Practical help and Strategies to manage Challenging Behaviour

Team Teach training has had a huge input into the way that I organise my class and staff. We have all been trained in the approach that is based on de-escalation techniques, with the use of physical handling strategies as a last resort to prevent physical injury to others. There are other teaching methods such as Lovaas and the Option/Son-Rise approach; however as I tend to use minor elements of some approaches to develop our own that works in each setting. Each child has a behaviour management policy which has been agreed and used throughout school, residential unit or home and agreed by parents.

The document has targets towards achieving objectives such as to reduce anxiety, to provide a structured environment and rewards for positive and sanctions for inappropriate behaviour. It describes behaviour to discourage such as unnecessary walking around the room or harm to others. The document describes what to watch out for such as biting, pinching & scratching. There are suggested rewards like the trampoline, playground, swings, personal interaction; and suggested sanctions like loss of rewards or loss of personal interaction.

Working together as a team and being consistent between ourselves and between all of the children in similar circumstances has helped to provide the structured environment that the children require. Each child has consistent interactions, time and time again. Children who require support in recognising their own feelings or recognising when something that they are doing is inappropriate, can take security in the consistent approach adopted within the behaviour strategy.

Drug treatments prescribed by doctors include Ritalin for children with ADHD. These can help calm specific children, allowing them to more readily access the curriculum because it helps to noticeably calm them down. The physical organisation of my classroom has helped to manage challenging behaviour. I have adopted various areas within my workrooms, all of which are painted in pale colours. I have a resources cupboard that is locked and away from the children, a workbox corridor room with plain walls and a ceiling window to reduce distractions, a main classroom with a daily picture timetable on the wall, and a second classroom and designated toilet and changing area for my class use.

The theme of the TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children) programme is used within my class – particularly during individual daily literacy or numeracy workbox sessions. Pictures of the activities are laminated onto Velcro and arranged on cards in sequential order. Music therapy and other alternative therapies such as massage using essential oils and Reiki are accessed at least once a week at appropriate times for certain children as their needs require.

I have removed clutter in the rooms and the wall displays are only in certain areas. We have blinds which we can lower over the windows if it is too bright and we have labelled draws so the children can find a limited selection of items if they need them. My philosophy is that if everything is neat and tidy and put away then it will not become a distraction. During lesson times, only the teaching resource items that we are using are available to the children, making them easier to focus upon. Depending upon the specific children and activity, individual, group or paired work is used with variable staffing ratios.

Within my lesson planning there are usually two or three activities being undertaken at any one time in different rooms. This enables the children to concentrate better on the activities without the social problems associated with sharing with others, the activity times can range from 5 – 20 minutes, depending upon the individual. A high staffing ratio enables children to have supervised “time out” for a few minutes if they require it before rejoining the learning. The curriculum is adapted around the behaviour of the child, which sometimes means being creative with the timetable and being flexible within the staff team. The child’s IEP (Individual Educational Plan) reflects the goals that are being worked towards. Educational and behavioural targets are included for each of the three academic terms; these reflect the overall annual targets for each child.

“Last one” and “Finished” cards are used to pre-warn that an activity will shortly end. For children who need it, a “now” and “next” picture card system shows what they will be doing and can be used to reinforce the pictoral widgit timetable on the wall. PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) (Frost & Bondy 2002) is used to ask for items during snack times. Giving a child who is non verbal the means of communicating when they were previously unable, thus reduces their frustration. The idea that keeping the child satisfied by giving them the items that they request within reason will prevent the occurrence of challenging behaviour.

To conclude, it is important to know and understand all of the children that we teach and have an insight into the various triad of impairment, social, environmental and medical issues that could cause a child with an ASD to display challenging behaviour. Once the challenging behaviour has been exhibited, it is important to be able to analyse the reasons why it occurred. Through a process of elimination the cause can be derived and a strategy adopted to prevent or better manage the behaviour from re-occurring. A system of debriefing following each school day in the form of a class meeting is currently used as the mechanism in my class to create and reinforce good procedure and practise. It is important to realise that it is not the challenging behaviour that we are interested in, but in the child who was showing that they were upset. When the world can be seen by through the eyes of the child with an ASD, then solutions can be prepared to better manage similar future scenarios, thus providing a constructive life that is meaningful to them.