by Carol Czaja, M.A., EB.S.
Tufts University, Medford, MA
I like to think of education as a process of teaching what is not already known. How do we know what a child needs to know? The best way to find out is by watching, watching all sorts of behavior in all sorts of settings and with all sorts of people at various times of the day.
Behaviors that are demonstrated with great frequency and intensity are called excessive behaviors. They often have an observable pattern of when, where, and with whom they occur. These behaviors follow a pattern that serves a very specific function in the child's world. The function may be related to the child's syndrome, pain, side effects from a medication, under or over arousal to environmental stimulation, headache, cold, or illness.
In all cases the behavior is purposive. It serves to communicate the physical or emotional state of the student and that the condition has created a barrier to successful functioning. Treating a dysfunctional behavior as a symptom rather than a cause creates a framework for parents and teachers to consider what skills a child needs to satisfy the function of the behavior. In other words, is the child who eye-pokes communicating the need to learn alternative ways to satisfy visual stimulation? Is the child who grabs toys indicating readiness for socially appropriate language?
If we respond to children's stereotypic, tantrumming, or aggressive behaviors in a negative way without offering them an alternative behavior, we are giving them predominantlynegative feedback about themselves as people. Our task as adults is to break up the impulse-action pattern by finding the child's areas of competency in educational, social, and communicative domains. Through systemmatic praise for specific behaviors we like, children learn to know what they are doing right. Self-esteem is an important part of learning self-control.
In the school environment the Individual Education Plan (IEP) is an appropriate intervention model to use. Avoid using the IEP as a behavior plan. Instead, use the IEP to set goals that reflect instruction and methods of instructional adaptation, including those alternative skills for social learning.
The school curriculum and the school environment should not be setting up barriers to success. Consider what the child is doing, what the behavior is communicating, and what messages we are giving back to the child through our responses. Consider the child's behavior as an indicator of readiness. Working together to determine educational tasks gets parents and teachers away from focusing on the negative and gives us a framework to use the IEP as a vehicle for behavior change through the teaching of alternative skills.
When we fmd ourselves thinking about the amount of time spent each day dealing with behavior control, STOP and remember to look at the whole child. This is a child with a behavior problem, not a behavior problem child.
On The Beam Winter/Spring, 1990 (9:1)
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