There are many times when behaviors are presented in the classroom, and it just makes you wonder what is going on. It can create stress for the adults, stress for the students, and stress for the actual individual student who is going through that tough time. What we would love to do is try to figure out some ways to prevent the behaviors from even starting or figure out ways to de-escalate once the behaviors show themselves. Here are ten things to try so that the behaviors do not become so heavy.
1. Make the schedule visual that the student can see it clearly. If you need to use icons for this, you can use icons. If it has to be written, that still works well for students who can read. A written visual schedule is better than no schedule at all. When you do create the schedule for the students, make sure that it’s at eye level where the students can see it, and also make sure that you preview or warn students of any changes before those changes happen.
2. Try to have the students understand the expectations. Before you get to that time in the day when they need to know it, be sure to explain it to them. You have to explain the rules to the students before the behaviors occur. This way they can practice the appropriate or the expected behavior, when they are calm. It also gives you an opportunity to model what it looks like when you say something like “line up” or “ wait.” For example, you can show them ahead of time what waiting looks like.
3. Try to use simple language when you see that a situation could be tough for a student. The more words you use, the more you could potentially escalate the situation. So, try to use short phrases, especially if you already see that the student could be agitated and you need to work on de-escalating. De-escalating is going to be assisted by you using fewer words.
4. Make sure there’s some movement in your schedule. If you’re in elementary school, this should be a given. We don’t want students sitting or waiting for long periods during the day. If you’re in middle or high school and have a self-contained class, you’re going to have to build some movement into the day. Even if it’s something like holding the pencils in a container at the back of the room and students have to get up out of their seat and move to the back of the room to go get a pencil and bring it back to their desk. Or, if you create zones in the room and students move from center to center or zone to zone. Doing that creates some type of movement. Additionally, you could place scheduled sensory breaks into the school day, or you can add what they call “heavy work” jobs so that they’re lifting something or doing something that you planned. When you do this, it is giving their body some sensory input that could help them to calm down and regulate. So, roll up your sleeves, jump 5 jumping jacks and do some type of exercise break or some type of video movement break in between activities.
5. Start with success, then build on it. Make sure that you’re using some work that matches the student’s skill level. Try your best not to give them something that’s too frustrating or too easy. There’s kind of a sweet spot in the middle where you want to present the work. If you notice that the behaviors are happening because the work is taking too long, you might just give two problems instead of four problems. You can adjust that ahead of time so that their break can come after two problems, and then they can come back and address another two problems. Then, get a break instead of doing all four problems at once.
6. Create some very clear physical spaces. When the room has clear physical boundaries, students understand where they’re supposed to go, where they’re supposed to be, and what they’re typically supposed to do. You want to have defined work areas, you want to have clear visual boundaries, and you want to have minimal distractions in any of the areas where they need to focus. The classroom environment and the setup of the classroom is meant to help you de-escalate. This can be true if it’s set up in a manner that’s conducive to the students’ needs.
7. Try to use some type of verbal contract or visual contract. Start small with one that has two parts. For example, a first-then board. Tell the student first to do this, then you get this. It’s very basic. It’s very straightforward. It is a simple contract, but it removes the guess work for you and for the student.
8. Pay attention to the early signs. If you have a student who gives you a warning before a behavior is going to occur, you have one battle won. If you don’t, start paying attention with your team. Ask your team to help you to start paying attention to what happens before the behavior. For example, is there tension in the student’s body, in the student’s hands, and in the student’s face? Is there some type of avoidance from the student? Do you see or notice them breathing faster? Do you notice them pacing before the behavior happens? It’s going to be really important to look at and pay attention to those precursor things if you want to try to stop the behavior from occurring in the first place. If you can respond early with support when you see some early signs, you might be able to eliminate a number of behaviors before they even start.
9. Have students make choices. When students are able to make choices, they have and feel like they have some control over what’s happening to them. You can provide choices for them of what materials they’re going to use, what order they’re going to do things in, and where they’re going to sit, possibly. Giving choices can help some students to avoid power struggles. But also, giving choices helps you to understand what the students like and what the students want. Anytime you build rapport, that’s going to increase your chance of understanding your student. Hopefully, that will decrease the behavioral challenges. At the very least, it could give you some type of rapport with a student so that if they do have a behavioral challenge, they are more likely to listen and work with you to help them calm themselves down. We talk about this in our behavior supports article here.
10. Help students regulate. Instead of seeing the behavior just as a behavior, try to understand that at that moment in time the student is not feeling regulated and may need to calm themselves down. They definitely won’t be able to hear you if they are unregulated. So, during those times, it’s important to not just think about compliance and having a student follow what you say to do; but it’s important to think about helping them regulate themselves. Sometimes this might mean you have to pause instruction and help support them. It also means that you’re going to try to teach them calming strategies and ways to calm themselves proactively. So, you’re going to teach these things at a time when they’re not having a problem so that when they do have a problem, they have a chance to put those things you have taught them into action.
There are of course, many other strategies out there, but the hops is that these will give you a starting point to try to become a person who can de-escalate behavior situations before they get too big. If you want to see more about understanding behaviors, try our article about Identifying Target Behaviors here.
