Excerpts from Challenging Behavior in Young Children

Challenging Behavior in Elementary and Middle School

Introduction
Chapter 2: Risk Factors
Chapter 5: Relationship, Relationship, Relationship
Chapter 6: Understanding the Child’s Family and Culture
Chapter 10: The WEVAS Strategy
Chapter 11: Positive Behavior Support and Functional Assessment
Chapter 12: The Inclusive Classroom
Chapter 14: Bullying

From the Introduction
Andrew is like a volcano
Because Andrew’s facial expressions and body language seldom reflected his feelings or intentions, his challenging behavior seemed to come out of nowhere. One of his 4-year-old classmates said it best: “Andrew is like a volcano; he’s calm on the outside and ready to explode on the inside.”

The staff tried to encourage him when he was behaving appropriately, but positive reinforcement made Andrew nervous. If a teacher showed interest while Andrew was concentrating on a puzzle, he shoved it to the ground or threw the pieces at her. Eventually, the teachers found themselves viewing his positive behavior as a chance to take a breath or be with the other children, who were receiving less and less care. They were teaching Andrew that the best way to get their notice was to do something that made them angry.

On the rare occasions that Andrew was absent, everyone felt the difference. The atmosphere was more relaxed, and the children enjoyed playing with one another without looking over their shoulders. On those days Barbara, the center’s director, asked herself if it would be better to ask him to leave the center. Some of the staff thought he shouldn’t be there. They felt ill equipped and unwilling to have a child like Andrew in their group. Not only did he jeopardize the safety of the other children, but his presence compromised their ability to provide the program the children deserved. He consumed so much of their time and energy that they had almost nothing left to give.

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From Chapter 2: Risk Factors
Child care
Children don’t choose to attend child care; they have to go. For many hours a week, they have very little control over their own lives. Their individual needs often take a back seat to the needs of the group and the teachers (children often nap so that teachers can have a lunch break, for example). Children who are inflexible or easily frustrated and children who are very active or very timid find this extremely hard, and it’s harder when they spend the entire day there. Challenging behavior is their way of letting us know what they feel.

Research has shown that stimulating and emotionally supportive care is associated with positive developmental outcomes for children. But a longitudinal study of about 1000 children by the Early Child Care Research Network of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (2003) has found a link between the number of hours that four-and-a-half-year-olds and kindergartners spend in child care and their social competence and problem behavior. As the children’s time in child care increased, so did their problem behavior and aggression. The study takes into account the quality of care, along with the child’s gender and temperament; the mother’s education and sensitivity; and the family’s income and ethnicity.

These results are disturbing, and it’s tempting to discount them. After all, the overwhelming majority of children did not score in the at-risk range; and other studies have shown that quality of care does make a difference in children’s problem behavior, particularly in children from low-income families (Love et al., 2003). But it’s important to take this research seriously. It is a rigorous study, the largest of its kind ever conducted, and the researchers are respected experts. Because it seems to show that time spent in child care affects problem behavior even when quality is high, it suggests that trained, qualified, and experienced teachers working in high quality centers don’t necessarily have the skills that are required to work effectively with children with challenging behavior.

A nationwide study of state-funded prekindergarten programs seems to confirm this view. Yale University researcher Walter S. Gilliam (2005) found that programs were expelling preschoolers “due to behavior concerns” at more than three times the rate that schools were ousting children in kindergarten through grade 12. Boys were thrown out more than four times as often as girls, and African American preschoolers were about twice as likely to be expelled as European American and Latino children. But, Gilliam discovered, the more access teachers had to the help of a mental health professional, the less likely they were to eject a child; and he recommended that they receive enhanced support and better training in addressing problem behavior.

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From Chapter 5: Relationship, Relationship, Relationship
How can you help a child with challenging behavior to develop a secure attachment?
Children develop close emotional bonds with their teachers in much the same way that they become attached to their parents. They use attachment behaviors—crying, smiling, talking, and so on—to make social connections and to let the teacher know when they’re distressed or uncomfortable. Relationships are actually made up of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of interactions (Pianta, 1999). If the teacher responds sensitively, promptly, and consistently, over time these interactions add up to a secure attachment—an organized way for teacher and child to relate to one another (Howes, 1999).

But for children with challenging behavior, constructing a secure attachment is often not an easy matter. Their internal working models of adult-child relationships (which remain unknown to us) accompany them to child care or school, and in this new setting the strategies that protect them from rejection or haphazard caregiving at home may provoke exactly the behavior they are supposed to ward off, alienating them from their teachers and classmates (Howes and Ritchie, 2002). As psychologist Robert Karen writes in Becoming Attached (1998), “The behavior of the insecurely attached child—whether aggressive or cloying—often tries the patience of peers and adults alike. It elicits reactions that repeatedly reconfirm the child's distorted view of the world…” (p. 228).

But, Karen concludes, “If adults are sensitive to the anxious child’s concerns, they can break through.” Research on children with severe problems—those in foster care or therapeutic preschool—shows that when they receive sensitive, responsive, consistent care, they can form a secure attachment with their foster mother or teacher (Howes, 1999). Time helps: When the same adult continues to care for the child over a longer period, there is a greater chance that the attachment will become secure (Howes and Ritchie, 2002).

Howes and Ritchie (2002) call this process “disconfirming” the child’s previous insecure attachment. It depends, they say, on “careful observation and listening to children and on a teacher’s reflecting on her or his own practice, examining missteps, and trying again…. In order to disconfirm maladaptive interactions, teachers must be able to think about why the patterns of behavior are occurring and consciously work to change them” (pp. 73, 75).

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From Chapter 6: Understanding the Child’s Family and Culture
How does culture influence behavior?
Sometimes a cultural conflict, visible or invisible, causes or contributes to challenging behavior. Maybe behavior that is inappropriate in the child-care setting or school is acceptable—or even desirable—at home. If a child doesn’t answer when you ask her how she feels, her behavior may be culturally appropriate. She may not know how, or wish, to answer because in her culture it is considered rude for people to express their personal feelings. A 3-year-old who spills her apple juice may not be clumsy or immature; she may not know how to drink from a cup because in her culture many generations ago liquid was too precious to present to a child in a spillable form and she still drinks from a bottle.

It is extremely important to understand the cultural assumptions on both sides—why you expect a child to express her feelings (and to drink from a cup) as well as why for some children that is an unreasonable (or unfamiliar) demand. If you are not from the European American culture, you will have cultural expectations of your own—and you’ll also encounter behavior that perplexes you. For a teacher from a Latino culture, for example, a child who requires an explanation of why she should do things the way you ask may seem rude and lacking in respect rather than assertive or logical.

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From Chapter 10: The WEVAS Strategy
The fire inside
Like gasoline on a fire, words seem to fuel the emotions of a child in the aggressive state. Since talking is out of the question until she’s calm, you must use your nonverbal skills to communicate with her and deescalate the behavior. The child is acutely aware of your physical presence, and your body is your most useful tool. If you confront her, put your hands on your hips, or use your body language and size to exert your power and intimidate or threaten her, you will make her feel smaller and more defensive and increase the possibility that she’ll become assaultive and lash out at you or at someone smaller when you aren’t around. Without giving up your authority, you must communicate openness, caring, and confidence through your relaxed posture, facial expression, and behavior.

The key to this Houdini act is in your head: You must distance yourself psychologically. Whatever the child says or does, don’t take it personally. Your emotions can draw you into the struggle, impede your ability to focus on her, and make you less effective. Imagine yourself by the sea or think of the bottom of your feet. These techniques can give you distance and objectivity and help you to relax your face even if your stomach is in knots. If you’re mentally in Hawaii, you won’t feel nearly so terrified.

This doesn’t mean that you ignore her or cut off contact. Rather, it means that you aren’t getting hooked into an emotional response that makes it harder for you to be effective. You can remain neutrally involved, giving her attention with your presence, carefully calibrating her behavior and adjusting your actions. Your message to her is that you’re not going to respond or join in, but when she’s ready to make other choices, you'll be there.

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From Chapter 11: Positive Behavior Support and Functional Assessment
The world through the child’s eyes
Every challenging behavior can be thought of as a child’s solution to a problem and a form of communication. These ideas go back to Plato, who said that a crying baby’s behavior serves a function: He is trying to get someone to care for him. (Durand, 1990).

This is the underlying principle of positive behavior support and functional assessment, two linked strategies developed by behavioral psychologists for understanding a child’s challenging behavior. Their goal is to figure out what is triggering the behavior and what the child is getting from it—and to teach the child a more acceptable behavior that can fulfill those needs instead (O'Neill et al., 1997; Repp, Karsh, Munk, and Dahlquist, 1995). Together, they enable you to look at the world through the child’s eyes and craft a behavior support plan that will make the challenging behavior “irrelevant, ineffective, and inefficient” (O’Neill et al., p. 8).

Challenging behavior isn’t really as random and unpredictable as it seems. By focusing on the child’s immediate environment, you can understand where the behavior is coming from, why it’s happening at a particular time in a particular place (Durand, 1990), the logic behind it, and the function or purpose it serves for the child (Dunlap and Kern, 1993; Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, and Richman, 1982; O’Neill et al., 1997). Even if the behavior is inappropriate, the function seldom is. Once we understand the function, we can design a positive behavior support plan to help the child achieve his purpose appropriately.

Of course, all of the causes of challenging behavior aren’t in the immediate environment, but viewing it from this angle can be extremely helpful. Positive behavior support and functional assessment are powerful strategies to add to your toolbox, especially when you combine them with other methods.

Enter the teacher as detective. When you use this pair of techniques, you and everyone else who works with the child become a team of sleuths searching together to discover the function of the challenging behavior and solve this case. The key is to see the situation from the child’s point of view (Anderson, Albin, Mesaros, Dunlap, and Morelli-Robbins, 1993).

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From Chapter 12: The Inclusive Classroom
Why is inclusion important?
Inclusion represents a basic American and human ethical value: equality. It is the same value the Supreme Court upheld in Brown v. the Board of Education in 1954 when it threw out segregation in the schools and made integration the law of the land. Separate is not equal, the high court said; it is a form of discrimination with noxious effects, including isolation, a sense of inferiority, and slowed educational and mental development (Karagammis, Stainback, and Stainback, 1996).

Inclusion enables children with disabilities to become part of the fabric of society and promotes appreciation and understanding of diversity among children without disabilities. Both groups acquire better academic and social skills and better preparation for living in the community (Holahan, 2000; Karagammis et al., 1996). The benefits of an accepting inclusive setting are greater when children are very young. Those who are typically developing are less likely to tease or reject their classmates with disabilities and more likely to accept and include individuals with disabilities as they grow up. Those with disabilities function better in a typical environment and are more likely to move on to—and succeed in—inclusive schools (Holahan, 2000).

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From Chapter 14: Bullying
How do you respond to bullying?
Despite your best efforts to prevent it, bullying may still occur. Before it does, take some time to understand your own feelings on the subject. If you bullied other children (or were bullied) as a child, your emotions may still be very strong, and it’s important to understand them and separate them from what the children are experiencing. In a bullying situation, where a clear head and a nonthreatening tone of voice and body language are essential, you absolutely must keep your cool.

When you encounter bullying, it’s crucial to take it seriously and intervene immediately. The best plan is to do what you’d do with any other act of aggression in your classroom—go to the child who’s being harassed, let her know you’re there to protect and support her, and help her to respond assertively (Sharp and Cowie, 1994). (“It’s my job to make sure everyone in this classroom is safe, and it’s not okay to bully. Tell him you don’t like that.”) This allows you to state the rules without giving attention directly to the child who’s doing the bullying. Then ask the bystanders to leave the area. Their presence encourages the bullying, and a public confrontation may make things worse (Horne, Orpinas, Newman-Carlson, and Bartolomucci, 2004).

The experts disagree about what to do next. Pepler et al. (2004) point out that the decision rests in part on your perception of the problem. If you believe bullying is a matter of one child’s aggressive behavior, you’ll probably want to speak with that child one-on-one and arrange consequences for his behavior. But if you think that bullying depends on group dynamics, you’ll favor a group solution. Olweus (1993) leans toward the first view. He recommends “serious talks” with both the child who’s been harassed and the child who did the bullying and imposing sanctions if talks don’t work. Other researchers prefer “formative consequences,” and still others champion a “no blame” approach, where the group is the object of the intervention and no penalties are attached.

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