for student behavior.

Early identification and intervention. Programs that permit systematic screening of students for potential behavior problems, and which provide interventions for the students identified as at "risk."

Mediation programs. Programs that teach students about non-violent conflict resolution and permit students to use and experience these in school. Peer-mediation is one example.

Bullying prevention and intervention. Programs that teach students about bullying behaviors and how they can be reported to teachers. Specific interventions are created for both bullies and victims.

Conflict de-escalation training. Programs that teach staff and students to recognize and to disengage from escalating conflict.

School-wide discipline program. Programs that develop a common terminology and consistent approach to discipline across school staff. Responsibilities of students and staff are identified, consistency in rule enforcement is increased, and consequences are identified for positive and negative behaviors occurring anywhere in school.

Positive office referrals/recognition. Programs that "catch students being good" and identify, reward, and celebrate individual students for appropriate behavior (e.g., attendance, being on-time, improving grades, meeting behavior goals).

Each of these "prerequisites" is also supported by a body of research that indicates positive, promising effects on student behavior in school. If they are to be effective, these "foundations" must be implemented in such a way as to become a normal part of that school's culture. They enable the "disciplinary alternatives" listed earlier to be effective by providing the context and skills for appropriate behavior. They may permit a substantial reduction in the use of suspension and expulsion as disciplinary options, and have the side effect of decreasing staff stress related to behavior, and increasing academic achievement for all students. They may also provide a way to reduce the involvement of students with emotional or behavioral disorders in the problems associated with suspension and expulsion.

Note: The contributions of Russell Skiba and Courtney Miller toward the ideas in this manuscript are gratefully acknowledged.

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Impact | Volume 18, Number 2 | Ten Alternatives to Suspension

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The suspension or expulsion of students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) has been problematic and controversial. Requirements of IDEA, and case law before that, have indicated that long-term suspension or expulsion violate the Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) guarantee for students with disabilities.

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Simple Correction Sequence || PBIS Strategy for Schools

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Changing the Behaviors with changes to the classroom

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Changing the Behaviors with changes to the classroom

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Changes you can make to change behavior:Setting