How do I Respond when an Interfering Behavior Occurs?
Slide 1: How do I respond when an interfering behavior occurs?
Dawn Hendricks, Ph.D.
Director of Training
Slide 2: Introduction
· When interfering behavior occurs respond consistently and appropriately.
· This presentation will include:
· How do I respond when a minor problem behavior occurs?
· How do I respond when a severe problem behavior occurs?
· How do I respond when behavior reaches a crisis level?
· How do I ensure safety of everyone?
Transcript:
When interfering behavior does occur we must respond to it consistently and appropriately. Students will demonstrate different types of behavior. Some will be mildly distracting, while others will dangerous and may be a safety issue. How we respond to behavior will of course depend on the student, the type of behavior and the function that behavior serves for the student. As we work with students with ASD, we will want to select those behaviors which require our attention and intervention. Certainly, all students demonstrate some negative behaviors, so we will want to “pick our battles” and respond to those we need to and ignore the ones we can safely and effectively ignore. When responding to interfering behaviors, there are some considerations to take into account and key strategies we can implement.
This presentation will include:
· How do I respond when a minor problem behavior occurs?
· How do I respond when a more severe problem behavior occurs?
· How do I respond when the behavior reaches a crisis level?
· How do I ensure the safety of everyone?
It is important to note that this presentation will outline what to do when the behavior is occurring. As discussed in other presentations, it will still be important to have an intervention plan in place that addresses the problem behavior by using proactive strategies and teaching a replacement skill.
Slide 3: What do I do when an interfering behavior happens?
· Determining how to respond is not easy.
· The first 2 levels are those considered mild in nature.
· Level 1 Behavior: Behavior is not severe enough to warrant attention or intervention.
· Level 1 Behavior Strategy: Ignore the behavior.
Transcript:
Determining how to respond when there is an interfering behavior is not easy. However, there are steps you can follow. These steps involve determining the severity of the behavior and whether it requires your immediate attention or intervention. It is helpful as we determine what to do to think about behaviors in terms of levels.
The first 2 levels are those behaviors considered mild in nature.
Level 1 Behavior: Behavior is not severe enough to warrant your attention or some sort of intervention.
There will be behaviors that may be annoying or undesired but do not require immediate or direct intervention. These behaviors do not pose a threat to the student or to others, do not result in property damage, and do not interfere with learning. We can refer to these as “distracting behaviors.”
Level 1 Behavior Strategy: Ignore the behavior.
For these distracting behaviors, ignoring is the best strategy. It keeps you from accidentally reinforcing the behavior by giving the student attention and it keeps you from getting into a power struggle with the student. Nothing good can come of creating a power struggle!
Slide 4: Examples: Ignoring behavior
· Emily rubs between her eyebrows while sitting during a lesson.
· The behavior is not interfering with her ability to listen and learn.
· Juan engages in echolalia and repeats movie lines during down time.
· It does not interfere with his learning or social interactions.
· These behaviors do not warrant our attention at this time.
Transcript:
Emily rubs the spot in between her eyebrows while sitting at her desk during a lesson. The behavior, while it may be distracting, is not interfering with her ability to listen and learn from the lesson. Therefore, this is a behavior that does not require a reaction or response at the time it is happening. Juan engages in echolalia and repeats movie lines. He does this during his down time. While this is annoying to his parents and teacher, it does not interfere with his learning or social interactions. The behavior does not warrant our attention at the time it is happening so the paraprofessional ignores it.
Slide 5: Ignoring behavior
Video example – Ignore Minor Behavior
Notice:
· The student engages in fidgeting and asking for the computer.
· The teacher does not respond and ignores the behavior.
· The student returns to work.
Transcript:
In this video example, you will see the student is supposed to be working on an assignment. The teacher helps the student to start the assignment but the student engages in some interfering behavior of fidgeting and asking for the computer. When the teacher does not respond immediately to the interfering behavior but rather ignores it, the student returns to work. The behavior, though unwanted, does not pose a risk to injure someone or cause a problem with learning and so it can be ignored.
Lloyd: Want the computer.
Teacher: Look, this is what we’re going to do. Do math. Ok?
Lloyd: Ok.
Teacher: Once you finish this, we have a break. Then we do our reading, then we do another one.
Lloyd: Ok.
Teacher: Remember Ms. Cannady showed you how to do your subtraction, right? Ok, ten minus two, we’re going to count backward.
Slide 6: What do I do when I cannot ignore the behavior?
· Level 2 Behavior: Behavior is not severe, but the student would benefit if the behavior stopped.
· Level 2 Behavior Strategy: Ignore behavior and redirect the student to an appropriate task.
Transcript:
Level 2 Behavior: Behavior is not severe, but the student would benefit if the behavior was stopped.
These behaviors are minor behaviors that cause mild disruption. Learning may be impacted because of the behavior or materials may be disturbed.
Level 2 Behavior Strategy: Ignore the behavior to the maximum extent possible and casually redirect the student to an appropriate task. If possible, do not give the student eye contact or verbally tell the student to stop. Instead tell the student to do something constructive and specific and point to the activity. You may find it helpful to also provide a small amount of physical assistance to help the student begin the task. In other words, you direct the student to something appropriate.
Slide 7: Example: Ignoring behavior and redirecting
· Emily begins rubbing her shirt sleeve over and over during calendar time.
· Paraprofessional prompts her hands to her lap, points to calendar, and verbally prompts her to count.
· Juan engages in echolalia during math class.
· Paraprofessional approaches him, taps his math worksheet, and quietly tells him to do problem number 3.
Transcript:
Emily begins rubbing her shirt sleeve over and over again during group calendar time. The paraprofessional stands behind her, and gently prompts her hands to her lap. The paraprofessional then points to the calendar and verbally prompts her to count with the rest of the class. Her behavior was disrupting group calendar time so the paraprofessional decided she needed to be redirected back to work. Juan engages in echolalia during math class. His classroom paraprofessional approaches him from the side, taps his math worksheet and quietly tells him to do problem number 3. The paraprofessional saw that he was not doing his work so ignored the behavior but non-intrusively redirected him to his school work. Juan discontinued the movie talk and did his math. The paraprofessional provided praise to him for working.
Slide 8: Redirection
Video example – Ignore Redirect Behavior
Notice:
· Lloyd is not on task.
· The paraprofessional redirects Lloyd back to his work.
Transcript:
In this example, you will see our student engaging in an interfering behavior in that he isn’t on task. He is fidgeting in his seat and playing with the scissors. The paraprofessional will return to Lloyd and redirect him back to his work.
Teacher: Come on. We have some reading to do. We can read the story and cut the pictures out. So we do all these pictures, ok? Ok, I see you’re having some problems. We’re going to cut these pictures out and we’re going to put them with the faces, ok? All right?
Lloyd: How do you do the face?
Slide 9: What do I do if the behavior requires more than redirection?
· Level 3 Behavior: Behavior is severe enough to require an immediate response by an adult.
· Considerations:
o Interferes with learning
o Disruption to materials
o Threat to the safety of student or others
· Level 3 Behavior Strategy: Intervene to keep student and others safe and reduce disruption.
Transcript:
Sometimes students will require more intensive intervention when there is an interfering behavior. We are now going to talk about Level 3 behaviors.
Level 3 Behavior: Behavior is severe enough to require an immediate response by an adult.
There are several considerations when making this determination. You can ask yourself the following questions: Does this behavior interfere with the learning of the student with ASD? Does the behavior interfere with the learning of other students? Does the behavior cause major disruption to materials? For example, are items thrown or knocked on the floor? Is the behavior a threat to the safety of the student or to others? If the answer is yes to any of these, then the behavior requires immediate intervention and this is a Level 3. Marcus is screaming during gym class. The other students cannot hear the teacher and are distracted by his screams. Lilly breaks the pencil lead purposefully when given a writing task. Caleb will frequently pound the key board when he is taking a test and does not know the answer. This causes damage to the key board requiring intervention.
Level 3 Behavior Strategy: For these behaviors, you will intervene at the time of the behavior to keep the student and others safe and to reduce disruption. When these behaviors occur, it requires you to quickly think about the situation to figure out what is going on and to then intervene taking everything into account.
However, you will also communicate with your supervisors and with the student’s case manager (this is normally the special education teacher) when the student has problem behavior that is not easily ignored or redirected.
For these behaviors, the nature of the intervention will vary depending on the student and the behavior. This is when it is especially important to have an intervention plan in place that outlines exactly what to do when the behavior occurs. If you have an intervention plan in place, do whatever is described in the plan. If you do not have a plan in place, it will be important to tell your supervisory teacher when the student has interfering behavior that is not easily ignored or redirected.
When there is an interfering behavior, this may be a good time to teach the student a more appropriate behavior that can be used instead of the behavior. It is the responsibility of those working with and supporting the student to determine the right course of action. If you are unsure of what to do, ask the teacher or another supervisor as they can guide your response.
Slide 10: Examples: Intervention
1. Behavior: Marcus screams in gym class.
Intervention: Paraprofessional asks if he would like to get a drink of water in the hall so he can escape the noisy gym.
2. Behavior: Lilly broke pencil when she writes.
Intervention: Paraprofessional takes Lilly’s paper and shows her where to write the letter “A” as well as providing light prompting to help her get started on the assignment.
3. Behavior: Caleb pounds keyboard when he doesn’t know the test answers.
Intervention: Paraprofessional casually moves keyboard out of the way. She shows Caleb how to raise his hand and ask for help. When he raises his hand, she helps Caleb with the test question.
Transcript:
Let’s look at some examples. In this table, the left hand column shows examples of interfering behaviors that can occur. The right hand column describes a possible intervention.
Marcus is screaming during gym class. The gym is loud and has a lot echoes. The class is playing a chase game, which is very loud. The paraprofessional knows that Marcus does not like loud noises. The paraprofessional asks Marcus if he would like to get a drink of water in the hall. He quickly says yes and calms down as soon as he is out of the noisy gym.
Lilly broke her pencil lead when asked to write the letter “A” 5 times on the paper. The paraprofessional knows that Lilly does not like handwriting and finds it very challenging. The paraprofessional takes Lilly’s paper and shows her a block where she is to write the letter “A” one time. The paraprofessional explains that “First, she writes “A.” Then she can play with a ball for a few seconds.” The paraprofessional also provides light prompting to help her get started on writing the letter “A.” Lilly writes the letter, then plays with the ball. The paraprofessional does the same thing until she has written the letter 5 times.