TSBVI Coffee Hour Quick Tips and Tricks for Positive Behavior SupportsÊwith Kate Borg 01-04-2021 >> Kate: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome, welcome. As you're coming in, as it says in the chat, please make sure to change your chat in your little drop down menu in the chat box it should say all panelists and attendees. In the chat box, please make sure it says all panelists and attendees. We'll get started in a few minutes. I hope everyone had a good break. I cried a little bit last night when I had to set my alarm for this morning. Hi, Sheila. Hi, Elsa. Debbie. Yeah, so much the same. What's an alarm? [ Laughter ] Yeah. Meagan, fully caffeinated. Nice. Linda says she's still on break. I feel like that's bragging a little bit. I feel personally attacked. Ready for bed in Connecticut. Yeah. Yeah, our teachers had a work day today too, Terry. I think a nice way to come back, give yourself a prep day from having to dive right in, right? [ Coughing ] Excuse me. 10 inches of snow in Pennsylvania. Wow! It's like 70 degrees here in Austin. But I will say I'm missing snow. We'll get started in one more minute. Please make sure that your chat box, the little drop down menu says all panelists and attendees. Oh, it was only supposed to be 3 inches. Oh, no! Chandler, Delaware. I know, the cold without the snow is a bummer because everything is just dead. Molina, my new friend from Pendleton. Welcome, welcome. All right. Well, we're going to go ahead and get started. I do want to just apologize up front. I mean, as much as I do love being in the spotlight, she said sarcastically, it is a little bit of the Kate show today just because Kaycee Bennett is not able to be with us this afternoon. And so I will do all the announcements and then turn the time over to myself and we'll do the presentation. So let me just pull up all the announcements, make sure that you have everything that you need. If you have a question or comment during today's session, please post that in the chat box. But, again, one more time, make sure that it says "all panelists and attendees" in the chat. That way everybody can see your comments because we do save that and post it as part of the resources that we share for each session. Your microphones and cameras are automatically muted so you don't need to worry about that. The handout for today's session has been shared in the chat and Nathan will share it a few times throughout today for immediate viewing and then it will also be available for later viewing along with a recording of this session and all of our past Coffee Hour sessions. And you can find that through our Coffee Hour home page at tsbvi.edu/coffeehour. And once you're on that page, just scroll down towards the bottom and you'll see a visit the new TSBVI Coffee Hour archives and that's the link that the take you to those sessions and archives. To obtain your CEUs respond to the evaluation from escWorks. You will enter the code and then the CEU certificate will automatically generate upon completion of that evaluation. Again, in case you're new or because we just got back from break and our brains are still catching up, there is no opening code for today, just a closing code, and I will give that at the end. We'll end at about 3:55 central standard time to give you the code and the announcements. All right. So I do want to say thank you in advance for your patience. I'm going to try to juggle this so I can share the PowerPoint but also see the chat so that we can have some interaction that way today. So if you'll give me just a second. I'm going to share my screen here. All right. Okay. Nathan, can you guys see the PowerPoint? >> Yep, everything looks like it did earlier. I see the PowerPoint but I do not see your chat. >> Kate: Perfect. And I can see the chat. Awesome. All right. I want to just preface, so here on the title slide you'll see it says Quick Tips and Tricks for Positive Behavior Supports. Something that I want to point out is really we're going to be talking about some surface-level things for positive behavior support. You know, we're not really going to talk strategy for some of our toughest kiddos or toughest situations but more what are some things that we can implement to be able to prevent some behavior issues. So really that tier one and tier two kinds of support. I do want to say that if you do find yourselves in some tricky situations and are having some difficult behaviors, reach out to your school psychologist and the IEP team to get some support. Please do not feel it is up to you to figure out all of this out on your own. So what we're talking about today are really instructional strategies that you as a teacher or a paraprofessional or even a parent can implement for some positive behavior support. All right. So with that, I just want to ask the question, and I want you to put in the chat. So what is behavior? Now, on the slide I have three pictures on here. And I realized after putting this together I'm like, oh, they're all little boys having a tantrum. But you'll see on the left there's a picture of a little boy who looks to be about 2 having like a meltdown in a grocery store. And then on the right we have a little boy that's kicking his feet and banging his hands. And then we also have Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. He's got his arms raised. In the chat I'm seeing a lot of people say that behavior is communication. Yeah, actions that represent a type of communication. Excuse me. Reaction or response to stimuli or an emotion to communication. Those are all really good. Communicating needs or feelings. Oh, behaviors to control situations . So at its very essence -- behavior is number one, the communication and how we conduct ourselves. Yes. So at its very essence behavior is a form of communication that serves a purpose. Now, what purpose it serves can vary and we're going to talk about that as we go through, but you guys are spot on. Behavior is communication. Sometimes that's positive, sometimes that's not so positive, right? Okay. So with that when behavior is communication, in the chat again, when does behavior become a problem? When does behavior become a problem? When it disrupts instruction, when it impedes learning. Yeah, when it's harmful to the person or others. Yeah. Oh, you guys are answering so fast. Awesome! When it gets in the way of learning or other learning. Yeah, when it's a pattern that harms the student's ability to access. When the two partners are not communicating on the same wavelength. When it endangers the child or others, when it disrupts routines. When it is self-inflicting or can hurt someone else. You guys are awesome. I'm not going to be able to read all of them. I like this one. It's misunderstood, for sure. Behavior becomes a problem when it disrupts instruction, disrupts the child's education. Inappropriate behavior that hurts self or others. Those are all great answers. Again, spot on. Behavior becomes a problem when it hurts self, right? So when a student is hurting themselves, when a student is hurting others -- again, this can be part of that educational process. It might not necessarily just be physical harm, but they are in some way harming or hurting other people or themselves. And then, finally, when it's socially inappropriate. So this is a big one too when we think about the expanded core curriculum. I know that sometimes there's some controversy about how much we intervene in some types of behaviors that our students may exhibit. But when you think about the expanded core curriculum, we have a whole area that's dedicated to social skills, right? And so we're going to talk just a little bit about some of this social appropriateness and why it's important that we're helping to teach those skills to our students. So, yeah, spot on. Behavior is a problem when it hurts self, when it hurts others, or when it's socially inappropriate. Okay. So today we're going to talk about three basic keys to behavior support. Now, there could be a lot more. Again, especially if we get deeper and deeper into it, but I want to talk about these three keys because I think they're great. Again, like at surface level and great keys to implement to make sure that you've got a good toolbox of positive behavior support . So the first one that we're going to talk about -- sorry. My chat box got in the way. We're going to talk about setting appropriate expectations. This is going to be the first key that we want to make sure we have in place. The second one that we're going to talk about is engaging activities. And then we're going to spend most of our time talking about effective behavior management strategies, okay? You know, this is where we'll talk about like the ABCs and consequences and things like that but before we get to that we're going to talk about appropriate expectations and engaging activities. Okay. So our first key appropriate behavioral expectations. So I wanted to share this story. This actually comes from a very dear colleague who happens to also be my mother. She shared this story and it's just such a great example of appropriate expectations that I asked her if I canned steal and share it with all of you today . So several years ago -- sorry, mom, I don't remember how long ago. You know, she had a mother of a little guy -- who was I think 18 months -- come to her just totally distraught. I'll call him Jason, 18 months. Was talking and he knew his letters and he knew his numbers and he knew his colors and he knew his shapes. But mom was so worried because he could not use scissors, right? At 18 months he had not mastered scissors. He wasn't able to cut with them, he couldn't get his fingers in, he wasn't independent. So having to walk this mother back -- yes, your child has a lot of great skills and even skills that are well beyond typical development, but using scissors is not an appropriate expectation for a child who is 18 months old. Right? And so just having to help this mother understand we're okay. So when we talk about behavior, this is one of the most important things is to make sure we have appropriate behavioral expectations. You know, it's not going to be appropriate to ask a 3-year-old to sit still for a 20 minute Braille lesson. That's not an appropriate behavioral expectation . So mom, Karen, I hope I didn't butcher that story. All right. I love this graphic. So I have on here a picture of a donkey or a mule with the question that says you know what they say about assuming, right? You know what they say when we assume. If you haven't heard that before, Google it. We're recording, I can't say the word. But when we talk about appropriate behavioral expectations, the very first thing is do not assume a student has a skill. Okay? Especially when you're first starting out with a student, do not assume they have a skill. You may say, please sit down. What if they've never been given that direction before, right? It may even seem simple, but, again, do not assume a student has a skill. I have that in all caps for a reason. So when we're looking at that and we're looking at setting the expectations, we want to look at what the student can do. And then we need to identify what the student needs to do or stop doing. Then we need to identify the why. And I want to stop here for just a second. Oh, Sally, I see in the chat. Yes, you're muted. You don't need to worry about that. Yeah. Okay. I want to live here in this why for a second. A few years ago when I was working as an instructional coach, I was in a classroom just kind of observing and this classroom teacher was in this a battle of wills. I wish I could see you so I could ask you to raise your hand, but I think we have all had that moment where we are in a battle of wills with either a student or maybe one of your own kids, right? But you know what that looks like. And this particular battle of wills was over this student sitting down to do their Braille. Now, the student -- we'll call him Christopher. Christopher was perfectly happy to Braille but he wanted to do it standing up but this teacher was insistent that he sit down to Braille. To the point that he was then not happy to do his Brailling. I inserted myself in the situation and asked the teacher why is it so important that he is sitting down to do Braille? And when she stepped back and really looked at this picture and looked at this situation, realizing that wasn't what was important in the scenario, right? What was important was that Christopher was Brailling. So whether he was kneeling down or standing up or whatever, or sitting down, great. But that the why of that behavior was so important. So when you're looking at behavioral expectations, you've got to ask that why question. Why are we expecting this? And if it doesn't fit or if it's not important to what needs to happen, get rid of it. It's not an appropriate expectation. And then also identify how that can be accomplished. So is there instruction that needs to happen? Are there materials that the student needs? How can we help the student best complete whatever behavioral expectation this might be. So when you look at these steps, this actually looks a lot like a present level that we're writing when we look at behavior. We don't want to assume any level of skill without knowing first what they can do. We need to identify what they can do. We need to identify what they need to do or stop doing, we need to identify the why, and we need to identify how. And then on the next slide we're going to talk just a little bit about time. So we should make sure that we are identifying the appropriate time. This is like the when and the how long. So on this slide here we've got a picture of an hourglass, this is a representation of time. So just some questions to think about when we talk about time under behavioral expectation. First off is how long is too long. And this is going to vary by student and this is going to vary by age and this is going to vary by ability. And, frankly, even with one student it's going to vary by task. How long is too long. So, again, for that 3-year-old the 20-minute Braille lesson from start to finish, that's going to be too long. So then what's an appropriate length for an activity? And then built into that, how often does the child or student need a break? And I'm going to tell you every child, every student is going to need a break built in. Now, again, that can be -- for some kids it might be as short as, hey, stretch your arms up in the air. Some kids may need to leave the activity entirely and do something else and then come back. And you'll get to know your students and you'll get to know what their needs are as you implement some of these strategies. All right. So a few things as we are communicating expectations. So in special ed we love our acronyms. As I'm learning, being new to Texas, we especially love our acronyms. So just remember AFWAP, as few words as possible. So communicate your expectations clearly. I think we've all heard the parent or the teacher or we've been the parent or the teacher that has said something like, oh, hey, Johnny, here's what I need you to do. You're going to go get your backpack from your cub by and when you get your backpack, come back, put it on your chair and we're going to sit and wait for the bell to ring. When really what I could have said is, Johnny, please go get your backpack and come back to your chair. So we need to be clear and we need to be concise. Teach the skills when necessary. Again, don't assume that a student has a skill and teach whatever skill it is. Maybe Johnny is going to struggle a little bit getting that backpack off the hook, so let's just teach that because that might be the hang up to him completing that task. Follow up on your directions, especially if you have more than one step. Right? Follow up on them. If they complete the first step, then be like, oh, do you remember what step two was? Do you remember what to do next? Or here's what to do next. Follow up on your directions. And then, can anybody guess? Follow up on your directions. All right. So when we are setting these behavioral expectations, that kiddo, that student should not have any time where they are questioning what is it that they are expected to do, all right? Okay. Any comments or questions before we move to the next key? I've got an eye on chat. Okay. All right. So this one we're going to spend just a little bit of time, because this, again, can look so different from student to student, from teacher to teacher. But the important thing is that we are implementing activities that are engaging. Because, let me tell you, boredom is going to breed all kinds of behaviors, and I can speak from personal experience. Oh, man, I think we all act out when we start to feel bored. Oh, I like this, Christy. I find the I do, we do, you do or y'all do model really helpful when reviewing expectations. Sherry, there was no opening code. Just a closing code. Yeah, Christy, the same. We're going to talk a little bit about that as an instructional strategy, for sure. Thank you so much for sharing that. Okay. So with engaging activities the first thing we want to think about is we want to think about making things meaningful. So research has shown that students do not consider a learning activity -- sorry. Worthy of their effort, they may not engage in a satisfactory way or they may even completely disengage in response to that. If they can't make connections or they're bored. So highlight the value of an assigned activity in personally relevant ways by connecting to students' previous knowledge and experience. Embrace collaborative learning. Now, I know some of you are classroom teachers. I know many of you are paraprofessionals or a parent working with a kiddo at home. The thing that's so important to keep in mind is this collaboration piece . Very few children -- I was going to say no child, but very few children are going to learn all the skills that they need in a janitor's closet, right? And I share that a little bit tongue-in-cheek just because I spent a lot of time with my instructional space in a janitor's closet. An itinerant TVI it's just what we do. We think about the skills that we're teaching that student is so much more than just putting paper in the Brailler or even just reading the Braille. We need to find ways that we are implementing collaborative learning. So this could be that our student prepares to teach something to his class or maybe our student gets to bring a friend for her lesson. Or, you know, maybe we have some skills that they're practicing during lunchtime. Whatever it is we can do to have some kind of collaborative piece to that student's learning, especially when we're talking about a behavior. And most especially when we're talking about social skills, right? Establish positive student-teacher or student-staff relationship. This is such an important key. It's, yes, a big piece -- and this is about trust, the students trusting us. But also we want everything about teaching behavior to be as positive as possible. And when we talk about behavior management strategies we're going to talk a lot more than this. Christine in chat said student-led learning. Yes, yes, yes. 100%. Okay. Oh, and I'm so sorry I forgot to cite this before. This comes from the educational psychologist journal, a great article called framework for designing scaffolds. So the source is on there. And they have one more point to implement. So foster a sense of competence. And some of this is really going to be -- this is why having that collaborative learning piece can become important. So the first thing is we want to assign activities that are only slightly beyond a student's current level of proficiency. We want them in an instructional learning mode. If they are frustrational, if it's too hard, we're going to see all kinds of behaviors, aren't we? Also, the opposite, if it's too easy the student becomes bored, we might see a lot of issues with behavior. We want to make sure that the things we're doing with our students are just slightly beyond. They're in that instructional mode. Next, have students demonstrate understanding throughout the activity. We want to also make sure that they may start out in an instructional zone, right, but maybe there's like a switch that suddenly we've thrown them into frustrational. This is why having them demonstrate their understanding helps us keep a gauge on that. At the same time too, if they master the skill, we don't necessarily want to keep hammering it because we go to that boredom zone. We want to keep them instructional. So here's where that collaboration piece becomes important. Show peer coping models. So students who struggle but eventually succeed at an activity. Peer mastery model. So students who try and succeed at the activity. And then also make sure that you include feedback that helps students to make progress. And we're going to talk a lot more about this when we talk about positive reinforcement. Okay. So that's engaging activity. All right. So now we're going to go to this third piece. This is where we're going to spend the rest of our time. This effective behavior management. Oh, I'm so sorry. Give me just one second to grab a drink. Okay. So let's talk about some strategies. So this is where I'm going to be throwing a lot of information at you. Please, more handouts and the link has been shared in the chat so you can come back to this and review, and there's a couple of handouts that we'll take a look at that will help this thought process. All right. So, principle one under effective behavior management. We're going to talk about two principles to start out. So principle one: Behavior occurs because of events which surround it. So let me say that again. Behavior occurs because of events which surround it. What does that mean? Use the chat to write what you think that means. Behavior occurs because of events which surround it. Meagan said context is everything. Stimuli. The who, what, where, when, why. Yeah. Environmental factors play a big part in the response of the individual. Absolutely. Environment, actions, reaction, stimuli, 5Ws, pleasant, unpleasant. Exactly. What was the preceding activity, person, weather, class, exactly. And then what follows it? What happens prior to the behavior? Guys, this is good. This is great. Yeah, preceding events or antecedents. I like to see these clinical terms. You guys know your stuff. Yeah. Leslie wrote: Did they eat breakfast? Yep. Saw a lot of behaviors as a teacher because of lack of breakfast, for sure. Okay. So exactly, exactly as I was saying in the chat. Behavior is influenced by events that occur before and after the behavior happens. So this could include verbal direction. It could include the actual assignment, it could include behaviors of others. It could include whatever reinforcement or consequences happened after. Things like did they eat enough breakfast, did they get enough sleep. How are they doing neurologically. So much is going to influence behavior, so then it really becomes our job as practitioners and teachers and parents to look at, okay, if we're seeing especially undesirable behavior, what is happening before that is causing that behavior and what is happening after that might be reinforcing that. All right. So I saw the word "antecedent" in there. Awesome. We're going to talk about very briefly about the ABCs of behavior. So our A is antecedent. So what made it happen or what happened right before the behavior? So an example we might say the teacher announces it's time for reading. That's the antecedent and that's what happened right before. The teacher announces it's time for reading. B is behavior. So what is it that the child did, right? So that's a behavior. Teacher announces it's time for reading. George tells an inappropriate joke. That's the behavior. The consequence. So what happened right after the behavior or what was the result of the behavior? So in this example, teacher announces it's time for reading. George tells an inappropriate joke. His peers laugh and he's sent to the office. So, given these consequences, I want you to think about it for a second. What is the likelihood that George will repeat this behavior the next time the teacher announces it's time for reading? You can answer in the chat. High. Yeah. Yep. Because peers laughed. Yeah. How to avoid it if he wants to get out of reading. Think about the two things that happened. His peers laughed, so there was that social attention piece, and George got sent to the office which means, guess what? He didn't have to participate in reading. Absolutely. A part of what he was trying to do was get out of reading, he was successful. And so the next time that happens, oh. What was it that worked for me last time? Yeah, I'm going to do that again. Yeah. So Liz wrote sometimes the consequence becomes a reward. Yeah, absolutely! Juanita, thank you. If he is a weak reader he may do it again to get out of participating. Especially if it's students reading aloud, right? Yeah. Yeah, Alexandra, I always say to have your students always revisit the task. Yep, yep, yep. So I have on here this meme I came across years ago and I kept it because I thought it was so funny. The top picture with two moms that are talking. One says, how do you do it? The other mom says, simple, whenever he starts crying, just give him his teddy. And you see twins in the second picture, dude, how do you do it? Easy, bro. Just start crying. Mom gives me a teddy every time. It's a little bit of who's training who here. Yes, if the consequences are what the student is after, they're going to keep doing it. Okay. So the second principle that I'm going to talk about is that behaviors have a function. Whenever we talk about any kind of behavior management, we talk about the function of behaviors. Okay. All right. So, whoops! What do we mean when we say that behaviors have a function? Oh, and while you're answering that, dawn, I'm going to come back to your question. What would be the best way to handle the case of George? Telling an inappropriate joke, the teacher may not want to have him in the classroom, that's okay. But if he has to complete that reading time, if the purpose of the behavior was to escape reading, like Alexandra said, have them revisit or still finish the task. Right? So that it doesn't become a way for him to escape. Yeah. Okay. So Meagan says that behavior have a reason or a purpose. There's always a reason to the season. You're right, Alexandra, always. So we asked the question why is a student behaving that way? When we talk about functions of behavior, there are four main things that we talk about. All right. Oh, Jennifer says behavior communicate what the child wants with its consequence, escape, attention. So functions and behavior include attention, escape or avoidance, access to an object or an activity. And there might be some sensory functions that are involved in this. So we're going to spend just a few minutes talking about some of this because I think this is so important to understand. Because as we're looking at helping to shape positive behavior interactions with our students, we really need to understand what the functions are and what they might look like. So -- sorry. My camera. Okay. So the first thing that we want to talk about is this attention, this social attention piece. We also might call it attention seeking. So the goal of attention seeking behavior is to gain the attention of a nearby adult or another child or maybe even the whole class. So, for example, a child might whine in order to gain attention from their parents. That might also engage in certain behavior to get others to laugh with them or play with them. There's a lot of different ways this might look. I don't know if any of you or how many of you have ever watched Family Guy, but there's this one scene, it just makes me laugh because it's such a good example. Stewie, the baby, is trying to get his mom's attention. He's like, mom, mom, mommy, mom, mom, mom! Finally she turns and she's like what? Hi. All he wanted was a little bit of attention. Something that's real important to keep in mind as well when we're talking about social attention. They may not always be seeking positive attention, right? The child or the student might be behaving in a certain way for anger or scolding from their parent or teacher, for whatever reason. Because negative attention is still attention. The second one, is escape or avoidance. So not all of the functions seek to gain something. Sometimes, when a child engages in this escape behavior, they're trying to get away from something or avoid it altogether. So, for example, in a home setting a child might run away if they don't want to take a bath, right? No! If a child is misbehaving in the classroom by putting their head down on the desk when you present them with an assignment, or George telling an inappropriate joke when the teacher said it's time for reading, they're attempting to escape the work. So it's possible that escape behaviors are a result of lacking motivation for performing a task. It could be that the task is too difficult. When we're trying to understand why a child might be engaging in these escape behaviors, it's important and super helpful to take that step back, to provide easier tasks to help them slowly understand the work. And when we talk about positive reinforcements we're going to talk more about this. The third one is seeking access to tangible or to activities. This is referring to the concept that some children engage in behaviors so that they can gain access to a desired item or activity. So this is the opposite of what children do when they're doing something to escape or to get out of, right? So, for example, the child might scream or cry in a store because they want the adult to buy them a toy. So I'm going to tell on myself a little bit. A couple of years ago I was at the grocery store and I was in the bread aisle and I was looking at some whole wheat bread, the picture clear as day. In the next aisle over I could hear this interaction between a parent and their child: No, I told you I'm not going to buy the toy. I'm not going to buy the toy. No, put it down. Put it back. I'm not buying that. I'm going to take you to the car. On the count of three, one, two -- put it back. Finally across the aisle I yelled: Take it to the car! And I realized I had done that out loud and ran away. But this child very clearly was trying to get something from this parent who may or may not have been handling the situation very well, and I in full judgment yelled at them and ran away so they didn't know it was me. That wasn't good behavior on my part. Yeah. But there you go. So trying to gain access to an object or an activity. And then, finally, we've got that situation. For students with sensory loss, whether it's vision, hearing, or combined loss of both. And then for whatever the myriad of reasons are that they have that sensory loss, we're going to see a lot of this with our students, right? Oh, yeah. I want to read this from Alexandra. I never realized how overstimulation could cause a behavior until I had a student yelling so he would leave a gen Ed classroom and come back to my room. He said Mrs. Psychs they're so loud and the music as a weird rhythm. We have since worked on a procedure to ask for a sound break. Yes, yes, yes. This sensory stimulation is referring to exactly that. The stimulation of the senses. Sometimes it's overstimulation. Sometimes it's self. This behavior functions to give the child some kind of internal sensation that pleases them or removes an internal sensation -- might even be external sensation that they don't like. Alexandra, that's a wonderful example. It was too loud. The music was weird, right? It was not a good sensory experience for them. Another example might be scratching, right? Have you ever been successful in telling a student to stop scratching? No. No one ever has. Right? They scratch the skin. It could be a bug bite or sunburn and they're trying to relieve that feeling of itching. Imagine that all over and sometimes our students, because of whatever external stimulus is happening, that's how they're feeling. So this is one that is certainly going to vary from child to child, especially in the population of students that we work with. One child might enjoy stimulation from spinning around and moving fast. But another child might rock back and forth and they get either some stimulation or sometimes even destimulation. That's just one. That's going to look different for every student and this is why it's so important to observe and to figure out what is the function and what is causing it. Like with Alexandra, digging in and realizing this isn't so much about escaping the task as it is there's a sensory issue here. Okay. All right. Just checking on time. So just wanted to share this table with you. So this comes from K.A. Ferrell's book. Reach out and teach. There's some very good stuff in here. I highly recommend it. But I really like this table. We have antecedent, behavior, and consequence. Annemarie hits Rachel. Behavior: Rachel crawls to the fridge and cries. Consequence: Dad gives Rachel a drink. Antecedent: Dad leaves the room. Rachel crawls to the fridge and cries. Consequence: Mom gives Rachel a drink. Dad is talking on the phone. Before I finish, just so you have time in the chat, what I'm going to be asking is what do you think the function of Rachel's behavior is. Dad is talking on the phone. Rachel crawls to the fridge and cries. Mom gives Rachel a drink. Annemarie is wrestling with mom on the floor. Rachel crawls to the fridge and cries. Mom gives Rachel a drink. So what do you think the function of Rachel's behavior is? Wants drink, access, something tangible, attention. Yeah. Right? Dad was on the phone. Rachel knows to go to the fridge and cries. Someone is at least going to come and give me something. Yeah. Good. All right. I love this. This was another good find a few years ago. So this is a card that says it's all fun and games until someone figures out the function of your behavior . So I recently, just because, you know, it's like the life-long pursuit of diet and exercise. So I recently joined Noom, which is an app for diet and exercise. It's very like rooted in psychology. And let me tell you now that I understand why I'm opening that bag of Cheetos, it's not so fun to open that bag of Cheetos because now I understand exactly what the function of my behavior is, right? It takes the fun out of it. But it is -- all joking aside, when we're looking at our students and we think they're doing positive behaviors or negative behaviors, it's so important that we come to understand those reasons why. So we're going to spend the rest of our time talking about consequence. So another story that I stole from my mom, because it's just so great. So she was working with a little guy, we'll call him Mikey. Mikey didn't talk. Mikey had something like five older sisters. So, frankly, there really wasn't a lot of reason for Mikey to need to talk. He had five older sisters who could talk for him. And so in working with Mikey and helping him to verbally communicate, when he would talk he got an M&M. But as they were taking data they saw that his level of speaking was actually decreasing even more. So asked mom about it. We don't understand what's happening here. Well, come to find out, Mikey hated chocolate. So what had been viewed as this positive reinforcement, let's increase this behavior, was actually punishing Mikey because he didn't like M&M's, he didn't like chocolate. Now, Mikey and I are very different people, okay? So it's so important too that we understand when we say consequences and we talk about reinforcement versus punishment that we understand the differences, because it can very much influence how our students learn and how our students behave. So in your handout there's one that's titled type of consequences. We're not going to go through, just because of time. We're not going to go through all of this but it's just a great way -- it's really old. I know that there's better stuff out there but I just had this in my resources. Just a great way to help us remember the difference between positive reinforcement. So an example, Jane cleans the room. Jane's parents praise her, so Jane is going to continue to clean her room. Negative reinforcement, he complains of headaches when it's time to do homework. He's allowed to go to bed. Guess what? He's going to have a headache when it's time to do homework. And punishment. Marta sits on the arm of the chair and she is scolded every time she sits on the arm of the chair so she will not sit on the arm of a chair. Just a handout to help us remember the different terminology and what they all mean. So basically think of it this way: Reinforcement increases behaviors and punishment decreases behaviors. Now, within reinforcement, because this is where we want to live. Remember, we want to build positive experiences with our students. So within reinforcement it's important to keep in mind that reinforcement is anything that increases the likelihood of a behavior occurring again. So here I just have some things that are reinforcing to me. Tickets to an event. I love to go to the symphony or go see a play. A good book. You know, a favorite always has been where the wild things are. Now, again, because Mikey and I are different people, M&M's are reinforcing to me. And then a good nap. Oh, a good nap. Always. So these are things that are going to increase the likelihood of me behaving a certain way. These are things that I find reinforcing. Positive reinforcement, again, where we want to live with our students. An example would be something like the teacher praises a student for raising his hand. So raising hands to answer questions will likely occur again. Something is added and is going to increase the behavior. Now, a negative reinforcement, something is taken away, right? So, example, student throws a temper tantrum at work time. The teacher takes the student away from the work table. The temper tantrum will likely occur again at the next work time. So that teacher, even if inadvertently, just reinforced the tantrum behavior. It's important to keep these in mind and understand the difference. Again, where we want to live is in this positive reinforcement. We want to have positive interactions that are going to increase positive behaviors. So you can think of positive reinforcement is to get. Negative reinforcement is to get out of. Right? That's not what we want. We want our students to get. And, sherry, you're right. Cultural competence is important to keep in mind too. Some don't like individual praise, especially in a group setting. So just very quickly -- again, these are in your handout so that you can review. I'm just looking at our time. Just some positive reinforcement strategies. Praise. Oh, this one's so easy but it's so valuable. Just like Sherry said keep in mind the student's comfort level. But praise can be as simple as, hey, great job. And we want to attach it to a behavior. Great job getting your Brailler out. Or great job getting your backpack. Whatever it is. So praise and attach it to behavior. Attention. Sometimes like a pat on the shoulder, saying a student's name, making sure they know they have our attention. Now the Premack Principle. Clinically this is defined as the opportunity to perform a high probability response after a low probability response, which will reinforce the low probability behavior. An example here would be Parker prefers playing outside to reading. His mother is going to tell him if he reads for 15 minutes he can go outside to play. We're going to do the hard thing first and then you get to earn the fun thing . Now, magic cricket. I have a love/hate relationship with the magic cricket. The joy of being the daughter of a behavioral specialist. As a teacher, I love it. So magic cricket -- so the example from my childhood, when we would come home from a long trip or a car -- like we had to clean out the car and put things away and unpack. Mom would set a timer. We didn't know how long it was going to be set. Could be five minutes or 15 minutes. If we were working when that timer went off we got to ask for a reward. Maybe it was a hot fudge sundae. That's the magic cricket. Setting a timer so the student is engaging in the behavior we need them to engage in and when the timer goes on we have access to that reinforcement. Behavior momentum is almost the opposite of Premack Principle. I also call this the Simon says. We're going to make requests that are easy for the student before making requests that are more challenging. So I remember especially using this with a student. Again, we'll call him Christopher. So Christopher, oh, he hated using that Brailler but he loved jumping and bouncing. And so for him we turned it into this game. We're going to go jump, jump, Braille the letter C. Bounce, bounce, Braille the letter C. We're doing something easy, easy, hard. I love this, I love this, I don't like it. But we're increasing motivation by increasing success. So to start out, Christopher needed ten jumps before we touched the Brailler. But then we were able to get it so we had maybe like one jump and then he touched the Brailler. Peer interaction we talked about. This can actually be a really important reinforcement strategy. Also, remembering to supply non-contingent reinforcement. Do positive things, have positive interactions that don't have anything to do with what a student is doing in that moment. These are just really important. Oh, we are running out of time. Okay. We're getting close though. So just in summary some important things to remember. So the review of consequences -- and we went to that handout. Some important principles we were looking at reinforcement, the rules of reinforcement. So you have a handout that's called the IFEED-AV strategies. And this comes from tips that help with tough kids, a website. The link is there on the handout so you can go and read some more. Not a big fan of all the stuff that's on this website, but this is a really great way to think about these positive reinforcement strategies that we know we need to reinforce immediately. The longer you wait, the less effective. The student doesn't understand why they're being reinforced. Reinforce frequently. Especially if a student is learning a new behavior or skill, they need that reinforcement delivered frequently. Be enthusiastic. Make eye contact. Now, for students with a vision impairment, make sure that you are speaking directly to the student, that you are looking at them, pair your comments with their name. Kids know if they have your full attention. So that eye contact piece is important for any student. Describe the behavior. Not just good job, but good job for what. We want to know exactly why they're being reinforced. With being enthusiastic, build that anticipation. Become a height man. You know, it can be like mysterious. Maybe for students that are there, cognitively and behavioral, maybe they don't know what the reinforcer is going to be. And, of course, variety. Just like adults, students get tired of the same things. So a certain reinforcer could be very desirable to start out but the students are just done with it and they're ready for the next thing. Let the child choose the reinforcer. Oh, so sorry. Let the child choose the reinforcer. Anything within reason. And then ideally, particular reinforcement is only available during work time, especially if we're trying to build behavior momentum with students. They know when I engage in misbehavior I'm going to receive this reward. And then assess reinforcement before assuming a program or intervention is ineffective. Finally, just some things to remember on top of all this. Praise students for great behavior. Observe and record. Take the data. We're special educators. Take the data. Implement appropriate consequences, and then provide feedback, whether that's the teacher or to the parents as needed. Okay. I know that that was a lot and it was a lot for a short amount of time. Oh, Sherry, I like that comment. Enjoy the time. If one isn't excited the students know. Absolutely. A good reminder that kids don't think like we do. Sometimes about what is a reward, that's true. Think about Mikey. M&M's were not rewarding to him but they were absolutely to me. Thanks everyone for your comments. I really appreciate it. I'm excited to read back through the chat. I know I missed some things. Make sure you join us Thursday at noon central time. Our presenter is going to be Meagan Mogan. I'm so excited to have her from Arizona. She's going to be presenting five literacy activities for blind and VI students who are emergent readers and writers. To obtain your CEUs, respond to the evaluation that will come to you. And that certificate will automatically generate upon completion. In the evaluation there's a couple of comment boxes. We really appreciate your comments and, believe me, we read them. It helps us to plan future Coffee Hours, so we appreciate your input. I'm going to put a link in here on February 8th we're going to have a part two to coaching and she has asked, if you can, to fill out this survey. And so if you would just take a brief moment and fill that out, that would be very helpful. Thank you so much. All right. And then make sure that you have the code. And then also the link to where you can find all of our Coffee Hour sessions for the future. So thanks, everybody. I know that was a lot of me to have to handle today, but I really appreciate you guys sticking with me today. Please reach out, send me an e-mail. I'll put that in the chat. I'm happy to share any resources. I'm always happy to, you know, bounce ideas off, sometimes, especially when we're teachers out in the wild, happy to do that any time. Thanks, everyone. Happy New Year. We'll see you on Thursday. >> Kaycee: Thanks, Kate.