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I am writing this review in a variety of contexts. Primarily it is in the context of a secondary school as I am currently on my final teaching placement in a school where behaviour is extremely challenging with many pupils having severe behavioural disorders. However, I have also spend quite a few years running a childrens holiday club where over half of our children also demonstrated extreme negative behaviour. Therefore I have collated my key strategies ...
...of dealing with situations.



==Positive expectations==

Going into a school that is known for its reputation regarding behaviour made it very difficult not to have low expectations of the children. However I have found that by showing that I have positive expectations of all children it seemed to have a positive impact on their behaviour. The children in my school are almost expected to be naughty because ... more

I am writing this review in a variety of contexts. Primarily it is in the context of a secondary school as I am currently on my final teaching placement in a school where behaviour is extremely challenging with many pupils having severe behavioural disorders. However, I have also spend quite a few years running a childrens holiday club where over half of our children also demonstrated extreme negative behaviour. Therefore I have collated my key strategies and given examples based on my experience and suggested ways of dealing with situations.

Positive expectations

Going into a school that is known for its reputation regarding behaviour made it very difficult not to have low expectations of the children. However I have found that by showing that I have positive expectations of all children it seemed to have a positive impact on their behaviour. The children in my school are almost expected to be naughty because that is what evidence suggests!! But this means that they tend to easily live up to expectations and feel 'pre-judged'.

Making a conscious effort to show children that you trust them to be good can be beneficial. For example - I had to send a message to another classroom - it would have been easy to send a "good" pupil with the note but I chose a pupil who I had been told was a "naughty" girl. My attitude when I asked her to take the note implied that I didnt consider that she would misbehave and that I had positive expectations of her. She seemed over the moon that I had chosen her and lived up to my positive expectations being polite and sensible.

Children are very aware of what everyone seems to think of them and it can have a big impact on their self-esteem. If they feel that people assume they are going to misbehave they are more likely to do it. I had a pupil who complained to me that she didn't want the teaching assistant sitting next to her. I asked why she felt the teaching assistant sat by her. She replied "because im bad and they are waiting to tell me off". She told me that this was making her angry and she was ready to "kick off". By giving her the benefit of the doubt and letting her sit on her own she actually behaved perfectly. She was very aware that if she did live up to the negative expectations then there would be a consequence.

Engage

If children are not engaged then they may try and entertain themselves and others by misbehaving. I have a particularly difficult year 7 class (aged 11) who usually run into the classroom screaming and punching each other whilst shouting an erray of swearwords! Despite the consequences they seem to just always do it. Eventually I realised that I needed to have something going on whilst they were coming in to engage them. Now, as they are entering the classroom I have a video from youtube playing that is relevant to their topic (for example a bbc news clip on pollution). This means that as they come into the room they think "hmmmm whats that". I get the occasional shout of "what the f*** is that" but generally they come in and sit down quietly because they want to be able to hear and see what is on the screen. I have found that generally if children are engaged with something and interested then they are much less likely to misbehave.

In the non-educational context this is also very relevant. In any play, care or home setting - if children are engaged with an activity they are focused and there is less opportunity for misbehaviour. Through managing a childrens holiday club I have a lot of parents complain to me about how naughty their child is at home and how nothing seems to work. These parents I used to give a recipe for playdough - they all seemed shocked that if they made the playdough with their child and then let their child play with it their behaviour was fine. It is simple acitivites like this that stops children getting bored, keeps them stimulated and gives them less time for "naughty" things.

Consequences

A key way to managing childrens behaviour is by making it clear that undesirable behaviour has consequences. The word consequences is very difficult from the word punishment. Consequences will only work if children know which behaviours will result in them.

Whilst there are times that I shout at one of my classes to get them to be quiet and realise that I am not appreciating their behaviour - shouting on the whole does not work as a proper way of managing behaviour. The amount of times that I have seen parents yelling at their children in tescos and making all kind of threats such as "pack it in or il smack you" and "that's it, your not getting any sweeties". There is no real substance in these threats and when they are given they are done in anger and don't really teach the child very much.

If a child is doing something that is unacceptable (on a minor scale) it is only fair that they are given a warning first. However simply saying "stop it, im warning you" isn't going to be too effective. For example, if a child in my class is disrupting the person next to them, it would be pointless just to shout at them. It is much more successful to say in a calm voice "Jimbob, you are disrupting other peoples learning and your own. That is not acceptable and if it happens again then their consequence will be…" Obviously you would state what the consequence will be such as a detention so that they child doesn't feel that they need to push it to find out what will happen! Using the child's name is also important in making it clear that you are directly explaining to THEM what is not acceptable and what will happen if it continues.

If the child has been given a warning and continue with the behaviour then it is important to follow through with the consequence. So with the example above, I would then say (also in a calm voice) "ok Jimbob, I explained to you that if you continued disrupting the learning of others then the consequence would be that you get a detention. You have carried on doing it and therefore you will now have to accept the consequence".
Obviously whilst certain parts are important, the way you phrase it will be determined by your own style. Children who are used to bending the rules will obviously try and push it for a while and see if you will hold out with the consequences for longer than they can hold out the misbehaviour.

If the consequences are appropriate to the situation and age of the child then after a while it will sink in that inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated and that there will be consequences for it.

In regards to the school situation the school are likely to have guidelines on their own consequences. However with your own children these can be things as simple as a consequence that they lose time playing outside with their friends, lose time on their games console, lose televisions time, have an earlier bedtime etc. With teenagers it is harder to implement consequences as they are much more independent, however things such as internet access can be removed as can pocket money. A friend of mine was horrificly "naughty" when she was a teenager and eventually her mum locked all her clothes and makeup in a cupboard and rationed it until behaviour improved.

Consequences don't need to be that extreme but as long as children are warned that they are heading for one (so they cant then say "that's not fair".) and the consequence is clearly related to the undesirable behaviour then it can be very effective as no child wants to lose their own time in detention or lose time playing on their computer/games console on a regular basis. It seems simple and a little crude but it relates back to the behavioural model in psychology which has over many years been proved to work in all species.
For example, if everytime a mouse goes to eat the cheese they get a small electric shock then very quickly the mouse despite its small brain will avoid the cheese because it knows it has an undesirable consequence.

For those who watch programs on television like supernanny you will see that the "naughty step" or "naughty place" is used. This is the same idea as a consequence. It shouldn't be used as a punishment but is simply used for very young children to identify that if they continue with an inappropriate behaviour the consequence will be the loss of their "play time".

Time Out

Time out has recently become very popular particularly in nurseries, play settings and with younger school children. I used this one a lot at my holiday club. Much of the undesirable behaviour would occur when a child became to boisterous or "silly" in a group activity. It can simply be the case that the child has momentarily lost control of their behaviour through becoming to excited, aggressive, emotional etc. In this situation it can be useful to remove them from the situation for a brief time to calm down. Again this should not be identified as a punishment but instead, if you explain to the child that they need to take a few minutes to calm down (and state what it is that they are doing that is becoming unacceptable) then give them a place such as a nearby chair or outside a classroom to calm down. Then give them the independence to decide when they are ready to rejoin the group or activity. In my school many of the children have severe behavioural disorders and they carry with them a "timeout card". This means that if they feel themselves losing control they can leave the room to take some time to calm down, thus preventing a potentially dangerous situation.

Positive relationships

One of the key things that I have learnt through working with children with behavioural difficulties in both an educational and a play setting is that positive relationship are at the heart of all behaviour management. If a child likes and respects you and you have to ask them to stop doing something they are more likely to have a feeling of not wanting to disappoint you and will therefore listen to you. If a child does not like you and you have to ask them to stop doing something then realistically they aren't going to give a damn.

In a classroom environment learning pupils names and making the effort to talk to them about issues other than the work is the easiest way to start a positive relationship. By making an obvious effort to get to know a child will make them feel more valued than if they feel like you don't even know who they are. This can then be developed by meeting children at the classroom door to greet them at the start of a lesson and asking questions which show that you have paid attention. For example if a child was off sick last lesson, in the next, something as simple as asking them if they are feeling better can make them feel valued and cared about.

Everyone knows that respect is a mutual thing and the more you can establish respect with children and young people the more success you are likely to have in managing their behaviour.

Consistency

Consistency is particualry important in dealing with children as they have a very strong sense of what is "fair". Children will be the first to point out if you are apparently "picking" on certain pupils or letting behaviour from others slip. Therefore it is important to be clear when identifying consequences.

This also applied with individual children. In this county there are laws against murder. We know that if we murder someone today, it will be no more or no less significant than if we murder someone tomorrow. Where people go wrong with their children is that on some days they will treat some behaviours as acceptable just for an easy life but on other days will deem them as unacceptable. No wonder children get confused! Being consistent is therefore critical to establish boundaries.

Rewards

The focus on dealing with negative behaviour can become so consequence orientated that we can forget to reward positive behaviour. Children and even moody teenagers want to feel happy. No one wants to feel miserable and worthless. By rewarding good behaviour it encourages it. Even something as simple as verbal praise can have a huge impact on a childs self esteem.

I have worked hard to engage and build a positive relationship with one of my so called "naughty" children in my class. This was beginning to pay of and she was showing much more desirable behaviours. I made it clear to her how pleased I was and told her that I would be sending a letter home to tell her parent how well she had worked in that particular lesson. She made an initial comment about how embarrassing that was but I just smiled and left her too it. At the end of the lesson she hovered around and eventually came up to me to confirm that I would send the letter home! I did as I said and since then she has been full of confidence, bubbly and smiling coming into my lessons. The letters that usually go home for her are negative and my letter going home full of praise had resulted in praise from her parent and had completely changed her attitude in my lessons as she now aims to please rather than to cause mayhem!

Knowledge

One of the most important aspects of managing the behaviour of children in my classes is one I discovered most recently. I had been giving pupils prompt sheets during the lesson to support them and soon realised that the only purposes these were serving was to become paper aeroplanes. A few weeks ago I finally managed to obtain the assessment data on each of my pupils. I was shocked to discover that almost all of my pupils had a reading age of less than 11 and I had pupils who were 15 years old with a reading age of 9. Due to the area of the school this is not uncommon but I had completely overlooked it. By giving pupils sheets that they were unable to read and even by giving verbal instructions that they were obviously finding hard to comprehend, they were becoming frustrated and therefore misbehaving. Since then I have completely altered my language both written and verbal and have adapted resources to ensure that the class can actually read them correctly. This has made a huge difference and I have found that pupils behaviour is much better if they can do the task.

This can be particularly useful with pupils who are used to "failing". By giving them work or tasks pitched at the correct level they at least stand a chance of achieving and the impact of this on their attitude to learning, you, and life in general can be immense.

A knowledge of pupils particular needs can also play a part. For example, if a child has poor vision - they may well not wear their glasses. If they are unable to see the board then they are quite likely to disrupt the whole class out of boredom or frustration. Something as simple as moving the child closer to the board or using a larger font on handouts can make a difference.

Conclusion

I have identified the strategies and factors, which for me are most relevant in managing challenging behaviour. These will be different for everyone but the underlying principles remain the same. Children need to be praised and they need to know that there will be consequences for undesirable behaviour. This a fact of life and something they will encounter in the grown up world and therefore preparing them when they are young will help them avoid ending up in prison or worse.

Despite the very challenging children that I have come across I do not believe that there is such a thing as a "naughty child". There many reasons that children misbehave and these can be learnt, psychological or biological, however all can be rectified with appropriate behaviour management.

Thank you for reading and please let me know if you have anything to add. 

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