PEDP 9020 - Behavior is Language: Strategies for Managing Disruptive Behaviors

Course Description

The course, Behavior is Language, has been divided into four chapters. The first two chapters, Behavior is Language (BIL) Parts I & II, explain why we choose to view student behavior as a kind of unspoken language. These two chapters provide a framework for understanding why certain students react to teachers, aides, peers and society in such dysfunctional, disruptive behavioral patterns. There are twenty subject areas, which are sequential and should be completed in the order in which they are presented in the program. After completing these twenty areas you should have the basic framework for understanding what causes the dysfunctional patterns that lead to the majority of students' behavioral problems in the classroom and other school settings. This information is not designed to be the total encyclopedia of aberrant student behavior. To cover all areas and issues affecting students' behavior would take hundreds of hours of research. However, these chapters should give you a firm grasp on how to begin interpreting students' behavior into an understandable language. Chapters 3 and 4 describe intervention strategies, which we refer to as ?clubs.? We will present twenty intervention strategies that remediate difficult student behavior. Don't be upset if you have heard of, or even used, some of these intervention techniques before. How and when an intervention strategy is used goes a long way in determining its effectiveness. These strategies are designed to be effective when used with the new framework of understanding presented in the previous chapters. The clubs themselves are used not only to remediate behavior, but also to help you gain further insight into a student's self view and world view. Using them in the manner and style in which they are presented will take you out of many power struggle situations. It also will place ownership of problems back on the student. These intervention strategies can be used in a step-by-step manner as natural classroom consequences for disruptive behaviors or rule violations. The exercises in chapters 3 and 4 are followed by scenarios. In the scenarios you are introduced to 15 students with various backgrounds, emotional issues and behavioral problems. Various classroom, school and social situations will be presented to you, and it will be your job to determine which intervention strategy would be most effective in remediating that particular student's behavior. You will notice that some of the scenarios are similar, but the students involved are different. This has been done to illustrate the point that the same behaviors may need to be handled in different ways. A student's background, behavioral history and current situation all play a role in behavioral intervention and remediation. First there are practice scenarios, followed by graded scenarios. Chapters 3 and 4 require that you pass the graded scenarios with a score of 70% or higher