Challenging Children and Behavior Plans

I have been wrapped up in something called a "Behavior Plan" this last month, I have been wrapped up in something called a "Challenging Child," leaving me less energy to deal with many other things; I really have been wanting to post something, but dealing with challenging children goes beyond your school day. I have come a long way in training my mind to not to constantly dwell on my circumstances at school, but it can be difficult.
It's no surprise that I have a challenging child in my classroom; in fact, there is more than one. They each have their special circumstance, but there are levels of challenges that each present. I have been very wrapped up in one particular child, who have came a very long way. This has been going on since the beginning of the school year and every time we come to a new point, things seem to become escalated.
What do I mean by that? I mean, parents are frustrated, but at the same time, the parents are a part of the problem. Who you are as a person, good and bad, transfers to your children; so it seems that it comes down to what parts of you outweigh the other parts of you.  We all have our good and bad qualities, but we really need to realize that to make a change. It's tough when you are dealt different cards in your life and sometimes that can be projected onto your children. The environment is a huge factor into how a child is shaped holistically.
That said, we have really been able to intervene and help shape this child into her better self. She has made huge progress, and that comes from consistency and also setting limits. With my school, they have something called a "Behavior Plan." This becomes a factor of intervention when a child's actions/behavior starts to affect his/her learning. This is not an evaluation or something to label a child; it is just to help intervene more purposefully with a particular child.
With this Plan, she has gone from being very angry and all over the place to sitting with us and actually addressing conflicts. She had a hard time expressing emotions verbally and is very extreme about her social and emotional expressions. Some of these things still come up, but she seems to have relieved some of the stress/burden of carrying her anger. We have changed her schedule up (going down to half days and incrementally up based on behavior), implemented praise (building self-confidence) and giving more responsibilities (to give her the feeling of more control). She has really come a long way and I am very proud of her; of course, we are still working on some things that pop up here and there though.

The Behavior Plan Format: 

[School Name] Home/School Behavior Plan

The school and parents agree to support each other, work together, and create consistent expectations for (student's name):_______________________________

Positive behaviors to be increased:
1.
2.
3....insert however many you think suits your situation

Behaviors to be decreased:
1.
2.
3.....insert however many you think suits your situation

The School agrees to:
1. Teacher will support [child's name] in the classroom by:
           a.)
           b.)
           c.)....insert however many you think suits your situation

Parents agree to:
1.
2.
3.....insert however many you think suits your situation

Next meeting date to review progress:
[List the actual date]

Signature of school staff: __________________________
Signature of student: This is for older students. This is left out of my preschool plans. _________________________
Signature of parents/guardians: ________________________


Make a copy and give it your parents after they sign!


Tips: 

The process: There's more to the Plan than writing it out and discussing it. My director sends a letter home to the parent that basically explains that the child's behavior has become consistent enough for it needed to be addressed with a Behavior Plan (if I remember, I will attempt to post the exact wording from the letter at a later time). At my school, one of the parents must observe their child for two consecutive days in the classroom setting after receiving the letter, before the child can return to school. Once the observation is complete, the Behavior Plan will be reviewed by the parent and teacher on the second day of observation and signed. This plan will carry on for however many weeks you planned. It will then be reviewed and revised every time you decided the new date. It can go many different ways. Because of my child's behavior being inconsistent with the plan we implemented with their parents, we took her down to half days and worked our way back up based on different strategies that we found that worked; this helped the child to adjust to smaller increments of time in school. Perhaps it is part of the day that the child has a hard time with, so you work up to it. At the beginning, we were trying to figure out what the issue really was. Take it one step at a time with good documentation and you will figure out what is best.

Documentation: You cannot do this Plan without documentation. You must be able to see consistent behaviors that affect the child's learning and environment and to prove it, you need to have it written down. Through this time on the Plan, you must continue to take documentation. This documentation needs to be absolutely factual and exactly what happened. The more details, the better off everyone will be. It is best to document the child exhibiting the positive behaviors and the situations that come up with the negative behaviors. This will show either inconsistency or consistency, which will guide your next steps.  I went from typical written documentation on lined paper to an outlined day. Below is an example:

I do this every single day that my challenging child is in class. It is tedious, but it works very well. It helps me to communicate with the parents about the child's day and to keep as document. The middle section is for different smiley faces, which is not for the child, but if the parent would like to review it with the child at home, then it's a good visual. There are four faces I use. The happiest one is a typical smiley face :), the next level down is for minor incidences which is a straight face : I, the next level down is a slanty face for more frequent incidences :/, and then the last one is a sad face when there have been an abundance of incidences :(. I leave objective comments and leave out other children's names.  I always give a copy to my parents and keep a copy in their file. I use these to help with revisions of the Plan.

Check your attitude: It is important not to fall into a pit of anger yourself. It is frustrating many times for many reasons. Everyone would prefer an easy fix and see progress consistently, but it takes time. Also check your attitude towards the child and the situation and then proceed. Don't forget about the big picture.

Check your resources:

1. Behavior Hotline - I work in Oakland Schools and they are pretty awesome. They have recently implemented a "Behavior Hotline" for teachers who need extra support with challenging children. You call and leave a message and one of the early childhood mental health consultants in the county will call you back to chat. It is a very laid back conversation and she just tries to gather information about the situation and give the best support ideas she can. So far, it's worked really well. She also offers to come in and observe and personally support. Check your school district! 
2. Director - This is a HUGE factor when it comes to challenging children; it's all about support the head honcho! I have had some challenges at first when my director first became involved, but she has been working with us and supporting us in our decisions; she has been a big guidance and has our back in this situation. I'm glad we have her. 
3. Social Worker - Does your school have a psychologist or social worker? Our GSRP program is located in an elementary school. Luckily, we have those resources available to come in and support our children; this can only happen when the parents sign for these services. They are not doctors and don't/can't label a child. He/she comes into the classroom and supports the emotional and social responses and expressions of our challenging child(ren).
4. Colleagues - Look to those who are more experienced than you, but are at your level. My colleagues have given me insight to the steps in this behavior plan and setting limits. They have also given me advice for the meetings and documentation styles. 

What this is NOT:

1. A cure/promise - This behavior plan is not a one step process and not something to take lightly. Behavior fluctuates and there are many factors in play when it comes to young children. Social and emotional development is like the ocean; you look down and can only see so far, until you keep diving deeper. Don't forget that you also need the right equipment and resources! This plan is not a promise that the child will progress to where he/she needs to be or where you/parents want him/her to be. We just need to meet the child where he/she is at and work from there.
2. A label - Again, this has nothing to do with what doctors can do. We cannot diagnose anything, even if we have a hunch. This behavior plan is not a label for "bad children." It is just saying that there are things affecting his/her daily life that seem to require more purposeful actions to address and adjust. 
3. One size fits all -This is not a one size fits all. Just because you have a challenging child in your classroom, does not mean that this plan will help them. Sometimes a child has much deeper issues/needs than a consistent behavior plan can meet. It's all about their experiences. 
4. Giving up on a child - This is actually the opposite of that. Even if you have to adjust the child's schedule (going from full days to half or only every other day of school), we are not abandoning them! Some children have a hard time adjusting to their first time with a structured schedule all day long with 15 other children involved. Not to mention, adjusting to all of those personalities and building safe relationships with new adults! Life is hard when you already have a lot going on and you are only four. Behaviors happen and this is to help cater to this specific child's obvious needs. 

What this IS:

1. Purposeful - This is the SPECIFIC plan to help your SPECIFIC child. This is addressing his/her specific behaviors that we want to see adjusted and what specific/actual supports we can do and the parents can do to help aid this journey. When we implement those, it becomes very purposeful to me. 
2. Intervention - This plan helps us to intervene in the child's life and to guide them in the right direction. This happens on all parts of the circle of people; the teacher intervenes in the way they planned, the parents intervene in the way they agreed to, the other resources intervene in the way they are trained, etc. It focuses on the individual child's response to something and having everyone work together to guide him/her in their daily life. 
3. Tedious - This consumes time and energy. This more than paper and meetings; this is working towards a common goal, all together, all the time. This is being consistent, which means never giving up; that's a challenge in itself. You have to be resilient and if you aren't, then you need to learn how because this can really take a toll on you. This is a test of your passion for children. 
4. Compromise - Things are not going to go how you want. There are days where you want to give up, let's be real. Everyone is human here, right? It's about compromising sometimes and doing the tough things, even if it's uncomfortable or you're just "done." Persevere!  Not to mention, you have to compromise with the plan and working with your director/resources; sometimes it is out of your hands. 
5. Meeting the child's [obvious] needs - This is what this is all about. If this turns into trying to get the child dis-enrolled or to get what YOU want, then you are doing it wrong; in fact, you are not doing your job at all. Don't have a lame and easy attitude. You are a teacher! Put your armor on and go help those kids succeed! Isn't that your job?! Isn't that your passion?! This child is challenging and has OBVIOUS needs. Your job is to meet all children where they are at, so if you are going to do that, then do it right. 
6. Positive - This is hard to convince your parents when you call to have them come pick up their child because of their negative behavior, but guess what? There's a bigger picture! This behavior plan is a positive thing. It is a purposeful plan for a child's very specific needs. As a teacher, you are stepping up and saying that you are willing to do what is best and appropriate for that child. Parents might be frustrated because that means they have to deal with it too, but that's life. You can reassure them that this is positive and you are ready to help their child reach positive goals and to succeed. 

Scheduling:

1. When: It depends on how fast you want your plan to move. To really see progress, how much time do you think your child needs? First, I started with three weeks, but now we are at about five weeks (once a month). We coordinate our schedule with our director's, breaks, social worker (recently included), and any other classroom related things that might interfere. We typically do it the 30 minutes before class starts on a Tuesday. This gives us time to remind them on the Monday before. 
2. With who: Depending on your situation, you might have different people there. We have consistently had our director and/or our assistant director in the meeting with my co-teacher and I. Recently, like I mentioned, the social worker came in to share some insight since she has been in the classroom with us. We also ran into a larger conflict with one of our parents and the Vice Principle stepped into mediate the meeting. It depends on your situation, but it's critical that you have extra support. 
3. Where: Besides our last meeting, we have been having them inside our classroom. Our last meeting was held in the Vice Principle's office though. It depends where you feel comfortable and where there is an available space.

The High Scope Demonstration Preschool

Recently, I was able to go to the High Scope Demonstration Preschool in Ypsilanti for a PD day! I was pretty excited to check it out and to compare/contrast my classroom and experience with theirs. There is only one classroom and they are right next to a large beautiful building, which I know contains the High Scope Store.
When we first came in the morning. we were able to go into the classroom, while the teachers were taking questions and preparing for class. We could take pictures and look at all of the items they had. Next, we watched their entire half-day of class in the room connected to the classroom; the children didn't know we were in the other room and couldn't see us. There were cameras in the classroom and we were able to watch their day on a TV screen. After the children and teachers went outside, we were taken over to the High Scope Foundation building and were able to purchase items from the store. We came back to the room we were in after all of the children were dismissed. The teachers came into the room with us, discussed their day with each other, planned for the following day in front of us, and took any questions we had. I asked one question and that was: "How many items are too many items to have in the classroom?" That was my current struggle with clean up being long and items not being out away. One of the High Scope teachers said that they have items that they switch in and out to accommodate the children's interests, but I was looking for more concrete answers, but it still helped. Another important question that one of my colleagues asked was about their schedule (which you will see in the pictures below); their schedule is not completely accessible to the children and she was asking if their classroom got marked down on the PQA (Preschool Program Quality Assessment) for it. One of the High Scope teachers made a great point: The assessor of the PQA must be aware of their interpretations of what is and is not High Scope and to read the PQA carefully. It doesn't say that the children must have access to the daily schedule, only that it is posted. Lastly, it was really nice to see their swift collaboration with planning. It is important that you work well with your co-teacher, and it seemed that they did. They didn't switch groups, but they discussed the children's interests and what they plan on doing next to further that. They collaborated most with easy to join songs, greeting time, and large group. During the day, they did a lot of songs to get the children motivated. I will discuss their daily schedule more below.

I really enjoyed this experience though and we received a copy of their lesson for the day. This was a free experience that you can schedule to go to and experience. I highly recommend!!

Here are the pictures I attempted to take of the classroom (my phone camera isn't the best):

The sign right outside of the preschool building.

This is a part of the toy area, with marble contraptions, dice, rocks, plastic connector pieces, small manipulatives, and I really enjoyed that they had a live plant available.

Adjacent to the first toy area shelf is the second one. Again, more maipulatives and plant items. The yellow items are "Work in Progress" signs that the children can put by their work (available at the store and online), slinkys, pegs, Magna Tiles, and more connector items.

They also had a Lego table with Legos available across from the second toy area shelf. This is where is starts becoming the block area.

This is in the middle of the block area; a wood house and wooden house items. You can see that a child left these cars from the day prior. 

Here is the daily schedule posted with a movable arrow to indicate where they are at in the day. These cardboard cylinders are also located in the block area, the white basket contains books and next to those are large wooden building blocks.

These steering wheels are located on top of a block area shelf, which is below. The wooden steering wheels are available to purchase at their store and online. 

Here is the block area shelf (the wooden toy house is on the opposite side). There are smaller blocks, trains, people and a real items available.

This is what the first teachers plan for small group and planning that day. The baskets contained toilet paper rolls, tin foil, yarn, scissors, and tape; they made rockets with these items, by taping the yarn from two different ends (wall and table), wrapping the tin foil around the roll and putting the yarn through the roll so that it can slide down the yarns length. The children put their own together and picked where they wanted to launch their rockets in the room. As some children finished up, the teacher planned with those children with the hula hoop. The hula hoop has pictures of each area and some of the children continued the rocket activity throughout work time as their plan. As for recall, the teacher took short videos of each child doing their plan and played them back during recall at the table. Their table is next to the sink on the left, in front of and next to the art area on the right and adjacent to the block area.

Here is the sink area next to the first teacher's table, with smocks next to it accordingly. 

This is their message board, which they covered each message up with each number and did it backwards. The teacher held this up as she sat with them at the carpet during greeting time.

Along the wall were more wooden blocks which extended next to the carpet area. Some of their art work is also posted on the windows.

Another block area shelf across from the other one, adjacent to the wall of large wooden blocks. I thought these were really neat and wouldn't mind having them in my classroom.

Here are more items for the block area; these are blocks with pictures of community buildings and their homes.

Adjacent to the last block area shelf starts the house area shelves and items. On the top right corner of the picture, you can see where they stored their 3 step cleaning bottles (out of reach!). They also have their small group posted on the wall (this would be the second small group). They also have different types of artwork and photos of the class posted around the room. The red tray contains her prepared small group items; they worked with bleeding tissue paper and water. The children were able to pick a place to do this where they wanted for small group (some went on the floor near the table and some stayed at the table; there were tables available in case of a spill).  This shelf contained measuring cups, baby bottles, diapers, and baby clothes.

To the right of that shelf is another house area shelf. This contained sunglasses, ties, cell phones, utensils, necklaces, and purses.

To the right of that kitty-corner house area shelf is the clothes rack, with different community gear and relevant clothing. There is also this folded box because this shelf divides the house area and block area.

To the left of the first house area shelf was their second table and the tissue paper they used. For her planning, she used brown paper bags and each child received one to put an item in that they planned to play with. Behind the table continued the house area items; diverse baby dolls, fake flowers, flashlights, party hats, paper cups and plates. 

To the left of the second table is a large house area shelf. The picture is really blurry, but on the other side of this is the door where the parents and children enter. Below is a better close up picture of the items on this tall shelf.

Here is a much better picture of some of the items on this house area shelf. 

Across from the the second table are wooden house area cabinets with pots and pans. The thing at the top is a trash can.

Add the end of the cabinets are two containers, one with plastic gems and the other has corks. 

Further across from the second table and next to the house area play cabinets is the sensory table area. I love this contraption and want it! They have added different things to it, such as the bins and the gutter pieces. The children can add and take away from it; experimenting at its finest!

Next to the sensory contraption, there is a shelf with scales, tubing, shovels, and magnetic wands.

Adjacent to the sensory table begins the book area and they included the puzzles and musical items in the book area.

Here is the rest of the book area. There is a couch and large stuffed animals, books, puppets, and fine motor/writing items on the other shelf (see below).

Here is the other book area shelf. It has a keyboard, wooden letters and numbers, white boards/markers/erasers, pencils, pencil sharpeners, paper and stamps. 

On the other side of the tall house area shelf and to the right of the book area is where everyone comes in for the day. Here is a shelf with all of their baskets, each one labeled with their name and letter-link.

Across from the baskets is the parent board with a bunch of information, including lesson plans, what's happening in the classroom and health information.

Their schedule is posted and then the daily plan is posted below. 

This is their "crisis bag" in case of emergencies. This is right next to the door.

On the opposite side of the sensory table, to the right of the first table is the art area. Here is where the children can pick different paper items and get paint of their level.

Here is an art area shelf with available tools for them, such as staplers, tape, and glue. There are also different types of stamps here.

More art area items that they can use. A lot of different types of crafts and manipulatives here as well. There are also diverse coloring utensils too.

This is behind the first table; lots of artwork posted around the room, again. There is the first small group's names posted on the wall as well.

Here is my sloppy rendition of the classroom area set-up :).

This is a worksheet they gave us, which details their daily schedule more in depth.

Their daily schedule lessons for the day:
Below are my notes about what they did throughout the day, which the teachers utilized the COR lesson planning tool online to also show a more detailed lesson for the day. These are unique ideas that suit the children in their classroom and where the children are going developmentally.

Greeting Time: As the parents entered into the classroom, the majority (if not all) of the parents stayed and joined their child as the carpet to read books. One of the teachers greets the families/children as they come in and the other teacher is at the carpet with the other families/children. When Greeting Time was going to start, the teachers began to sing: 

"It's time to put the books away, books away, books away" (x2)

"and read the Message Board"

This was to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus." Then the children sat on the carpet (there were X's on the carpet where they were supposed to sit) and some parents stayed still. The teacher said "Everybody put your finger in the air and wave good morning to your neighbor!" The children began to do that. To get their focus back the teachers said/did: 

"Hands go up in the air, hands go down to the ground." (x2)

"Grab a star [reaching to the ceiling], and pull it down [putting hands into their laps]."

If there was a moment where the children became unfocused then they said "Grab your star and put it in your lap." The white sat on the floor with the teachers and the children. The messages had a paper over each of them and had a number on the outside. The teachers explained that they were going to read the messages in reverse. At one point a child screamed and the teacher said "I wonder if there's a problem because you're screaming." I thought this was a good tool to remember.They also began to sing the words "Message number 1" to a Farmer in the Dell tune. The first message was about how many days home they would have and the second message was about who was songbook. 

Transition: Next, they announced their transition to large group and starts a beat by clapping on their knees and sang "Down Came a Little Girl." Then they did their songbook song. 

Large Group: Their large group involved dancing with scarves to fast and slow music. The teachers and children attempted to move fast and slow to the beat of the music playing and then they extended this activity by having the children try the opposite (move fast when the beat is slow). 

Transition: The transition on their lesson plan was different than what they did in class. On the plan, it says that they would transition by the color of the scarf they had. They actually transitioned by rhyming the children's names. 

Small Group: I have described both small group activities above in the pictures. One group did tissue paper bleeding and the other group did rocket ship building; they showed the children what the activity was, gave each child their own set of materials, did the activity with them, and then went to each child during this activity. 

• Small Group 1: During the rocket ship building, the teacher helped with the tape, let the children add materials, and comments on each child's work. He also told the children to "sit" at the start, but later the children were able to put their rockets anywhere in the room. 
• Small Group 2: During the tissue paper bleeding small group, the teacher let the children pick an area where they wanted to do the activity (she didn't announce this, but let it happen). One child chose the floor, and some water spilt; she said "It looks like you have some water on the ground" and she grabbed a towel. She extended this activity with paint bushes and paper. 

Planning: When some of the children finished early, the teacher began to plan with them individually. Small Group 1 used a hula-hoop with area pictures attached to plan and Small Group 2 filled paper bags with an item they planned on playing with.  

Work Time: The teachers participated in play with the children and attempted to extend play while handling conflicts. During a conflict resolution issue, one of the teachers said "we can solve the problem together." There was also a child who did not want to do Conflict Resolution and kept walking away, so the teacher said she would attempt to talk to him again at a different time. The teachers gave a five minute warning before clean up time was going to happen.

Clean Up: The teachers began to sing/do "hands covering your eyes" to get the children's attention (I don't have a tune for this one); one of the teachers asked "Who is five in here?" Of course, some of the children shouted "me!" or said "I'm four!" So the teacher explained that he is going to give everyone a "clean up ticket" with the number of their age on it; they will use this ticket to clean up that many items in the room. "If you're five, clean up five things;" "If you're four, clean up four things." At one point, there was a child not cleaning up; one of the teachers told him "Our job is not to be at the window, it's time to clean up right now." 

Transition: In the tune of Frere Jacques, the Small Group 1 teacher began to sing: "Time for recall at your table." While at the Small Group 2 table, the teacher got their attention by saying movements in the tune of Open-Shut Them; "Let's put our feet under the table [stomping], let's put our hands on the table [tapping fingers]."

Recall: Small Group 1 teacher took videos of the children doing their plan during work time and played them back to the children; the children guessed who it was and what their plan was. The teacher from Small Group 2 gave the children telephone-cups, and the children paired up to share what they did during Work Time with the person on the other line. 

Snack Time: The teachers retrieved the food for snack, participated in eating snack with the children and having conversations; the teachers also read a book to the children while they ate snack at their table. 

Outside/Dismissal: The teachers helped the teacher put on their outside gear and they lined up to go outside. We did not really see what activities they did or how the teachers interacted with the children outside. The parents picked up from outside as well. The lesson plan lists specific materials that I am sure they used (bikes, balls, blocks, parachute).

Teacher Planning: After all of the children left, the teachers came into our room and planned right in front of us. As I have mentioned above, they did their own plan for their small group and did not switch activities and it seemed to be off of the children's interests in their group. The teachers planned to leave extra materials out in the art area, if the other children in the opposite group were interested in the activities done. 

Lastly, we received a folder of goodies! Here is a list of items inside the folder:

• Play as an Intervention: How to Engage Young Children With Special Needs - 6 Strategies for Using Play Effectively [Special Needs & Play]
• High Scope Preschool Curriculum Overview [Preschool Curriculum]
• High Scope Preschool Curriculum Content (KDI sheet; English & Spanish)
• High Scope Information Sheet
• Tools for Successful Conflict Resolution Quick Sheet
• Pad of Paper and Pen
• The High Scope Demonstration Preschool Daily Routine /FAQs about the Preschool
• The High Scope Demonstration Preschool COR Lesson
• COR Advantage Overview Booklet
• High Scope Membership Information [High Scope Free Membership]
• High Scope Professional Learning List 2015-2016 
• Evaluation and Technical Assistance Services & The Center for Early Education Evaluation (CEEE) Information Sheet
• Resource Guide - High Scope Booklet
• High Scope International Conference [Registration]
• "Lesson Plans for the First 30 Days" 3 Day Preview
• Material Ads

For more information about the High Scope Demonstration Preschool: High Scope Demonstration Preschool Program