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Module 1
Presenter's Presentation: PowerPoint

Slide 1

Promoting Social Emotional Competence

Promoting Children’s Success: Building Relationships and Creating Supportive Environments

Slide 2

Agenda

Introduction
Examining attitudes
Relationship between challenging behavior and social emotional development
Creating environments
Building relationships
Designing physical environment
Schedules, routines & transitions
Activities that promote engagement
Giving directions
Following rules & directions
Ignoring/redirecting
Ongoing monitoring and positive attention
Using positive feedback & encouragement
Pulling it all together

Slide 3

Learner Objectives

1.Participants will be able to describe the relationship between children’s social emotional development and challenging behaviors

2. Participants will be able to describe the importance of building relationships with children, families, and colleagues

3.Participants will be able to describe the relationship between a number of environmental variables and children’s challenging behaviors

4. Participants will be able to identify strategies to build positive relationships

5. Participants will use positive feedback and encouragement appropriately

6.Participants will evaluate their work

Slide 4

Examining Our Attitudes about Challenging Behavior

What behaviors make you crazy or push your buttons?
How do these behaviors make youfeel?

Slide 5

Managing Personal Stress: Thought Control

Upsetting Thoughts

“That child is a monster. This is getting ridiculous. He’ll never change.”
“I’m sick of putting out fires!”

Calming Thoughts

“This child is testing to see where the limits are. My job is to stay calm and help him learn better ways to behave.”
“I can handle this. I am in control. They have just learned some powerful ways to get control. I will teach them more appropriate ways to behave.”

Slide 6

Managing Personal Stress: Thought Control

Upsetting Thought

“I wonder if Wal-Mart is hiring?”
“He ruins everything! This is going to be the worst year of my career.”

Calming Thoughts

“I feel undervalued right now – I need to seek support from my peers and supervisor.”
“Having him in my class is going to be a wonderful Professional Development experience.”

Slide 7

Key Social Emotional Skills Children Need as They Enter School

Key Skills

Confidence
Capacity to develop good relationshipswith peers
Concentration and persistence on challenging tasks
Ability to effectively communicate emotions
Ability to listen to instructions and be attentive

When children don’t have these skills, they often exhibit challenging behaviors

We must focus on teaching the skills!!

Slide 8

Some Basic Assumptions

Challenging behavior is most oftenrelated to some skill deficit (e.g., language, social)
Behavior that persists over time is working for the child
When we have positive relationships with children, supportive classroom environments, and focus on teaching social and communication skills, we reduce the likelihood of challenging behavior

Slide 9

Classroom Preventive Practices - Promoting Children’s Success

Create a context that makes EVERY child feel good about coming to school

Design an environment that promotes child engagement

Focus on teaching children what To Do!

Teach expectations and routines
Teach skills that children can use in place of challenging behaviors

Slide 10

[Pyramid: top to bottom]

Intensive Individualized Interventions
Social Emotional Teaching Strategies
Creating Supportive Environments
Positive Relationships with Children, Families, and Colleagues

Slide 11

Building Relationships with Children

Why is it important?

Creating a safe environment for children
Ensuring that all children, even those with the most challenging behaviors, have access to ongoing positive relationships

How do we build relationships with children?

Slide 12

Strategies for Building Relationships

Select a partner
Brainstorm a list of things you could do to build or strengthen relationships with children, families, or other colleagues
From that list, identify 2-3 things you are going to work on in order to build stronger relationships with the children, families, or colleagues

Slide 13

[Pyramid: top to bottom]

Intensive Individualized Interventions
Social Emotional Teaching Strategies
Creating Supportive Environments
Positive Relationships with Children, Families, and Colleagues

Slide 14

Classroom Arrangement and Design: Traffic Patterns

Carefully plan traffic patterns

Minimize large open spaces
Minimize obstacles and other hazards
Consider the needs of children with physical and sensory disabilities

Slide 15

Classroom Arrangement and Design: Learning Centers

Physical Design

Clear boundaries
Visibility
Visual prompts when centers are not an option
Adequate number of centers
Size and location of centers
Number of children in centers
Organization of materials
Preparation of centers

Slide 16

Classroom Arrangement and Design: Learning Centers

Create Meaningful and Engaging Learning Centers

Relevant to children’s needs, interests, and lives
Highly engaging and interesting
Variety of materials in each center
Changed and rotated on a regular basis

Slide 17

Classroom Arrangement and Design: Activity

With a partner, sketch a classroom. Review item 3 on the Inventory and consider what changes need to be made in the classroom based on what you heard or what is in the Inventory
Revise your sketch of the environment and then share major changes with other participants at the table

Slide 18

Schedules and Routines

Develop a schedule that promotes child engagement and success

Minimize the number of transitions
Balance active and quiet activities, small group and large group activities, teacher-directed and child-directed activities
Teach children the schedule

Establish a routine and follow it consistently

When changes are necessary, prepare children ahead of time

Slide 19

Transitions

Plan for transitions

Minimize the length of time children spend waiting with nothing to do
Prepare children for transitions by providing a warning
Structure the transitions so that children have something to do while they wait

Teach children the expectations related to transitions

Individualize supports and cues

Slide 20

[Photo of classroom door area with cutouts of feet lined up on floor and stop sign on door]

Slide 21

[Photo of Center Time chart]

Slide 22

[Photo handwashing chart]

Slide 23

[Photo of computer with removable child's photo and name posted on it. A timer sitting beside computer.]

Slide 24

[Photo of picture and image cards on a metal ring. One card reads: "quiet voice" ]

Slide 25

[Photo of computer usage chart]

Slide 26

[Photo of Circle chart]

Slide 27

[Photo of Songs chart]

Slide 28

Photo of Snack chart]

Slide 29

Schedule Activity

Divide into groups of people who currently work together
Write down a schedule from one of the participant’s classroom
Consider the things we have just talked about. What changes could you make in the schedule that might increase engagement and prevent challenging behaviors?
Share your major changes with others at your table and brainstorm possible solutions

Slide 30

Large Group Activities

Planning the activity

Consider the length
Be clear about the purpose and goals of the activities
Use circle time to teach new things

Implementing the activity

Provide opportunities to be actively involved
Assign jobs to children
Vary your speech and intonation patterns
Have children lead activities
Pay attention to children’s behavior

Slide 31

Circle Activity

Clip 1.2:

Are the children engaged?
What tells you that?
Describe the teacher’s behavior in this clip.

Clip 1.3:

Are the children engaged?
What tells you that?
What is the teacher doing that engages the children?

Both Clips:

What strategies can you suggest that would help the teacher engage the children even more?

Slide 32

Small Group Activities

Importance of small group activities

Skill building –Individualized attention

Planning and implementing

Be clear about the goal
Use peers as models
Ensure participation by all children
Make them fun
Provide feedback throughout

Slide 33

Adaptations and Modifications
(Sandall & Schwartz, 2002)

Environmental support
Materials adaptation
Simplify the activity
Use child preferences
Special equipment
Adult support
Peer support

Slide 34

Giving Directions

Make sure you have the children’s attention before you give the direction
Minimize the number of directions given to children
Individualize the way directions are given
Give clear directions

Slide 35

Giving Directions

Give directions that are positive
Give children the opportunity to respond to a direction
When appropriate, give the child choices and options for following directions
Follow through with positive acknowledgment of children’s behavior

Slide 36

General Guidelines about Rules and Directions

Have a few simple classroom rules
Involve the children in developing the rules
Post the rules visually
Teach the rules systematically
Reinforce the rules at high rates initially and at lower rates throughout the year

Slide 37

Involving Children in Developing the Rules

Have children help generate the rules
Name the rule and have a child demonstrate the rule
Name the rule and have the children identify the visuals that might go on a poster
Have children help decorate a rules poster

Slide 38

Rules Should Address

Noise level
Movement inside
Interactions with property
Interactions with adults
Interactions with peers

Slide 39

Rules Activity

Develop a list of 3-5 rules you use or would use in a classroom
Discuss these rules with others at the table
Brainstorm fun and creative ways for teaching the rules

Slide 40

Fun Ways to Reinforce the Rules

Rules Bingo!
Make a big book about school rules
Homework – what are your rules at home?
Play “rule charades”

Slide 41

Ignoring Misbehavior

Is one of the most effective techniques that can be used with students
Maintains positive teacher-student relationships based on respect rather than fear
Requires that adults give attention for positive behaviors as opposed to negative ones
Can be a powerful tool for changing behavior since access to attention is such a positive thing for children

Slide 42

Ignoring Misbehavior

Will only be effective with students who desire teacher attention
Is probably the hardest teaching strategy for teachers to carry out
Is unnatural - our natural tendency is to attend to students who are being disruptive

Slide 43

To Use Ignoring

Identify the specific behaviors you want to focus on
Plan carefully to provide attention and positive feedback to the prosocial behaviors
Neutralize your reaction to what the student is doing
Return your attention by acknowledging appropriate behavior as soon as student begins to behave appropriately
Teach other students to ignore inappropriate behaviors

Slide 44

When You Ignore

Most children will initially react to ignoring with an increase in the challenging behavior to see if they can recruit the adult’s attention
Be prepared to wait out the testing period
Remember that consistency is the key to using ignoring!

Slide 45

Redirecting

When children are withdrawn or off task, it is important that teachers do not ignore them. That can send the message that the teacher has low expectations for them or does not care.

Slide 46

Redirection

Can be nonverbal, verbal, or physical in nature
Should not be confrontational
Should focus on the behavior you saw and provide specific feedback

Slide 47

Ongoing Monitoring and Positive Attention

Give children attention when they are engaging in appropriate behaviors
Monitor our behavior to ensure that we are spending more time using positive descriptive language and less time giving directions or correcting inappropriate behavior

Slide 48

Positive Attention Activity

Count the number of positive comments the teacher makes (and positive nonverbals)
Have a large group discussion about what types of comments and nonverbal behaviors the teacher exhibited
Generate some ideas to help adults remain focused on the positive throughout the day
Encourage participants to include some of these ideas on their Action Planning Form

Slide 49

Using Positive Feedback and Encouragement: 4 Principles

Contingent on appropriate behavior
Descriptive
Conveyed with enthusiasm
Contingent on effort

Slide 50

Using Positive Feedbackand Encouragement

Remember to use nonverbal forms of positive feedback and encouragement
Individualize use of positive feedback and encouragement based on children’s needs and preferences
Encourage other adults and peers to use positive feedback and encouragement

Slide 51

Increasing PositiveBehaviors: Activity

What are 3-5 behaviors you would like to see increase in your setting?
Review item 8 on the Inventory
What changes might you make in your use of positive feedback and encouragement in order to increase the behaviors you just identified.
Add this to your Action Plan

Slide 52

Sample Certificate

SUPER FRIEND AWARD!!!
This certificate is to certify that Marleco is a SUPER FRIEND!!

Today, Marleco used his words to ask Malen nicely for a turn on the swing. When he was done swinging, he asked Malen if she wanted another turn and then helped to push her. At circle time, he gave his friend Cesar a compliment! YAY Marleco!! What a Super Friend you are!!

Give yourself a pat on the back!!

Signed by: Miss Gail & Mr. Jim
Date: January 7, 2003

Slide 53

Major Messages

The first and most important thing that we can do is to build positive relationships with every child and family
Focus on prevention and teaching appropriate skills
Promoting social emotional development is not easy. There are no quick fixes to challenging behavior
It requires a comprehensive approach that includes building relationships, evaluating our own classrooms and behaviors, and TEACHING

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This material was developed by the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (Cooperative Agreement N. PHS 90YD0119). The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial projects, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. You may reproduce this material for training and information purposes.

We welcome your feedback on this Training Module. Please go to the CSEFEL Web site (http://csefel.uiuc.edu) or call us at (217) 333-4123 to offer suggestions.

Module 1 Presenter's Presentation: PowerPoint