Rogers Middle School in San Antonio Texas has a wonderful Motto, “Do Whatever It Takes To Help Kids Be Successful”.  I recently worked with the teachers and staff there and I could tell this was not just a motto to them- they really believed all kids could be successful.  I wish every one believed that.

Bhaerman and Kopp (1988) told us that students are less likely to drop out of school when one adult knows and uses their name in a positive way.  Students are less likely to drop out of school when teachers are positive, malleable, creative, and person-centered rather than bound by rules. Compelling teachers  maintain high expectations for all of their students and show they care about their students’ success.  It’s so simple.  Teachers are powerful.

Actually, in education no matter what your job is- you are powerful.  If you are a bus driver, you can make eye contact with that student when they get on the bus, use their name in a positive way, talk to them, not at them and smile and you will have made a difference in that child’s life.  A school cook can make eye contact with each student as they come through the line.  When a student says, “Thank you”, the cook can say, “Wow, you have good manners.”  That interaction alone could be a single interaction that helps keep a child in school.

How do adorable children on Diane Sawyer’s special saying, “Don’t Shoot, I want to live” end up being gang members or sitting in prisons later in life?  Someone, somewhere let them down.  Who can save them?  The school can save them.  We have to do it.  We have to quit differentiating and only saving some.  We have to differentiate and save them all.

Here are some recent examples of how we are not saving them all.  I just had a recent email exchange with someone about a student who had NEVER gone a school field trip because the child’s behavior had been deemed too “bad” by the teachers in the school.  How is a kindergartner too “bad” to go on a field trip?  I taught kindergarten.  I had rambunctious kids.  You ask parent volunteers to go along and you divide the kids up into smaller groups.  You give the kids positive reinforcement.  You teach the kids what good behavior looks like, sounds like and feels like.  The poor kid I was emailing about was in his sixth year of school and had NEVER been on a school field trip.  It sounds to me like he has become the scapegoat of the school.

I once was called in for a behavior evaluation on a student who was in sixth grade in a K-6 school.  It was October.  The student they wanted me to look at was deemed public enemy number one, or that was the way the school talked about him.  I observed him and to me, he did not look like a child who could not be managed with ordinary classroom management strategies.  I asked if I could just have a conversation with the student.  I took him in a room and played checkers with him to build rapport.  Towards the end of the game, I asked him, “So what’s the deal with you acting up in class all the time?”  He stopped and looked me dead in the eye and said, “Do you really care?”  I said, “Yes, that’s actually why I’m here.”  He said, “Since I was in kindergarten, I have been looking forward to going to the Jacksonville Zoo.  It’s the big sixth grade field trip.  I have never been to a zoo.  It’s the end of the year field trip.  I acted up in September just once.  I laughed when someone (passed gas) in class and I couldn’t quit laughing.  My teacher told me because of that I couldn’t go on the field trip in May.  As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing left for me in sixth grade.  Why try?”

Why try?  Really- laughing because another student passes gas,  I have a hard time keeping a straight face. When a student acts up, really acts up, have them earn extra points to go on the field trip.  This way you ensure good behavior.  Say, “Wow, that’s a bummer you chose to throw your shoe across the room.  The rest of the class needs 15 points to go on the field trip, you will need to earn 18 points.  Then help the student earn 18 points.  Give them booster shots by reminding them what will earn them points.  You can improve behavior by 80% just by pointing out what one person is doing correctly (Shores, Gunter, Jack, 1998).  The sixth grade teacher had caused her own pain by taking away the one thing this young man cared about.  I looked at his records.  He had had no behaviors in his six previous years at school.  Once she turned him into a behavior problem, he could have continued down that path for the rest of his school career.  Teachers have the power to create good students.  We have to start on day one and teach them what that good behavior looks like, sounds like and feels like.  We can’t just do it on the first day and expect them to remember every single day either.  We have to give them booster shots.  Just like I can’t exercise and diet on the first day of the year and stay healthy the rest of the year.  If I want to stay healthy the rest of the year, I have to step 10,000 steps a day and eat 1200 calories a day.  It is the same with teaching behavior in the classroom.  Teachers can sneak it in during lessons by labeling appropriate behavior when they see it with behavior specific praise.

Here is another recent example of negative.  One of my children recently did an observation in another school district and the teacher talked negatively about the students right in front of them.  She talked negatively about their behavior, their socioeconomic status, their parents, and their learning abilities.  Holy Cow- if your teacher doesn’t believe in you, then you might as well hang up your pencil and turn to a life of crime right now because obviously you are never going to learn anything. Right?  My child was so disillusioned by this encounter because the principal had told my child that this was his “best” teacher.  Either he doesn’t know the teacher very well, or if this is his best, the school is in sorry shape.  In my training sessions, I have a slide of things I have heard teachers say in classrooms in front of students that I wish I had not heard:

• You are no better than your brother.  You are going to end up in jail just like him.
• If you don’t walk right down the hallway, I’m going to drag you down the hallway.
• You’re all just idiots.
• I don’t know why I bother.
• Your parents should have used birth control.

I once let a school psychologist go that I had hired on contract because he said in front of student, “He is dumber than a bag of rocks.”

We never assume that ears are not listening and we never assume the ears listening do not understand the words we are saying.

I once read a story about a teacher who worked with very poor students and very low achieving students but she called them scholars and told them they could do it.  Guess what?  The students did achieve.  Believing is achieving.  This same teacher half way through the year started calling her students the next year’s scholars.  So if they were second grade students, she would call them third grade scholars because she told them they were learning what they needed for the next grade.  Believing is achieving.  It’s like the feather in Dumbo’s hat.  I remember when I was 8 years old, I had still not learned how to ride a bike.  The kids in the neighborhood were making fun of me because I still had training wheels on my bike.  My parents had bought me a 26 inch English racer and I being of Scotch heritage am extremely short so I could barely balance and reach the pedals.  My mother went in the house and got a feather out of my pillow.  She put it in my sock and told me that it would work to help me balance and fly on my bike, just like Dumbo.  Because I believed I started pedaling my bike without training wheels and I pedaled on down the street with that feather in my sock.  Believing is achieving.

I don’t mean to point out negative stories about teachers because we get enough negative press and very little positive press.  However, we can save the world folks.  We just have to believe we can.  We have to do whatever it takes to make it happen.  We have to believe every child can learn.  We have to help ALL kids, no matter their disability become successful.  Right now- today- we have to stop the school to prison pipeline.  We have to stop the kids who are headed towards spending the rest of their lives sitting on the sofa  watching television because no one helped prepare them for a vocation.  If a child has a disability, don’t let them use it as a crutch.  Help them see the strength or the gift that comes with that disability.  If a child has a behavior issue, help them turn it around.  Do whatever it takes, that is our job.  No matter what your job is in education, whether you are the English teacher, the cook, the janitor, the bus driver, the principal, the school psychologist, or the social worker, your job is to make sure every child is successful.  Our job isn’t to make sure the cute ones make it, or the rich ones, or the ones with two parents, or the ones with nice parents.  Our job is to make sure every child, every single child leaves school with a high school education.

We all need to adopt the motto and believe the motto: “Whatever it Takes”.    Here is my favorite book on the subject-

Kindle Edition- http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Bar-Closing-Gap-ebook/dp/B005LW3GSK/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

Paperback- http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Bar-Closing-Gap-Whatever/dp/1935249843/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350921668&sr=1-1&keywords=Whatever+it+takes+%2B+dufour

I teach……What is YOUR Super Power??????

Check out this great article on inclusion- http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/oct10/vol68/num02/Include,-Belong,-Learn.aspx

I was once accused of being against inclusion because someone misconstrued something I said.  What I said in passing was that inclusion will work best when we change how we train teachers at the pre-service level.

When I was a beginning teacher, my only training was as a regular education teacher.  When PL- 94-142 came into passage and special education was the “new thing”, I went back to school and took classes for special education.  I feel I became better at teaching all students once I understood how children with learning disabilities learned best.  Then I took classes on emotional behavior disorders and I understood what was going on in the brain when children with emotional issues were having meltdowns.  Then I took classes on other disabilities and it helped me begin to look at all the little idiosyncrasies that make each of us unique.  My teaching career was a zigzag of going back and forth from regular education to special education.  I never taught any grade for very long.  I feel like my special education background helped me in the regular education classroom; if a child couldn’t learn one way, there was always another way to teach them.  My regular education background helped me in the special education classroom; I didn’t baby the students and expect less of them.

Instead of a three hour course that lumps all special education into one class.  I would love to see pre-service teachers receive a three hour course on learning disabilities, a three hour course on emotional behavior disorders, a three hour course on autism, a three hour course on applied behavior analysis and so on.  I believe this would help much more than some of the other courses taken at the pre-service level.

It is not just regular education teachers whose pre-service education should be changed because the opposite can be true.

I was asked to come to a large urban district and tell them why their students with emotional behavior disorders were doing so poorly on the high stakes testing.  The students in this district with emotional behavior disorders were segregated into self-contained classes.  I visited every classroom in their district for their emotional behavior disordered students.  What I saw was extremely sad.  I walked into classrooms that were lackluster.  There were no bulletin board displays of student work.  There were many classrooms, especially at the secondary level, where the teacher was playing solitaire or on Facebook and the students were sleeping.  The classrooms were far away from the mainstream, in trailers and in basements and on top floors.  The saddest part of this is that the teachers knew someone was in the room because I was being brought around by administration and they didn’t even jump up and pretend to be teaching when I walked in to visit.

The teachers had given up- the students had given up.  It was a babysitting service.

My recommendation to this school district was to abolish special education classes for this group.  Put the kids in regular education and make the special education teachers co-teach with the regular education teachers.  I suggested they video tape their best regular education teachers and put those recordings online so the students could catch up on missed learning.  The district did not like my recommendations.

George Theoharis and Julie Causton-Theoharis have a wonderful article supporting inclusion and for the record- I’m all for it.  We need to offer professional development to help the teachers embrace it.

Web MD has a great article on ADHD and food additives.  http://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/guide/food-dye-adhd  I’m not proposing that food additives cause ADHD, but I do think it is possible that allergies to food additives may exacerbate behaviors that mimic ADHD or may make ADHD appear more involved than it is.

I am personally allergic to yellow dye.  If I have too much yellow dye, it feels like bugs are biting me from the inside all around my stomach.  My allergist says it is hives on the inside of my body.  I can verbalize this and I can deal with this.

If your child has behaviors that occur after lunch, consider taking them off school lunch for a month and see if behaviors ameliorate after eating no yellow dye.  School lunches are filled with food additives and this includes yellow dye.  Imagine being a child who cannot verbalize an itching on the inside of their body.  They eat too much yellow dye and start itching on the inside.  It would cause them to be impulsive and much more active in the classroom.  This would look like hyperactivity or impulsivity to a classroom teacher.  If behaviors dissipate with a changed diet, you will know that this was the right thing to do for your child.  In my opinion, this is far better than medicating a child for ADHD.

Here are some lists of food that might include yellow dye:

This website has a great list- http://blog.fooducate.com/2009/04/09/a-dozen-things-to-know-about-the-dubious-food-coloring-called-yellow-5/

Be sure and notice that both articles (Web MD and Fooducate) mention the UK research on ADHD and yellow dye.  It’s an easy hypothesis to test.  Take your child off yellow dye for a month and see if it makes a difference in their behavior.  I am a big believer in not medicating children with ADHD if at all possible.

You might find this 10 minute YOUTUBE video interesting by Thom Hartmann on the Edison Gene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdwjUwnBb6c  - I found Dr. Hartmann’s take on ADHD to be excellent.  I love his statement- we need to change how we teach children with ADHD instead of trying to make them fit into the typical school mold.

Hope you find this information interesting.

Be a Good Listener- (Image from 123rtf)

Everyone is an expert at something.  Whether you are an expert at setting fabricated steel for skyscrapers, putting on shellac nail polish, being a parent, a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer; whatever it is, you are an expert.  I think sometimes when we are experts in a particular field, we become unconsciously biased to believe certain things and we do not really listen to our “clients”.

Case in Point

Last week, I just returned from a 24 hour journey back from Australia and New Zealand where I presented almost every day.  I flew straight to Minnesota where I presented 10 hours after landing from this flight and then drove the 6.5 hours home from Minnesota.  To say I was tired and jet lagged would be an understatement.  I had a doctor’s appointment the next morning.  The doctor had requested this appointment from my previous appointment.  I had not set this appointment up.  I went in and my heart beats per minute were less than 50, so you know how tired I was- almost “dead tired”.  While I was there, I thought I might as well bring up something that had come into my mind.

Seven years previously, I had gone to an endocrinologist in another state and he had ordered tons of tests on my thyroids because he didn’t like something he saw on a test.  They did an MRI of my thyroid and found a nodule.  It was surely benign he said, but he started me on several types of thyroid medications.  Long story short, our life changed suddenly when my father was diagnosed with cancer and our oldest son was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis all within a few months of each other.  We moved back to our home state and I totally forgot about all the thyroid medications because that wasn’t important to me at the time.

Back to present day- I have been working to lose weight really hard with 1200 calories a day and walking 5 miles a day and measuring everything to the best of my ability and so I thought, well – - just maybe- it’s time to have that nodule thing looked at again and see if there is something going on with my thyroid.  So, being tired I admit my anticipatory set statement to the doctor was not well played.  I said, “I’ve been having trouble losing weight and I was thinking maybe we should take a look at my thyroid because……”

Before I could finish my statement, my doctor launched into a bit of a rant about how I was basically lying that if I was only eating 1200 calories I would lose weight and it was “simple math”- eat less- exercise more.  I was so tired and shocked by her behavior that I was unable to get her back to my original concern about my thyroid.  She obviously has an unconscious bias that I was in there complaining that I wasn’t a size four.  This was not my complaint.  I know it takes hard work.  I’ve been to enough dietitians to know that it is not simple math- 1200 calories a day of Snickers Bars does not equal 1200 calories a day of fruits and vegetables.  That was not my point, but she did not listen to me because of her unconscious bias about overweight people.  She started talking to me like I was 5 years old and had just stolen a cookie before dinner and then she said, “I’m not going to stand here and tell you for the 12th time (it hadn’t been) that you just need to eat less.”  I was not asking her for diet advice.  I have a dietitian- thank you very much.  I mostly just stared at her because I could not believe her behavior.

So why am I writing about this in a behavior blog?  It’s certainly not to dress down my doctor, because I’m sure she could care less about her bedside manner grades from one patient.  It is because it got me to thinking about each of us.  How many of us have unconscious biases about the “clients” we work with?  Whether our clients are children in a classroom, patients in a waiting room, parents who are poor, parents who are rich, teachers who are new, teachers who are old and so on.  We need to be careful that our “expert” head never gets so big that we think we know the words that are coming out of our clients’ mouths.  We need to be good listeners and hear what they are telling us.

As parent/teacher conferences near, make sure you are ready to listen to both sides of the story.  Listen as a parent expert and listen as a teacher expert.  Sit in both chairs.  Then look at the situation from the child’s chair.  What is the child’s behavior trying to tell you?

All behavior is communication.  When a child has a tantrum, they are communicating to us.  We need to quit thinking with our “expert unconscious biased head” and think more like the “client” and what their behavior or statements are really telling us.  Be a good listener.  Don’t assume.  Don’t put your biases on to what the person is telling you.  Just like I say in my seminars- not every behavior is to get attention or to escape work.  Look and listen and you might learn some interesting facts that you did not see before.  Make sure your eyes are really open and especially your ears.

Several people have written and asked me to retell this story so they can remember why they have a frog- so I decided to blog my story.

Once upon a time there was an old fisherman.  He was out in his boat enjoying the peace and solitude of being alone in the lake without his children.  All of a sudden he looked over the side of the boat and swimming through the water was a snake.  In the snake’s mouth was a frog.  The frog’s eyes were this

BIG

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The fisherman knew what was going to happen to the frog…so here’s where you know this story turns to fiction.

The fisherman released the frog and the frog swam happily away.  Then the fisherman looked at the snake and he realized he had taken away his meal.  He had to offer the snake something to eat.  He scrounged around the bottom of the boat.  That big old Subway sandwich that his wife had sent…there was not even a shred of lettuce on the bottom of the boat.  His chocolate chip cookie did not even have a chocolate chip left in the bottom of the boat.  The sad empty sack of potato chips was staring up at him.  He had nothing to offer the snake…..except a bottle of whiskey.  So he offered the snake some whiskey.  The snake greedily drank some and then swam….rather crookedly away.  And, the fisherman went back to fishing.

Just as he was enjoying the peace and solitude of the sun setting on the lake, he heard bam, bam, bam, bam, on the side of the boat.  He looked over the side of the boat and the snake was back with three friends, each with a frog.

What is the moral of this story?

1) Be careful what behaviors you feed?

2) When behavior shows up at the side of your boat- think- what is the child trying to get in the first place and are you giving them a better reward than what they were going for in the first place?

Just to be clear- I’m not calling children snakes nor condoning giving whiskey to children.  This is just a story I learned from a friend and it poignantly drives home the point of function of behavior.

Getting Behavior in Shape at Home

Positive behavior support, often called PBIS, is not just for schools. Parents can use the same ideas to create a better environment for the entire family. First, let’s look at what PBIS is:

1. Deciding what behavior you want to change

2. Deciding how you want that behavior to change

3. Using behavior science to change that behavior

a. Develop a theory about why you think the behavior is occurring

b. Test your theory

4. Using supports that have been tested and proven to work

a. Teach new skills to get the same results

b. Change environments and daily routines

c. Reward positive behaviors

Positive behavior support does not mean changing the child; rather, it means creating a new environment that supports the positive behavior you want to achieve. It means creating a plan that determines who will help and what you will do differently. So how do you do this?

Younger children:

Let’s take a hypothetical child: Let’s call the child Taylor.

• Taylor refuses to eat dinner almost every night.
• Let’s think about what behavior we want:

We want Taylor to eat a healthy, balanced dinner.

Let’s brainstorm reasons that Taylor may be refusing to eat:

• Taylor doesn’t like the food.
• Taylor fills up on other things before dinner.
• Parents give lots of attention when dinner is refused.

· Let’s test the reasons that Taylor won’t eat dinner:

• Ask Taylor to help plan the menu with favorite foods.
• Limit Taylor on any snacks prior to dinner
• Give Taylor lots of attention by helping cook dinner, set the table, etc.

· As each reason is tested, note which one causes Taylor to eat more dinner.

· Praise positive results

· Let’s assume that more is eaten when Taylor plans the menu.

• For the first few times, you may have to fix macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with jellybeans; however, Taylor eats the entire meal.
• Praise Taylor for eating the entire meal.

·After several successful meals, as Taylor is planning the meal tell Taylor that you are going to fix 3 things. Taylor gets to choose all three but they must be from the choices you present.

• Give Taylor five choices and have Taylor choose three
  • Macaroni and cheese
  • Peanut butter and jelly
  • Hamburgers shaped like hearts
  • Celery filled with peanut butter and raisin ants (call them “ants on a log”)
  • Pears decorated to look like a funny animal

·Notice how two of the choices were the things that Taylor has already proven likelihood of eating. Tell Taylor that if the plate is clean, it will be Taylor’s choice the next evening.

· As Taylor eats more and more, give increasing praise for eating dinner and for doing a good job of planning a good meal.

· Keep changing the choices to healthy choices until you are actually replacing the macaroni and cheese and peanut butter and jelly with more healthy choices.

• Eventually, Taylor will be willing to try new things as taste buds evolve.
• Taylor feels powerful because there was choice in the meals and now has acceptance of varied foods.

· We changed the environment, and it produced more positive results than demanding that Taylor eat dinner. How many of us remember sitting at the table until it was bedtime because we refused to eat our vegetables? I doubt it really made us want to eat them again the next time.

In the interest of peace and harmony, does it matter if we altered the child’s environment to get what we want or do we want him or her to do it because we say so? Most of us do the things we do because there is a payoff. Would you go to work every day if you did not get paid? We do not have to pay our children to be good, but we do have to alter the environment so there is a payoff for good behavior. Usually the pay off is more attention from parents or a friend.

Most of the time our children misbehave because they want attention and the only way they can think of to get it is to misbehave. How many times have you been in the grocery store behind a mother who is asking her child the following questions?

• Do you want a spanking?
• Do you want me to take you out to the car?
• Do you want me to tell your father when we get home?

Children cry, grab, scream and beg because they want to communicate something to you. The only way to change this habit is to teach them what we call “replacement behaviors”. These are new behaviors that are socially acceptable. The only way to teach these behaviors is to model and practice them.

Have your child switch roles with you. Tell him or her ahead of time that you are going to practice asking for things and learning the difference between yes and no. Tell your child this is going to be fun because s/he gets to be the parent for an hour. Don’t worry about what people will think of you in the store. Think about what they think of you when your child is screaming “I want…”

Walk through the cereal aisle at the store and do the following:

· Pick up a box of cereal that has a toy in that you want

· Walk over to your child and say, “I’d really like to have this cereal this week because it has a CD game of Monopoly in the box.”

· I promise I will eat this cereal even if it tastes horrible, because I want the game.

Tell your child ahead of time to tell you “No” to whatever you ask for.

· When your child tells you “no,” ask him or her for a reason.

· Accept his or her reason and put the cereal on the shelf.

Then have your child do the same thing back to you

· Have him or her choose a box of cereal that has a toy in it wants

· Have him or her tell you they would like the cereal because of the toy

· Have him or her promise he or she will eat the cereal no matter what

Tell him or her no

· Have him or her ask you for a reason and then give one

· When they accept your reason praise him or her for following directions

· Practice this several times and then practice it several more time during subsequent trips to various stores with various items.

On the same days that you practice saying “no,” also practice saying “yes.” Have him or her model saying “thank you” and then compliment him or her on his or her manners. You will need to model this the same way you did for the “no” model.

It isn’t a miracle, and it isn’t going to happen over night. But soon, you will start to see a difference when you tell your child “no.” It is fair for him or her to understand why you said, “no,” so explaining your reason is reasonable. Your children will respect you for not using the “I’m the mommy that’s why,” and you will respect him or her for using good manners by accepting your reason. Be honest in your reason. “It’s too expensive.” “It’s not good for you.” “I don’t have the money this week,” are all good responses.

The most important lesson is to practice, practice, and practice the new behavior. You have to be consistent. If you say “no” and give a reason, then don’t give in and purchase the item if further begging ensues. This only tells the child that you have a breaking point and to keep trying. If you’ve said “no” and given a reason, then you should not say “no” again nor give another reason. When your child accepts your answer and your reason, then it is very important for you to compliment him or her on this good behavior. It is also very important that both parents and/or caregivers are consistent.

What can you do if the above does not work? The truth is every child is different, even children in the same family. What works for some children doesn’t work for all. Here are some other ideas:

· When you enter a store remind your child that you have “X” dollars to spend and that anything they want to add will go over the limit which might take away from something else they want (going to the movies).

· Give your child $5 or whatever limit you want to set. Tell your child he or she may ask for something but he or she will have to be able to purchase it with the money that you have set aside for extras. If your child wants a certain cereal, then he or she will have to pay for it. Suddenly, your child will likely become very choosy about what he or she purchases.

Tips for older children:

This is a personal experience that worked well for my own children:

We quickly became indebted to fast food restaurants, video stores, and the popular teen clothing establishments. We investigated the reason for this loss of money and determined: 1) we let it happen because we kept giving our children more money, and 2) our children didn’t understand the concept of budgeting. We decided to remedy this by creating a budget box. We bought a plastic recipe box and put in envelopes and labeled them:

• Pizza
• Movies
• Videos
• Fast food
• Gas money
• Gifts for friends
• New clothing

Each month we put in a certain amount of money in each envelope. If our children wanted to order pizza, they had to check the budget box and pay for it from the appropriate envelope. Suddenly, coupons were very important to them when coupons were a dirty word when mom and dad footed the bill. Suddenly, those extra cokes at the drive through were not quite as important. They considered every purchase and weighed the options. If we had to drive our children somewhere, each child had to pay us one dollar out of the budget box. We wanted our children to understand that when they had their own cars, they would need to budget trips instead of driving all over town wasting gas.

We did not have to say “no” when asked about purchases. All we had to say was “check your envelope.” We allowed no trading from one “account” to the other. The children were responsible for their own box. They quickly realized that decisions regarding the whole month were more important than living for the moment. This created an environment where everyone was happy. Our children learned to think before they acted, and it was good practice for when they became independent young adults.

This method was far superior to ranting and raving about money which was an abstract idea to them. They saw that we had a checkbook, credit cards, and cash and did not understand that we would not have those items if we spent money every time we saw something we wanted. If they wanted something, our children learned to save from one month to next to make major purchases. We did not give them extra money; when we said “no” we meant “no,” and our reason was our budget.

We praised our children:

• when we checked their boxes at the end of the month
• when they paid for their own purchases
• when they saved up for something big

In the world of PBIS, we changed the environment (basically we changed our behavior, we didn’t dole out money any longer). We taught our children a new skill, and we provided positive feedback when they performed their new skills. Our hypothesis was that our children didn’t understand the concept of budgeting. We proved that hypothesis when they learned to budget for themselves.

For more information on Positive Behavior Support visit the following websites:

www.pbis.org

www.behaviordoctor.org

Response Cost is the Black Hole of Behavior Modification

           I know calling response cost the “black hole” is a pretty drastic attention grabber.  I just needed to get your attention.  It seems so many people want to focus their behavior management on punishment and punitive measures these days and it just doesn’t work on the 25% and those are the kids we are trying to change.  So please hear me out and then see what you think.  Plus the Mars Rover was big news this week….so I was thinking about cosmic things.

As this new year begins and educators are searching Pinterest for ideas on behavior management techniques and reliving last year’s successes and barriers, I’d like to dedicate this blog to last year’s failure for many.  I know because to many wrote to tell me it wasn’t working for them.  Response cost is a behavior technique that was popular in the 70’s and 80’s.  It is still used today, but it doesn’t work well today with today’s students.  Here’s the premise:  You give the student three coins, or ten punches on a ticket, or ten tickets or whatever your token system is.  Every time the student misbehaves, you take away a token.  The student must have one left to purchase the allotted prize.  It’s very much like a game on the Price is Right to buy a car.  If you ever watch the Price is Right, very few people ever have a dollar left to purchase the car and very few students with opposition or non-compliant behavior ever have a token left to “purchase” recess or a the special reward being held over their head with this behavior management technique.

The definition of a black hole in astronomy is a cosmic body that draws all matter surrounding it into its nothingness.  The vortex of which is chaos.  Those who argue that response cost works are thinking of the 75% that it works on and themselves because it works for them.  Getting a speeding ticket is a form of response cost.  You have your money, you do an inappropriate behavior with your car and the city takes some of your money.  For most people, approximately 75% it will be a long time before you do another inappropriate behavior with your car because you do not want to part with your money.  Whose behavior are we trying to modify?  We are not trying to modify the behavior of the 75%; we are trying to modify the behavior of the 25%.

Where did I get the 75-25 ratio?  Here’s my big analogy, besides the pyramid from PBIS.  The United States houses 5% of the world population which is a small number of people.  However, we house 25% of the world’s incarcerated.  This is a huge number compared to our total population number.  For 25% of the population, the threat of freedom is not enough to deter them from engaging in inappropriate behavior.  If the threat of jail is not enough, what makes us think that an in school suspension, loss of recess, or loss of field trip is going to stop a student from engaging in an inappropriate behavior.  My main research comes from the 20% of the student population who need booster shots and the 5% who need intensive interventions, these are the students whose behavior we are really trying to modify.  However, my jail analogy might drive the point home to a few people who are staunch believers that we have to take things away from kids to get them to behave.  It doesn’t work for the top of the pyramid.

So what should you do instead?  Have the students start with nothing.  No tickets and they have to earn tickets to get to go the special field trip.  If they mess up, they have to earn extra tickets.

“That is a bummer that you chose to wet paper towels and throw them on the ceiling in the bathroom.  That is not appropriate behavior in our school that is respectful of others or property.  Instead of ten tickets to go to the school dance, you will have to earn 12.”

Then make sure they earn the 12.  Give the student booster shots and help them earn the tickets.  They will respect you for the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and you won’t have problem with them the next time.

This year, don’t get sucked into the vortex of all the negative “chop off five finger” approaches out there.  It won’t work on the 25%.  Make them earn by doing good deeds.  Positive in -equals positive out.  Teach students what good behavior looks like, sounds like and feels like by earning the tokens instead of taking them away.  Eventually, the student is just going to throw the tokens at you anyway and tell you they never wanted your stinking old field trip anyway.  J  It helps them save face.  Flip it toward the positive.  I promise you this year will be better if you flip it toward the positive.

There are a lot of people talking about how students have changed and how it’s so much harder to be a teacher these days.  In many ways, I have to disagree with this statement.  I do not think students have changed; I think society has changed.  Let’s look at the facts:

• We have decreased face time with each other by 62% since the 1950′s
  • You can’t go anywhere without seeing people talking on their phones or texting
  • Even at a restaurant people sitting at the same table are all on their phones instead of talking to each other
  • Children sit in front of a television set eating their meals instead of talking to their family members
  • Children sit side by side playing games instead of across from each other
  • People are even on the phone while they are checking out at the grocery store
  • Conclusion:  Children are desperate for eyeball contact
• We have increases in almost every disability
  • ADHD changed from 1 in 16 to 1 in 10 in 2011
  • Autism changed from 1 in 100 to 1 in 88 in 2012
  • Pediatric bi-polar has increased by 4000% since 1995
  • Learning Disabilities pairs up with 48-50% of all other disabilities
  • Conclusion: Classrooms are desperate for differentiated instruction
• Technology has changed since the 1950′s
  • Children today see a commercial every 7-9 minutes instead of every 12-15 minutes
  • Cartoons change images in rapid succession thanks to the improved technology over the technology of the 1950′s
  • Conclusion:  Attention spans have been shortened thanks to rapid changes in technology

What has really changed about technology is what is allowed on media outlets.  In the 1950′s Lucy and Desi could not sleep in the same bed and if they were near each other on the same bed, one foot had to remain on the floor at all times.  Certain words were not allowed on television and  nothing dirty was ever implied.  Curse words were not allowed in songs and very few movies ever had any questionable moments.

Things have now changed in the name of “Freedom of Speech”.  Now children can hear:

• cuss words galore
• derogatory remarks
• put downs
• racial slurs
• sexist remarks
• and more

We are now privy to the private lives of every public figure.  Political candidates put each other down on television every 7 minutes.  Then our students come to school and we tell them to “Be Nice” .  So how can we raise positive students, when the role models in the media are so negative?  How can we help students with increasing sensory needs due to disabilities understand the social cues when their role models are so negative?

School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) is one research based program that will really help all students. SWPBS is a systems change process.  Instead of telling students what not to do, the school focuses on teaching students what is of value.  The school develops 3-5 behavioral expectations.  Each school chooses the expectations that are important to their school.  If disrespect is a problem in their school, then “Being Respectful” might be one of their expectations.  The school doesn’t just tell students to “Be Respectful”.  They TIPP it- This means they: Teach it- Imprint it by modeling it- Practice it- and then Praise it when they see it.

The praising helps other students learn when they hear the behavior specific praise.  ”Johnny, Thank you for holding the door open for Mr. Green when his hands were full of books.  That was being respectful of others.”  This teaches students what being respectful looks like, sounds like, and feels like.  Many people do not like to compliment students for doing what is expected of them.  Here is my comment on that.  How do students know what is expected of them?  It is not modeled on television.  Even our leaders are saying negative things against each other on television in the name of freedom of speech.  How do our children know how to be positive if we don’t show them?  We can’t just do this in August.  We have to give them frequent booster shots.

My analogy for frequent booster shots is this:  think about flying.  Every time you get on an airplane they do what?  They go over the safety features of the plane and review: 1) How to buckle the seat belt, 2) Using your seat as a flotation device, 3) Where the exits are, 4) The lights for the exit of the plane, and 5) the oxygen masks and how to use them.  It doesn’t matter how many times that same plane goes up and down in a flight.  If the plane lands and takes off again, the flight crew will go over the safety features again.  Why do they do this, it is important.  Do you think there is anyone who does not know how to put on a seat belt?  I imagine not, however, there are a lot of yeah whos who think they don’t need to put on  seat belt until they are reminded to do so.  If you do not have one on when a plane hits an air pocket, you will fly to the top of the plane and hit your head.  It is important.  We need to remember this when we think we only need to go over the school rules or expectations at the beginning of the year.

Being positive with students is like karma.  The more we give, the more we get.  The more positive that goes out, the more positive that comes in.  I like the statement, “Energy flows were attention goes.”  If we put our attention on negative behavior, then this will be where all the energy of the school goes.  If we put our attention on positive behavior, then all of our energy will rest on positive behavior.  This is how we raise positive students.

For all the parents reading this- this is how you raise positive children.  Label all the things they are doing correctly instead of telling them everything they are doing incorrectly.  I do a lot of research in malls and discount stores watching parents and children exchange verbally.  So much of what I see is negative.  If parents would put their children in the basket or stroller and say things like, “I like the way you are sitting down.”  ”I like the way you are helping me by using your quiet voice.”  These statements would go a long way to a peaceful shopping trip.  Instead, you can imagine the statements I do hear.

We raise positive students by giving them positive behavior specific praise.  This will help our typical children and our children with disabilities.  This works well with spouses too.  The recommended ratio is 5 positives for every negative.  So, every time you get after your child or student for something- you can not get after them again, until you have complimented them four to five times.  Try it for one week and see if you don’t start to see a different student or child.  Then multiply that by your whole school and you will be amazed by what happens.  We can have positive students and children despite what they are seeing on television and hearing on the radio and watching at the movies.

I have taken off the month of July to rejuvenate myself, my website, and my presentations.  Now that I’m about to start back up, I’d like to hear from you.  What topics would you like to discuss this year?  I’m going to be blogging much more often in the 2012-13 school year.  Send me your requests and get them in the line-up.  See you August First.  Also, be sure to check out my first Learn It Live video- http://www.learnitlive.com/class/2495/Non-Medicated-Interventions-for-ADHD

I’m going to do a few more videos in August as well.

If your child has a difficult time with transitions, spend the next few weeks visiting the new school your child will be attending.  Take the camera or video camera and take pictures.  Go through the day following a typical schedule.  I prefer to make this transition video or PowerPoint in April or May when all the staff are at the school, but it’s not too late to make one now to help your child with this year’s transition.

Think about these things:

• Morning routine
• Bus ride 
• Entering the school
• Gathering place- if school has students wait in a common area
• Morning procedures- lockers- coats- backpacks- supplies- books- etc
• Pledge procedures
• Bells
• Subjects that will occur each day
• Special classes that occur during the week
• Lunchtime routines
• Dismissal
• Bus ride home
• Home routine in the afternoon

One important caveat to remember for obsessive children is that the schedule will not be the same from day to day.  Make different versions of this “movie”, and have the child watch a different version of it from day to day during the summer so they don’t learn that recess always comes after Language Arts or Social Studies always comes after Science.  This will help defray some meltdowns.  

Here is a sample PowerPoint for transition- 

http://behaviordoctor.org/files/powerpoints/Narratives/MIKEYRIDESBUSRN.ppt

http://behaviordoctor.org/files/powerpoints/Narratives/MollyMcFaddengoestoKDG.ppt

These were made with clip art.  You will use pictures of your child.  I like to tape record the actual sounds of the school and the real people speaking and introducing themselves to the student on the PowerPoint.  

We have parents show this PowerPoint once a day all summer.  By the time school starts, the student has this visualization of: “I knew I was going to enter these doors.  I knew I was going to walk down this hallway.  I knew I was going to sit in this chair.”  It makes transition so much easier for students who struggle with changes.

Just go on up to the school and introduce yourself and ask for permission to make the video.  Not all the people will be there- but you’ll be helping your child with a difficult change coming up for them and creating a great picture in their mind of what the next school year will be like for them.  The really nice thing is- computer generated material is age appropriate for all ages and kids love seeing themselves.  This could even be put on an I-pad or I-pod using Data-viz – so it looks even more age appropriate.  

Next year, try to get this done in April or May so you can interview all the new teachers and sounds of the new school year.  This will really help with the transition.

Have a great summer.