So, a new starter in my class has done ok for a little while... then what happens?
It had to happen. The initial good start had to come to an grinding halt... Well what do you expect? Try and put yourself in this little guy's place... he's been allowed to behave appallingly for most of his life and suddenly someone's expecting good behaviour! Shock and horror!
Well, he's not going to be too pleased, is he? He's had his own way, been king of the castle, had absolute control and now he's getting the message that this isn't going to be the case any more. 'Hm', he's thinking, 'I'm going to test to see how much they mean all this! Others have tried and failed to take any control of my behaviour and they've given up after a short while - I soon sent them running for the hills... This lot won't be any different.'
Behaviour that has been allowed to be considered 'normal' to a child is so much a part of their everyday life that it's going to change only with some very skilled intervention. So, this little boy can't change without adult intervention. Even if he wanted to make changes, he can't do it by himself - he hasn't the emotional maturity to achieve this.
These children have practically no chance without this intervention, but the sad thing is that the situation need never have got this extreme... and these children have the additional problem of adults getting together and deciding there's something wrong with them and this is causing them to behave badly.
Back to this little guy -- what's he done to blot his copybook in my class? Not really very much, but he showed he didn't like the idea of having to follow instructions, that he'd prefer not to do much work in class, plus he'd like to gain attention by tapping on the table and making silly noises. 'Come on Liz', I can hear you thinking, 'I thought you deal with children's extreme behaviour? What on earth is extreme about a bit of tapping and making noises?'
'Well,' I reply - I do deal with potentially extreme behaviour.' In a nutshell, I don't allow the children's behaviour to escalate to a point where there's anything really extreme to deal with! The secret of managing children's behaviour successfully is having the skill to intervene at the right time and following the right 'rules of encounter' at that point... To manage children successfully, even those whose behaviour has been so challenging (and still has the potential to escalate to that level) you have to know: at what point to act, what to do, what to say, how to say it, when to stop the intervention and what to do after the event... All of these actions work together to make your behaviour management successful. Anyone can learn to manage behaviour effectively and confidently... it's really not difficult.
How did my intervention with the new little guy turn out? Pretty good - message given, received and understood. Then normal service was resumed... We've still a lot of work to do to break some very bad and firmly established habits, but I'm very happy with the start we've made.
I visited his mainstream school today, and I can tell you there's a lot of work to do there -- it's no surprise he doesn't feel he should make very much effort with his work!
No comments:
Post a Comment