Reinforcing behaviors

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rand Raynor on January 19, 2011 at 10:06pm

Don't know if this will help, but check it out:

 

http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/

Permalink Reply by Katie Muhtaris on January 20, 2011 at 5:07am

Hi Melissa
Do you have any insight into what the root of the behavior is? I have found that when using reinforcement doesn't work there is usually something deeper. Of course it's not always possible to address that issue but sometimes it helps frame an approach. I also don't teach K so it probably looks very different from where I'm sitting. Can you give more details about the specific behaviors?

Permalink Reply by Melissa on January 22, 2011 at 7:29am

The home life is not very good for this little boy.  He has very dramatic mood swings- almost bipolar.  So happy and friendly one second and then something sets him off and he is mad.  He does not harm others like he used to but now he more pouts, stomps his feet and shuts down.  We have worked on expressing feelings and I really try to notice the positives so that he knows what I want to see.  There are a lot of problems here so I am just trying to make this little boys life a little happier but it takes time and energy to try and keep him positive.  Any ideas now!?!

Permalink Reply by Rand Raynor on January 22, 2011 at 8:55am

Has any thought been given to the fact that he is two years older than his kindergarten classmates? What about trying to gradually integrate him into classroom settings with other second graders, or at least first graders?

Permalink Reply by Sondra Sparks on May 26, 2011 at 5:04pm

Hi Melissa! I had a student that struggled all year with behavior. For this student my principal and I created a behavior plan that focused just on following the teacher's directions. We split the day up into the three sections. If the student followed the teacher's directions within 10 seconds by the end of the first time section (for ex. 8:15-9:25) then he received a "yes" for that section and then had an immediate positive reward. Our custodial staff was involved and would stop by my room at 9:25 and wait for me to give a thumbs up or down to show if the student had met his goal. If it was "yes" the student would get to go with the custodial staff member and take a walk around the school, play a game together, or go out and shoot baskets for 10 minutes. After each section throughout the day the student had a positive reward in place of someone in our school coming to get the student to do something enjoyable with the student for 10 minutes. If the student met all 3 sections by the end of the day then the student got to choose a student from our class to go down to the principal's office to play a game or old school Nintendo. He was very responsive to this plan and it made a big difference for this child, but it took a lot of team players (staff) from our school to make it happen.