How do I Respond when an Interfering Behavior Occurs



How do I Respond when an Interfering Behavior Occurs?

Slide 1: How do I respond when an interfering behavior occurs?

Dawn Hendricks, Ph.D.

Director of Training

Slide 2: Introduction

• When interfering behavior occurs respond consistently and appropriately.

• This presentation will include:

• How do I respond when a minor problem behavior occurs?

• How do I respond when a severe problem behavior occurs?

• How do I respond when behavior reaches a crisis level?

• How do I ensure safety of everyone?

Transcript:

When interfering behavior does occur we must respond to it consistently and appropriately. Students will demonstrate different types of behavior. Some will be mildly distracting, while others will dangerous and may be a safety issue. How we respond to behavior will of course depend on the student, the type of behavior and the function that behavior serves for the student. As we work with students with ASD, we will want to select those behaviors which require our attention and intervention. Certainly, all students demonstrate some negative behaviors, so we will want to “pick our battles” and respond to those we need to and ignore the ones we can safely and effectively ignore. When responding to interfering behaviors, there are some considerations to take into account and key strategies we can implement.

This presentation will include:

• How do I respond when a minor problem behavior occurs?

• How do I respond when a more severe problem behavior occurs?

• How do I respond when the behavior reaches a crisis level?

• How do I ensure the safety of everyone?

It is important to note that this presentation will outline what to do when the behavior is occurring. As discussed in other presentations, it will still be important to have an intervention plan in place that addresses the problem behavior by using proactive strategies and teaching a replacement skill.

Slide 3: What do I do when an interfering behavior happens?

• Determining how to respond is not easy.

• The first 2 levels are those considered mild in nature.

• Level 1 Behavior: Behavior is not severe enough to warrant attention or intervention.

• Level 1 Behavior Strategy: Ignore the behavior.

Transcript:

Determining how to respond when there is an interfering behavior is not easy. However, there are steps you can follow. These steps involve determining the severity of the behavior and whether it requires your immediate attention or intervention. It is helpful as we determine what to do to think about behaviors in terms of levels.

The first 2 levels are those behaviors considered mild in nature.

Level 1 Behavior: Behavior is not severe enough to warrant your attention or some sort of intervention.

There will be behaviors that may be annoying or undesired but do not require immediate or direct intervention. These behaviors do not pose a threat to the student or to others, do not result in property damage, and do not interfere with learning. We can refer to these as “distracting behaviors.”

Level 1 Behavior Strategy: Ignore the behavior.

For these distracting behaviors, ignoring is the best strategy. It keeps you from accidentally reinforcing the behavior by giving the student attention and it keeps you from getting into a power struggle with the student. Nothing good can come of creating a power struggle!

Slide 4: Examples: Ignoring behavior

• Emily rubs between her eyebrows while sitting during a lesson.

• The behavior is not interfering with her ability to listen and learn.

• Juan engages in echolalia and repeats movie lines during down time.

• It does not interfere with his learning or social interactions.

• These behaviors do not warrant our attention at this time.

Transcript:

Emily rubs the spot in between her eyebrows while sitting at her desk during a lesson. The behavior, while it may be distracting, is not interfering with her ability to listen and learn from the lesson. Therefore, this is a behavior that does not require a reaction or response at the time it is happening. Juan engages in echolalia and repeats movie lines. He does this during his down time. While this is annoying to his parents and teacher, it does not interfere with his learning or social interactions. The behavior does not warrant our attention at the time it is happening so the paraprofessional ignores it.

Slide 5: Ignoring behavior

Video example – Ignore Minor Behavior

Notice:

• The student engages in fidgeting and asking for the computer.

• The teacher does not respond and ignores the behavior.

• The student returns to work.

Transcript:

In this video example, you will see the student is supposed to be working on an assignment. The teacher helps the student to start the assignment but the student engages in some interfering behavior of fidgeting and asking for the computer. When the teacher does not respond immediately to the interfering behavior but rather ignores it, the student returns to work. The behavior, though unwanted, does not pose a risk to injure someone or cause a problem with learning and so it can be ignored.

Lloyd: Want the computer.

Teacher: Look, this is what we’re going to do. Do math. Ok?

Lloyd: Ok.

Teacher: Once you finish this, we have a break. Then we do our reading, then we do another one.

Lloyd: Ok.

Teacher: Remember Ms. Cannady showed you how to do your subtraction, right? Ok, ten minus two, we’re going to count backward.

Slide 6: What do I do when I cannot ignore the behavior?

• Level 2 Behavior: Behavior is not severe, but the student would benefit if the behavior stopped.

• Level 2 Behavior Strategy: Ignore behavior and redirect the student to an appropriate task.

Transcript:

Level 2 Behavior: Behavior is not severe, but the student would benefit if the behavior was stopped.

These behaviors are minor behaviors that cause mild disruption. Learning may be impacted because of the behavior or materials may be disturbed.

Level 2 Behavior Strategy: Ignore the behavior to the maximum extent possible and casually redirect the student to an appropriate task. If possible, do not give the student eye contact or verbally tell the student to stop. Instead tell the student to do something constructive and specific and point to the activity. You may find it helpful to also provide a small amount of physical assistance to help the student begin the task. In other words, you direct the student to something appropriate.

Slide 7: Example: Ignoring behavior and redirecting

• Emily begins rubbing her shirt sleeve over and over during calendar time.

• Paraprofessional prompts her hands to her lap, points to calendar, and verbally prompts her to count.

• Juan engages in echolalia during math class.

• Paraprofessional approaches him, taps his math worksheet, and quietly tells him to do problem number 3.

Transcript:

Emily begins rubbing her shirt sleeve over and over again during group calendar time. The paraprofessional stands behind her, and gently prompts her hands to her lap. The paraprofessional then points to the calendar and verbally prompts her to count with the rest of the class. Her behavior was disrupting group calendar time so the paraprofessional decided she needed to be redirected back to work. Juan engages in echolalia during math class. His classroom paraprofessional approaches him from the side, taps his math worksheet and quietly tells him to do problem number 3. The paraprofessional saw that he was not doing his work so ignored the behavior but non-intrusively redirected him to his school work. Juan discontinued the movie talk and did his math. The paraprofessional provided praise to him for working.

Slide 8: Redirection

Video example – Ignore Redirect Behavior

Notice:

• Lloyd is not on task.

• The paraprofessional redirects Lloyd back to his work.

Transcript:

In this example, you will see our student engaging in an interfering behavior in that he isn’t on task. He is fidgeting in his seat and playing with the scissors. The paraprofessional will return to Lloyd and redirect him back to his work.

Teacher: Come on. We have some reading to do. We can read the story and cut the pictures out. So we do all these pictures, ok? Ok, I see you’re having some problems. We’re going to cut these pictures out and we’re going to put them with the faces, ok? All right?

Lloyd: How do you do the face?

Slide 9: What do I do if the behavior requires more than redirection?

• Level 3 Behavior: Behavior is severe enough to require an immediate response by an adult.

• Considerations:

o Interferes with learning

o Disruption to materials

o Threat to the safety of student or others

• Level 3 Behavior Strategy: Intervene to keep student and others safe and reduce disruption.

Transcript:

Sometimes students will require more intensive intervention when there is an interfering behavior. We are now going to talk about Level 3 behaviors.

Level 3 Behavior: Behavior is severe enough to require an immediate response by an adult.

There are several considerations when making this determination. You can ask yourself the following questions: Does this behavior interfere with the learning of the student with ASD? Does the behavior interfere with the learning of other students? Does the behavior cause major disruption to materials? For example, are items thrown or knocked on the floor? Is the behavior a threat to the safety of the student or to others? If the answer is yes to any of these, then the behavior requires immediate intervention and this is a Level 3. Marcus is screaming during gym class. The other students cannot hear the teacher and are distracted by his screams. Lilly breaks the pencil lead purposefully when given a writing task. Caleb will frequently pound the key board when he is taking a test and does not know the answer. This causes damage to the key board requiring intervention.

Level 3 Behavior Strategy: For these behaviors, you will intervene at the time of the behavior to keep the student and others safe and to reduce disruption. When these behaviors occur, it requires you to quickly think about the situation to figure out what is going on and to then intervene taking everything into account.

However, you will also communicate with your supervisors and with the student’s case manager (this is normally the special education teacher) when the student has problem behavior that is not easily ignored or redirected.

For these behaviors, the nature of the intervention will vary depending on the student and the behavior. This is when it is especially important to have an intervention plan in place that outlines exactly what to do when the behavior occurs. If you have an intervention plan in place, do whatever is described in the plan. If you do not have a plan in place, it will be important to tell your supervisory teacher when the student has interfering behavior that is not easily ignored or redirected.

When there is an interfering behavior, this may be a good time to teach the student a more appropriate behavior that can be used instead of the behavior. It is the responsibility of those working with and supporting the student to determine the right course of action. If you are unsure of what to do, ask the teacher or another supervisor as they can guide your response.

Slide 10: Examples: Intervention

1. Behavior: Marcus screams in gym class.

Intervention: Paraprofessional asks if he would like to get a drink of water in the hall so he can escape the noisy gym.

2. Behavior: Lilly broke pencil when she writes.

Intervention: Paraprofessional takes Lilly’s paper and shows her where to write the letter “A” as well as providing light prompting to help her get started on the assignment.

3. Behavior: Caleb pounds keyboard when he doesn’t know the test answers.

Intervention: Paraprofessional casually moves keyboard out of the way. She shows Caleb how to raise his hand and ask for help. When he raises his hand, she helps Caleb with the test question.

Transcript:

Let’s look at some examples. In this table, the left hand column shows examples of interfering behaviors that can occur. The right hand column describes a possible intervention.

Marcus is screaming during gym class. The gym is loud and has a lot echoes. The class is playing a chase game, which is very loud. The paraprofessional knows that Marcus does not like loud noises. The paraprofessional asks Marcus if he would like to get a drink of water in the hall. He quickly says yes and calms down as soon as he is out of the noisy gym.

Lilly broke her pencil lead when asked to write the letter “A” 5 times on the paper. The paraprofessional knows that Lilly does not like handwriting and finds it very challenging. The paraprofessional takes Lilly’s paper and shows her a block where she is to write the letter “A” one time. The paraprofessional explains that “First, she writes “A.” Then she can play with a ball for a few seconds.” The paraprofessional also provides light prompting to help her get started on writing the letter “A.” Lilly writes the letter, then plays with the ball. The paraprofessional does the same thing until she has written the letter 5 times.

Caleb pounds the keyboard when he doesn’t know the answer on the test. It is known that Caleb does not like getting things wrong and also does not typically ask for help. When Caleb pounds the keyboard, the paraprofessional casually moves it out of the way so Caleb cannot damage it. Once it is removed she shows Caleb how to raise his hand and helps him raise his hand and ask for help. When he raises his hand, she immediately helps Caleb with the test question.

Slide 11: Example: Intervention

• Jasper throws book and hits the paraprofessional.

• Setting events: The noisy bus and crowded hallway

• Antecedents: He was given a task and perhaps it was too hard.

• Response: Redirect Jasper to his activity, or prompt him to ask for a break.

Transcript:

Let’s look at another example.

Jasper throws his book and hits the paraprofessional in the room. Ms. Jones carefully considers her next actions. She thinks for a moment about the setting event or antecedent that may have occurred before Jasper walked into the room and threw his book. He rode on a noisy bus this morning and the hallway was crowded and loud which were his setting events. She thinks about the antecedent that may have triggered the behavior. He was given a work task and perhaps it was too hard. His behavior could be a reaction to any of these triggers. Her response to the behavior will take these triggers into consideration.

Ms. Jones knows that yelling at him to “stop throwing” will likely intensify the situation. She also knows that if she prompts him to pick up the book that he will probably refuse resulting in a power struggle. Therefore, the best course of action may be to redirect Jasper to his work activity or perhaps prompt him to ask for a break from a work task. She decides to prompt Jasper to ask for a break and gives him a 30 second break before prompting him back to work. When he goes back to work she helps him complete the first problem.

Now you may be thinking that letting Jasper have a break is rewarding him for throwing. But let’s think about the situation. We would like for Jasper to ask for a break when his work is too hard. We would like for him to do this instead of throwing. Ms. Jones quickly evaluated the situation and determined the work task was too hard and trigged the throwing. Therefore, she prompts him to do the more appropriate behavior. The break he is given is short and he is not able to play with fun things. He returns to work quickly, this time with support in place that will help him to be successful. Perhaps next time the work is too hard, he will ask for a break instead of throwing something.

Slide 12: Examples: Crisis level behaviors

• Examples:

o Aggression towards another person

o Self-injurious behavior

o Destructing a room

o A tantrum that goes on and on and doesn’t stop

Transcript:

We’ve talked about behaviors we should ignore or redirect but there are also behaviors that can be considered a crisis. Examples of crisis behavior include:

- Aggression towards another person

- Self-injurious behavior

- Destructing a room

- A tantrum that goes on and on and doesn’t stop

I’m sure you can think of other crisis level behaviors by the students you support.

Slide 13: What to do when the behavior reaches a crisis level

• Student’s behavior may become severe enough to be a crisis.

• Crisis situations include:

o Danger

o Issues related to safety

• Think about how to calm the situation and gain control.

Transcript:

In some instances, the student’s behavior may become severe enough to be considered a crisis. Think about this term for a minute. What comes to mind when you hear the term “crisis”? I am sure you think about danger and issues related to safety. That is what we are referring to when we think about crisis level behavior for the student with ASD. Now, what do you typically do in a crisis? I hope you are thinking about making sure everyone is safe and the danger is avoided. If you are, again, you are correct.

When a student with ASD demonstrates crisis level behavior that is considered to be dangerous in some way, then it is important for us to think about how to calm the situation and to gain control-immediately!

Slide 14: Ensure the safety of everyone

• Goal is to guarantee the safety of the student, the others, and yourself.

• Focus on calming the student:

o Remove students who may be in harm’s way.

o Remove items that may pose a danger.

o Ask for assistance by nearby adults.

o Move student to a safe area of room.

• Never return physical aggression in any form!

Transcript:

When this level of behavior happens, your goal is to guarantee the safety of the student, the other students and of course, yourself. Once you know everyone is safe, then the focus can become calming the student. To ensure the safety of the situation, you can remove any students who may be in harm’s way. Remove any items that may pose a danger and ask for assistance by nearby adults. If possible, move the student to a safe area of the room but only if you are able to do so safely without further upsetting the student or escalating the behavior. If there is aggression, you can move away or you can block the aggression. Blocking is the use of your own body to protect yourself. You should never return physical aggression in any form or hold the student’s hands down in some sort of restraint! Only block the behavior if you absolutely need to and can do this safely. When possible, move out of the way! It may actually be helpful to get behind the student so you are out of their direct line.

Slide 15: Examples: Ensure the safety of everyone

1. Behavior: Caleb threw keyboard and found other objects to throw.

Intervention: Paraprofessional removed students from area and removed chairs. She called the office and asked for assistance. She talked quietly and continued to protect him.

2. Behavior: Lilly began hitting herself in the head.

Intervention: Paraprofessional approached Lilly and gently prompted her hands to her desk. She removed the pencil so Lilly could not grab it. She talked quietly to her and gave her a break to calm down.

Transcript:

In this chart, you will see some examples of how to ensure the safety of everyone. In the left hand column you will see the behavior and in the right hand column you can see the intervention.

Caleb will sometimes pound the keyboard when taking a test. However, today, Caleb threw the keyboard and began finding other objects to throw. The aide attempted to redirect him, however, he continued. The paraprofessional in the class was concerned about the safety of Caleb and the other students. The paraprofessional removed the other students from the area, removed the chairs that were in close proximity to him so they could not be thrown. Using a radio, she called the office and asked for assistance. She talked quietly to Caleb and continued to protect him as he calmed.

When given a writing worksheet, Lilly began hitting herself in the head over and over. The paraprofessional was concerned about Lilly’s safety. The paraprofessional approached Lilly and gently prompted her hands to her desk. She removed the pencil on the desk so Lilly could not grab it. She talked quietly to her and gave her a short break to calm down.

Slide 16: Remain calm and deescalate the situation

• Stay in control and calm.

• Think about how to deescalate the situation without reinforcing the behavior.

• Don’t take the behavior personally.

Transcript:

When a problem behavior occurs, we must stay in control and calm. It may be natural to become emotional or angry. This will not help to stop the behavior, but will only make it worse. Remaining calm will help you think about the steps you need to take to quickly deescalate the situation without reinforcing the behavior. This will help you to weigh the outcomes and decide what is going to be the quickest way to calm the student and return to the activity.

It is important that when responding to interfering behaviors that the behavior is not taken personally. It is also important to not get into any power struggles. Remember that the student is trying to tell you something that they need or want when they have interfering behavior. It is not a personal attack on you! It is our job to figure out what is being communicated and to respond accordingly.

Slide 17: Use any physical contact with caution

• Never respond to a student demonstrating interfering behaviors with physical or aggressive behavior.

• It may be necessary to use prompting to direct the student.

• Prompting is gentle and only used when absolutely necessary.

• Physical prompting and touch used with caution.

Transcript:

It is imperative that you never respond to a student demonstrating interfering behaviors with physical or aggressive behavior. It may be easy to think that you can show Jasper how to pick up his book by taking his arm and leading him to the book and physically helping him to pick it up. This will likely escalate the situation leading to more and more extreme physical interactions.

At times it may be necessary to use prompting such as physical prompting, to direct the student. This prompting is gentle and is only used when absolutely necessary. For example, Caleb’s paraprofessional may have gently guided him to a safe area of the room when his throwing escalated. Physical prompting and touch should be used with caution. Students with ASD may not like physical touch; therefore, using touch when they are already escalated may not be the best course of action.

Slide 18: Summary

• Responding to problem behavior can be challenging.

• Knowing how to respond to the behavior when it happens is critical.

• There are several strategies we use to deescalate behaviors.

• Work collaboratively with the team and the student’s teacher.

Transcript:

Responding to interfering behavior can be challenging. There are many different reasons why behaviors occur and an infinite number of things that can trigger it or cause it to occur. Knowing how to respond to the behavior when it does happen is critical so then we can reduce it as quickly as possible and do not reinforce it or make it stronger.

There are several strategies we can use to deescalate behaviors when they occur. Simple strategies such as ignoring the behavior and redirecting are powerful and helpful in most situations. However, providing a response that takes into account the function of the behavior and the trigger can help to teach the student what to do instead of the problem behavior.

Always work collaboratively with the educational team and the student’s teacher to determine the best way to respond to behavior when it occurs.

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