Behavioral Management in School Settings
By Shaya Zabel
I have been working for an after-school childcare program for two years and have worked with hundreds of kids during that time. Over the last several months I have been in a leadership position, which requires me to actively handle any and all behaviors seen at the program on a daily basis. I have been able to use knowledge from my psychology degree to better understand the kids I work with, and to better assist them in managing daily emotions and struggles.
Dealing with behaviors means using behavioral intervention strategies for struggling students. The term “behavioral intervention strategies” can vary based on the severity of the student’s behavior and the setting they are in. In my program, I only see the kids for around 2-3 hours a day, so any behavioral strategy is typically short-term. Some things I do include breaks, reminders of expectations, walks, and cool-down spaces. These strategies are generally used for students who need a small amount of extra support to stay on track throughout the afternoon.
Short-term behavioral strategies may be all that is needed for some kids to help with a few tough days here and there. Other kids I have worked with can need long-term support. With these students, I typically meet with other people to brainstorm what works best for them individually. In situations like these, I have met with parents, teachers, paraprofessionals, and my supervisor. All of these roles, including my own, see the student in different times of the day and locations, so working together can help best understand what’s going on and what interventions need to take place.
Behavioral strategies can go beyond interventions for struggling kids. Positive reinforcement for all children can prevent future behaviors from happening. At my job, “positive behavior intervention and support” is implemented every single day by staff and myself. When I am not dealing with behaviors or talking to parents, I will walk around the area the kids are in and look for five positive things to comment on. This could be kids cleaning up something without being asked, playing a game fairly, sharing toys with other students, etc. Commenting on those positive things really reinforces the students to do them again. Beyond just positive comments, we have a reward system with prizes for students that continue to display positive behavior, which further incentivizes them.
The different strategies I use each day can best be described using the tier system from the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (Garski, 2023). In this system, there are three tiers. Tier 1 is the behavioral management used on all students, with the positive reinforcement being the example at my job. Tier 2 is more targeted interventions toward students, at my job this could mean giving breaks or going on walks each day with students that need some extra support to get through the day. Lastly, Tier 3 means intensive, individualized support. This can be seen at my job with individualized behavior plans made after meeting with parents, teachers, and other staff. Although the tier-system is generally used in classroom settings, it still correlates with the after-school program well. My staff and I use these strategies each day to create a positive environment for all students.
The research shows that social/emotional problems in childhood are actually very common. Unfortunately, beyond just interfering with normative childhood activities, they also predict future problems that may be more long-lasting (Lieser et al., 2016). The difficult part is that not all families are able to get their child the help they need to address these problems and solve them. I have seen this firsthand in my own job, with parents telling me the wait to see psychologists or special education services is months long. The cost for these services can also be an additional barrier.
In sum, my time at my job has allowed me to apply my psychology degree to real-world situations. I have been able to successfully work with all kids, on good days and bad. Using prior research on behavioral strategies has helped me run the program smoothly and given me a guideline on what to do in difficult situations. As I continue to work in this position, I will keep learning more about behavioral intervention and better myself to deal with situations as they occur.
References
Garski, L. (2023, April 19). What are tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 in education? Renaissance. Retrieved May 4, 2023, from https://www.renaissance.com/2016/11/03/what-are-tier-1-tier-2-and-tier-3-interventions-in-education/
Lieser, D., DelConte, B., Donoghue, E., Earls, M., Glassy, D., McFadden, T., Mendelsohn, A., Scholer, S., Takagishi, J., Vanderbilt, D., Williams, P. G., Yogman, M., Bauer, N., Gambon, T. B., Lavin, A., Lemmon, K. M., Mattson, G., Rafferty, J. R., Wissow, L. S., … Blum, N. J. (2016). Addressing early childhood emotional and behavioral problems. Pediatrics, 138(6). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-3023