The Doll Series
For all the personalities in the classroom, and how to reach them so everybody learns
Laura A. Riffel, Ph.D. (2012)
Ants in the Pants Arthur
2010 (October)- the CDC changed the statistics on ADHD to 1 in 10 children. Here are some of the top intervention for children with ADHD:
1. Cushion the chair- providing proprioceptive input into an uncomfortable chair will help them concentrate for longer periods of time
2. Two desks on opposite sides of the room
3. Secret code words to let them know they have drifted off
4. Vibrating watch to remind them to stay on task- this watch can be set to vibrate at intervals determined by the parents, student and teacher and they automatically reset.
5. Fidget tools to help the student organize their thoughts by 39%
a. Velcro or bathtub anti-slip decals placed under the desk top work
b. Koosh balls
c. Pom pom balls
d. Anything soft and pliable
e. Pictures and links to all of these are available on www.behaviordoctor.org on the ADHD page
6. Token Economy- Make sure the pay-off is for sensory input (renting the teacher’s chair- going on errands for the teacher- etc)
Antecedent / Behavior / ConsequenceAntecedent Manipulation / Replacement Behavior / Consequence Modification
Bite Me Barbie
This is geared for those teenage years, when the heads spin: “I love you. I hate you. I love you.” The best way to work with Bite me Barbie is to not let her know that she has found the buttons on your vending machine- in other words do not deliver what she is expecting. Pretend you are deaf to her. Purposely misinterpret her words. She says, “Oh, Sh*&(“ You say, “Oh, you’d like to study the human digestive system? I can work on that for next week’s lesson. Today let’s focus on this and just keep going. Keep your voice at a three to six inch level and nice and sing-song like. She is hoping to push you into brain stem. You have to stay in frontal lobe.
Antecedent / Behavior / ConsequenceAntecedent Manipulation / Replacement Behavior / Consequence Modification
Cussing Cookie Monster
When a child cusses, most people want me to tell them to tell the child to stop and the child will stop. I wish it were that easy. Cussing has become a habit and habits are hard to break. Think about your own habits. You have to come up with a replacement behavior. Remember the ship story. Think of a replacement behavior for your child:
Antecedent- when does the cussing show up? / Behavior- what is the cuss word that is showing up? / Consequence- what is feeding the cuss word? Is it habit plus attention or habit plus escape?Proactively- what environmental changes can you put in place so the student doesn’t need to cuss – based on what you learned were the antecedents to the behavior? / What is the replacement behavior or word you are going to put in place to take the place of this cuss word? / How are you going to feed this cuss word differently? In other words- what will you do differently the next time this student cusses?
Debating Dora
Oh, these are the fun ones. These are the students that will someday be lawyers. The next time they start to argue with you- be ready. Have a little black recipe box filled with 3 x 5 cards. On these cards have debate tips. If you don’t have any debate tips you can download them from the internet or you can ask a high school student to give you some ideas. The next time Debating Dora starts a debate with you- smile really big at them and walk over close to them, bend over and get right on their level. Smile even bigger and get all excited and say: “Oh my gosh, I’m so excited. YOU, want to learn about debate. I took debate in high school. I LOVED debate. I still have my little black box from debate. I can teach you about debate so you’ll be good at it. I can teach you 30 minute before school or 30 minute after school. I already called your mom. She said it doesn’t matter to her- whichever you prefer. Which do you prefer? I’m so excited. This is going to be so fun. I can’t wait.” Stand there waiting for their answer like it’s Christmas morning and you are getting a 26 inch English racer that you have been waiting for all your life. I promise you that child will never argue with you again and word will spread that YOU are really that crazy about debate that you would like to teach them all about it and no one will argue with you. It’s that fun.
Antecedent – when does the debating start? / Behavior / Consequence- are they going for your attention or hoping to get out of work or going for peer attention?Antecedent Manipulation / Replacement Behavior / Consequence Modification
Eloping Elmo
Eloping Elmo is for those students with disabilities who elope from classrooms and from home. This is very different from Wandering Waldos which we will discuss later. Eloping Elmos can be scary. For little ones that elope, I think it is very important to first take every precaution like doorknob guards that keep the doorknob from turning unless you are the adult (think childproofing)- even an alarm you can pick up at the dollar store which can be hung on the door so that if the door opens an alarm sings so you know the child snuck out is very important.
Second- figure out why the child is trying to elope. Are they trying to escape a buzzing light or is a noise outside drawing them to explore? Is a smell driving them crazy or is the smell of cooking down in the cafeteria making them hungry. Just because we can’t see the antecedent doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting the behavior. We have to be CSI agents. Not Crime Scene Investigators but Causal Science Investigators and figure out the real reason behind this elopement. I had a young man jump up (18 years old) and go running down a hallway beating his head into the cinder block wall and then through a plate glass window at the end of the hall. When I quizzed the staff about what he was doing right before he did this behavior they said, “What he was always doing that time of day.” I had to dig to get them to tell me. I think they knew it was wrong. They were having him sort: not laundry- not office supplies- but those chunky Pre-K red, yellow, and blue bears. The same bears he had been sorting in kindergarten, first, second and so on. This poor guy had spent at least thirteen years sorting red, yellow and blue bears. I asked them if he had trouble sorting red, yellow and blue bears. They said, “NO”. No doubt, he was really good at it. He had had lots of practice. I’m so surprised it took him 13 years to finally get up and go running down the hallway and through a plate glass window to let them know he’d had it. We have to give all kids really interesting things to do- not boring rote things to do. WE got him a job at Pizza Hut where he could sort the items on the salad bar and talk to people his own age in the morning who were doing the pizza prep work. He was much happier and less likely to go running away.
Antecedent- What is happening right before the child elopes? / Behavior- elopement / Consequence- where do they go? What do they get when they get there?Antecedent Modifications-
Consider- sensory- attention- escape- smells- access- / Replacement behavior- communication of what they want / Consequence modification- are they getting attention from everyone when they elope or are they getting escape from something when they elope?
Fighting Fred Flintstone
Some children have learned that fighting is the answer. Sometimes, our job is to help children or students unlearn what someone else taught them. This is going to sound counter-intuitive but sometimes martial arts are a good way to counter some of that aggression. If you have a good dojo and good sensei they will focus on inner control of anger and inner control of the body.
The next issue to conquer is inner control of breathing. I have taught students how to control their breathing. Place your tongue behind your two front teeth and close your mouth. Breathe in through your nose for the count of four. Breathe out through your nose for the count of four. Repeat this for ten counts. This will help bring oxygen to the frontal lobe and this will help keep you there instead of the brain stem. If we breathe with our mouth open the oxygen will by-pass our brain. Look at this picture:
We want to stay in frontal lobe- we want kids to stay in frontal lobe- we need oxygen to stay up in the brain and not by-pass the brain. Help kids remember to breathe.
Antecedent / Behavior / ConsequenceAntecedent Manipulation / Replacement Behavior / Consequence Modification
Gregarious Gingerbread Man
This is for the class clown or the kid that thinks everything is funny. Really in the scheme of things- wouldn’t you rather have a group of class clowns than a group of fighting Fred Flintstones? I once had a group of sixth grade boys that snuck back in during lunch recess and filled the water supply (we were in a trailer so we had a 5 gallon water jug) with rubber snakes and frogs. They thought it was hysterical. It wasted a 5 gallon jug of water. I could get angry about the waste of water or I could smile and say- “That’s a good one.” I spent the evening digging the snakes and frogs out of the container- filling it up with water fountain water from inside the school so we didn’t get charged with wasted water and rolled it back out to my trailer. I’d rather laugh at it than die on that mountain with those particular boys. That was the worst thing they ever did. Was I going to lose it over that with them? I think not. No one ever knew I filled the water jug back up that night with water fountain water from the building so it would be sanitary for everyone to drink. You have to decide what battles you want to fight and what battles aren’t worth fighting. What I do like to do with habitual class clowns is give them a stage. Put them on a token economy and let them earn “Mike Friday”. If you are good Monday-Thursday on Friday you can tell 5 minutes of knock-knock jokes or do 12 minutes of stand-up routine for the class- but you have to earn 25 tokens or 25 points for good behavior. Use what you know they want- which in the case of a Gregarious Gingerbread Man is usually peer attention- for your payoff for your token economy.
Antecedent / Behavior / ConsequenceAntecedent Manipulation / Replacement Behavior / Consequence Modification
Hypochondriac Holly Hobby
For some reason, this is my number one download each month. There are two main reasons that a child might feign an illness: 1) attention and 2) escape. Your first task is to determine which it is that your student is aiming for in their attempt. They may have figured out they can get both. In my broadcast, I tell the story of my daughter who had attended the school where I taught so she got a ton of attention because she was my daughter. Then I moved her to our “home” school and she got no extra attention. She decided the school nurse seemed like a good candidate for some TLC and started going there every day. She did have a very “stiff” teacher who was not nurturing at all and so there might have been some escape there as well – but I think the attention from the nurse who was sweet and loving was what she was going for all along. Once we figure out what the child is trying to get, we have to put that in place as the antecedent modification. If it is attention, give them attention on the front side or let them earn it through a token economy system. If it is escape from work, we have to figure out why they want to escape the work. Is the work too hard? Are they lacking some skills?
Antecedent / Behavior / ConsequenceAntecedent Manipulation / Replacement Behavior / Consequence Modification
Investigating Inspector Gadget
This is the student that can tell you what number problem everyone else is on in the room; but, he or she does not have a single problem done on their own paper. They are so into everyone else’s business, that they do not pay attention to their own. The best advice for this student is to give them a job in the class. They only get to perform this important job when their work is complete. One caveat to this is that their work must be completed with quality. These are the students that will hurry through and turn in anything to just be done so they can be in charge. They can be great QAT (Quality Assurance Technicians) Kids who check work against the rubric- Name on paper- Date on paper- All answers completed etc. – Tell them they can have this job – if they prove they can turn in quality work.
Antecedent / Behavior / ConsequenceAntecedent Manipulation / Replacement Behavior / Consequence Modification
Jumping G.I. Joe
Jumping G.I. Joe focused on students with autism who used jumping as a tantrum activity. During the presentation we will focus on a student who tantrums for four hours and then bites. He was previously taught this behavior earned him a trip home. We had to help him unlearn this behavior. We got him a beanbag and taught him to go sit in his beanbag when he was upset and to communicate with us what he wanted. At first he tried to tantrum. We taught him by not letting him go home, that at our school, you don’t get to go home. Twenty-one days later, he learned that tantrums got him nowhere. He stopped tantrums and started communicating. He is now in high school and doing all the same work as all the moderate students. We had to figure out what his tantrum was communicating to us and then we taught him how to better communicate with us.