Early Connections Network: Functional Assessments and Behavior Support Planning Workshop, November 30, 2012.

Pre-Study Articles:

The following articles are a pre-study for the Early Connections Network: Functional Assessments and Behavior Support Planning Workshop November 30, 2012.

The initial articles introduce the Pyramid Model which is the foundation developing relationships, creating appropriate environments and teaching social skills to aid in the prevention of challenging behavior and how to work with children with persistent challenging behaviors. The remaining articles describe Positive Behavior Supports and Interventions to use with young children and then several articles on defining and identifying challenging behavior.The final articles are about the function of the behavior and a guide for parents about Functional Assessment.

The following lists the articles to be read and several key points to think about and that are important to understand before attending the workshop. Finally, there is a pre-study activity to complete and return to Team Tennessee before the workshop.

Introductory:

  1. The Teaching Pyramid (4 pgs)
  2. Infant Mental Health for Early Care and Education Providers (11 pgs)
  3. Family Centered PBIS for Young Children (3pgs)
  4. Positive Behavior Support Q & A for Families (2pgs)

Key Points:

  • What is the Pyramid Model?
  • Why is it important to know about infant Mental Health when working with families?
  • What is PBS/PBIS and why is important when working with

challenging behaviors?

Relationships & Environment:

  1. Attachment: What Works? (WWB24)

Key Points:

  • What is attachment?
  • Why is attachment and relationships important in the development

of infants and young children?

Supportive Skills:

  1. You’ve Got It! Teaching Social and Emotional Skills (7 pgs)

Key Points:

  • What are the social and emotional skills children need to be taught?
  • Why does teaching social and emotional skills to young children

help in preventing challenging behaviors?

Functional Behavior Assessments:

  1. Challenging Behavior Fact Sheet (1pg)
  2. What Are Children Trying to Tell Us? Assessing the Function of Their Behavior (WWB9) (2pgs)
  3. Reading Cues from Birth to Age 2 (5pgs)
  4. Parent’s Guide to Functional Assessment (11pgs)

Key Points:

  • What is challenging behavior?
  • What does the function of behavior mean?
  • How can you identify the function of the behavior?
  • How do you get families involved in the functional assessment and behavior support planning?

Pre-workshop activity:

Please complete the following activity after you have read the collection of articles.

You can write your answers next to the questions below and then send them to the following email by November 27: and we will use one or more descriptions to do a functional assessment and behavior support plan during the workshop.

As you read the following articles think about children that you have worked with that exhibit persistent challenging behaviors.

Select one child and write a brief description of the childinclude:

  • Age/gender
  • Describe the behavior.
  • What triggers the behavior?
  • What are the behavior patterns (what, when, where, length of time of the behavior).
  • How well did the behavior works-what does the child get from the behavior?
  • What interventions haveyou or the parent tried?
  • Have any of the interventions worked? (if so, which ones)
  • What are the child’s strengths and weaknesses?