Libby is a clinical psychology doctoral student and a full-time Content Writer/Content Creator passionate about psychology, social-emotional learning, behavior management, and mental health. Libby majored in psychology at Arizona State University, receiving the Dean’s Medal in Psychology for academic excellence and the Smith Marshall Psychology award. She has a background working with children and adolescents from underserved communities and those with histories of traumatic experiences. She combines her passions for writing and love of helping others to create content that informs the public about psychology, mental health, self-care, ACEs, and social-emotional learning topics.
Creating a clear plan, providing an organized physical space, and teaching behavioral and procedural expectations are effective ways to help prevent challenging behavior. Consider the following strategies to help promote appropriate behavior while preventing or reducing challenging behaviors.
Suspensions create barriers for minority students and those with emotional and behavioral disorders. Policies such as zero-tolerance prevent at-risk students from having the same access to education as their peers. Having alternatives to suspension provides an avenue for students to learn decision-making skills, coping skills, and life skills that will help them throughout their lives and help them be more successful in the school environment.
Mental Health Stigma is the negative attitudes, beliefs, and thoughts persons hold about those with mental illness. Reducing mental health stigma can encourage persons to seek help and resources and can help create an inclusive and safe environment.
Educators may see challenging behaviors, attendance problems, and academic failure but may not always recognize the link between the challenging behavior, toxic stress, and adverse childhood experiences. A trauma-informed classroom considers the whole child and remains consciously aware of why a child may be exhibiting certain behaviors in the classroom while taking careful steps to help all students feel safe and supported.
Challenging behaviors can interfere with learning for the students engaging in the behaviors, as well for other students in the classroom. Being mindful of how you respond to those behaviors and using proactive consequences and strategies can empower you to manage challenging behaviors more effectively.
Check-in, Check-out (C.I.C.O) is an evidence-based positive behavior intervention. Schools use C.I.C.O for students who need more social-emotional, behavioral, or academic help than tier one offers them. C.I.C.O. reduces student behavior problems by 70-75%
When you care for yourself, you better position yourself to care for others. Recognizing your triggers and the signs of compassion fatigue can better equip you to navigate these challenges.
Tips to effectively intervene when a student is in destress and escalated.
The cycle of coercion has been linked to student aggression and other chronic challenging behaviors. This interaction style typically begins early in a student’s life, and the cycle can be maintained or broken depending on how adults respond to the student’s behavior.
A phone call home about student misbehavior or struggles in school can be a stressful one for both the parent or caregiver and the teacher. However, when approached with understanding and compassion, calls or notes home can also be opportunities to build trust and open dialogue between school and home.