Full Description
"I spend all my time with this kid!" is a typical teacher complaint when challenged by a young child who disrupts the classroom with rebellious, impulsive, worrisome or odd behaviors. It is vital that teachers gain the skills to holistically decipher and respond to these complex classroom situations. By addressing the underlying meanings that motivate children's behaviors, teachers increase the opportunity for change within the classroom setting. Focusing on communication, this book discusses practical ways to apply child developmental theories to help address common classroom situations, problems, and worries. It identifies new frameworks and rationales, such as the troubling child, the testing child, the worrying child, and the hiding child; describes the unique aspects of these children's communication; and offers an easy-to-use language for successful teacher intervention. It also provides an adaptable, week-by-week planning and intervention structure as a way of creating some balance between practicality and theory.
Contents
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
List of Figures and Tables
List of Challenging Behaviors
Part One
A Different View of the Children in Your Classroom
1. Children in the Round: A Holistic Approach to Understanding Children
2. Who Needs a Diagnosis, Anyway? Understanding Behavior as Communication
3. A Child's Communication Scaffolding
Part Two
The Children Communicating in Your Classroom
4. The Child Who Is "Troubling": Loud and Over Reactive
5. The Child Who Is "Testing": Loud and Under Reactive
6. The Child Who Is "Worrying": Quiet and Over Reactive
7. The Child Who Is "Hiding": Quiet and Under Reactive
Part Three
Pulling Back the Curtain on Specific Communicative Behaviors
8. A Week-by-Week Guide for Behavior Assessment, Prioritization, and Planning
9. Distractibility, Daydreaming, and Attention-Related Issues
10. Elopement and "Moving Away"-Related Issues
11. Excessive Clowning
12. Aggression, Bullying, Fighting, Out-of-Control Temper
13. "Hyperactivity"
14. Difficulty Observing Personal Space and Other Boundary Problems
15. Not Speaking
16. Toileting Accidents and Toilet-Related Issues
17. Upsetting Artwork, Writings, and Play
Conclusion: Keeping Your Balance
Appendix A: The Troubling Child Worksheet
Appendix B: The Testing Child Worksheet
Appendix C: The Worrying Child Worksheet
Appendix D: The Hiding Child Worksheet
Appendix E: Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Bibliography
Index
