A Psychoeducation for Teachers Skill-Building Guide

1. A Psychoeducation for Teachers
Skill-Building Guide

3.  In the classroom, the three most common types
of commands that teachers give are the
initiating command, the terminating command,
and the mixed command. With an initiating
command, we start behavior; with the
terminating command, we end behavior. A mixed
command, on the other hand, includes elements
of both an initiating and a terminating
command. I like to call this third kind of
command the “stop… and…” command, because
it generally resembles that sentence pattern.
“Rebecca and Frankie, distribute the protractors
and graph paper” and “When we get to the
library make sure that you sit within your
reading group” are examples of initiating
commands.

4. Terminating Commands Mixed Commands
 Hector, you and Ryan
stop talking!
 Camille, stop
daydreaming!
 Gregory, stop pushing
in line!
 William, stop wasting
time!
 Hector, you and Ryan
stop talking and get
back to work!
 Camille, stop
daydreaming and pay
attention!
 Gregory, stop pushing
and get back in line!
 William, stop wasting
time and finish your
work!

5.  Notice how each terminating and mixed command
end with an exclamation mark. This is so because, in
spoken language, to communicate our intention
(what we want), teachers generally accentuate the
last two kinds of commands by either speaking
louder, faster, and/or both. This is known as the
intention of the communication in linguistic theory.
Simply put, with both the terminating and the mixed
command our objective or communicative intention
is not only to get the child’s compliance, but also to
get the child’s compliance fast. By experience, we all
know that although we may succeed in achieving our
communicative intention (getting the child to comply
quickly), chances are that compliance with that
particular command will not only be fast but also
short-lived. That is, the child or children may comply
for one minute or two, and then, they happily go
back to what they were doing originally.

6.  A second factor that we need to take into account is
the fact that, when we deliver a directive with a
louder and/or a faster tone of voice, we sound
angrier than when we deliver the directive using a
neutral and business-like tone of voice. Perception is
reality, when we sound angry (even if we are not
feeling that way), we may get a counter-reaction
from the part of the child, especially if the child
exhibits habitually disruptive behaviors and/or
oppositional behaviors. Because they sense anger, our
terminating and mixed commands mostly trigger
resentment and resistance in these children. A
combination of resentment with resistance is a well-
known recipe for children’s noncompliance, which is
why terminating and/or mixed commands have the
well-deserved reputation of reducing compliance,
that is, at the end, they accomplish the opposite of
what we intended to accomplish.

7.  A third key factor in influencing compliance is
that both the terminating command and the
mixed command focus on misbehavior, or what
we believe students are doing wrong, instead of
narrowing on those things that we like and
appreciate about them, or what children do
well. A familiar principle in child discipline and
compliance is that, by bringing attention to
misbehavior, we reinforce misbehavior with our
attention. Following this principle in child
discipline, teachers can improve the overall
classroom atmosphere and get better compliance
by simply keeping students focused in their
strengths, positive behaviors, and best qualities
while either minimizing or ignoring negative
behaviors.

8.  A common attribute of mixed commands is the fact that
they always contain two or more directives in the same
statement, most specifically, one directive that intends to
terminate behavior, and a second directive that intends to
start a new behavior. This by itself may represent a
problem to a very young child, to children with weak
receptive skills (weak listening skills), and to children with
poor attention. Sometimes, the demarcation line between
what the child needs to stop doing and what he or she
needs to start doing is even less clear; that may happen
when we deliver directives at the same time that we are
lecturing or reprimanding the child. In child discipline
literature, a command with excessive verbalization and
unclear directives is known as a beta command, a kind of
command with the infamous reputation of having a very
low compliance ratio. In contrast, its stronger and wiser
twin, the alpha command contains no extra verbalization
and includes only one task to do for each command.

9.  Use more “start” or initiating commands and less
“stop” or terminating commands. Try to keep a ratio
of 5:1, or five initiating commands for each ending
command.
 Make sure that you tell the child what you want him
or her to do (e.g., “Please raise your hand to talk”)
instead of what you do not want the child to do (e.g.,
“Stop calling out!”).
 When deliver your command, say the child’s name
and make eye contact with the child.
 Do not deliver the command at a distance, instead,
come closer to the child’s desk and talk to the child
in close proximity.
 Regulate your voice volume, lowering your voice
instead of raising the voice.

10.  Make sure to include only one directive (task) in each
command. Use the one-sentence rule, that is, deliver
your command in only one sentence or one phrase.
Anything more than that is extra verbalization that
neither the child nor you need.
 Do not repeat the same command in the same way.
An easy command-giving technique is to state the
command, wait ten seconds for compliance, and then
if necessary, say, “You need to ___ (state the
directive). If not, you will _____ (state an unwanted
consequence).” For example, you would say, “You
need to return to your desk. If not, you will lose five
minutes of computer time.” Then, count down from
ten-to-one (or five-to-one), to give the child a few
seconds to comply. If the child still does not comply,
enforce the unwanted consequence.

11.  Finally, let us change our terminating
commands into more effective initiating
commands. With practice, this becomes
easier and easier to do.

12.  Terminating Command: Hector, you and Ryan stop
talking!
 Initiating Command: Hector, you and Ryan sit with
your reading group.
 Terminating Command: Camille, stop daydreaming!
 Initiating Command: Camille, open your math
workbook on page 184.
 Terminating Command: Gregory, stop pushing in line!
 Initiating Command: Gregory, you need to keep an
arm’s length distance in the line.
 Terminating Command: William, stop wasting time!
 Initiating Command: William, pair up with your math
partner.

14.  On part 1, we learned about the three most
common kinds of commands: the initiating
command, the terminating command, and the
mixed command. With an initiating command,
we start behavior; with the terminating
command, we end behavior. The mixed command
aims at, first, terminating the behavior that we
do not want, and then start a new behavior, or
initiating the specific behavior that we want.
Another way in which we can analyze commands
is in terms of both their efficiency and
compliance rate; most specifically, distinguishing
between the beta command and the alpha
command. Details of each kind of command
follow.

15.  Forehand and McMahon developed a list of five beta
commands, or commands with lower efficiency and
reduced compliance that is still relevant today (As
presented on Walker and Walker, 1991)…
 The Chain Command, or giving multiple commands
simultaneously. Because we are giving the child
several directives at the same time, the child may
get confused, or he may forget one or more steps. An
example of a chain command would be, “Open your
math workbooks on page 344. Complete exercises 3,
5, and 9, and then, go to page 345 and complete
exercises 1 and 2. Make sure that you put your final
answers inside a circle, and use graph paper.” There
are eight different directives on the above command.
Can you find them? They are…

16.  Open your math workbook
 Open your math workbook
 Open your math workbook on page 344
 Complete exercises 3, 5, and 9
 Go to page 345
 Complete exercises 1 and 2
 Put your final answers in a circle
 Use graph paper

17.  As we can see, chain commands can
represent an overload of information to some
children, in particular, students with
attention problems and students with low
oral comprehension skills. These children’s
difficulties in complying with the chain
command aggravate when they must follow
specific steps in a specific order; if they skip
steps or switch the order of steps, they are
not going to be able to perform the task
adequately.

18.  Vague Commands or commands that are not
clear in terms of what the child is supposed to
do. Because we are using ambiguous terms, we
cannot measure compliance. Examples of vague
commands are, “Be nice to Frankie” and “You
need to be more careful with your work.”
Ambiguous terms like “nice” and “more careful”
are subject to different interpretations.
 Question Commands or commands that sound
more like a request. When we give requests, we
are no longer telling the child what we want;
instead, we ask the child if he can do what we
want. Simply put, with requests, we are giving
the child the options to comply or to refuse.

19.  “Let Us” Commands or commands that imply a joint
participation between the child and the adult even
when this is not necessarily true. For example,
saying, “Let’s try to complete these word problems
together.”
 Commands Followed by a Rationale or a justification.
That is, we explain to children why they need to
comply with the command (e.g., “We need to line up
quickly or we are going to be late for Science”). The
authors do not disagree with giving children a
rationale, but they recommend that any rationale
included must precede the command, not follow it
(e.g., “We are going to be late for Science, so, line
up quickly”). When a rationale follows the command,
the rationale tends to obscure the directive,
confusing some children.

20.  Walker and Walker (1991) expand the list above, adding
the most common kind of beta command, which is no
other than the command that includes excessive
verbalizations. Most commands downgrade into a beta
command simply because we cannot resist the temptation
of talking too much. From the authors, we get the
following example, “Jimmy, your room is such a mess! Why
don’t you clean it up instead of waiting for me to do it for
you? I get so tired of always picking up after you!” (The
phrase in italics is the beta command.) If we replace the
word “room” with the word “desk,” we just created the
perfect classroom example. In addition of having an
excessive amount of words, we can easily spot two other
mistakes from this example: (a) presenting the command
as a question and (b) using a negation in the question. The
question gives the child the option to refuse; the negation
projects insecurity about the child’s compliance. A better
command to give Jimmy would be, “Jimmy, clean up your
desk.”

21.  From the example, we can start defining the
alpha command as a short statement that
uses positive terms to give the child one
directive. How short is a short statement?
You can follow one of these two rules,
whichever works best for you: (1) put the
directive in 15 words or less or (2) put the
directive in one sentence.

22.  Let us continue analyzing the previous command (“Jimmy,
clean up your desk”) in terms of the alpha command
requirements. We can see that it already meets the three
most basic requirements; that is, it is stated in 15 words or
less, it is stated positively, and gives only one directive at
a time. To upgrade our directive into a more efficient
alpha command, we still need to address two important
requirements; first, we need to tell Jimmy, clearly and
specifically, what we want him to do, and secondly, we
need to tell the child when we want it done. Just telling
Jimmy to “clean it up” it is not going to do the trick. What
exactly we want the child to do? Maybe we want the child
to label his notebooks and books, maybe we want all
unnecessary books and materials removed from the desk,
or maybe, we want the child to do both. Whatever we
want Jimmy to do; we need to tell the child using specific
and measurable behavioral terms, or observation of
behavior. With regard to the second important
requirement, we need to give the child the time frame to
comply.

23.  Now, let us put all five requirements together, so
that we can start giving Jimmy alpha commands:
“Jimmy, by 2:00 PM, you need to remove all
unnecessary books and materials from your
desk.” (Pause) (Continue) “Return any extra
book and materials back to the shelves.” So,
with the first command, we give Jimmy one
directive (removing from his desk), and with the
second command, we tell him what to do next
(returning to the shelves). Both commands are
stated as observations of behavior that we can
follow and measure. If we want Jimmy to label
his notebooks too, then, we just wait for the
child to comply with the first part of the task
(removing and storage), and only then, we tell
the child the next task using a third alpha
command.

24.  Additional guidelines to increase children’s
compliance with our commands are:
 Use commands that describe appropriate behavior
instead of inappropriate behavior. For example,
replace “Don’t run” with “Walk.”
 “Starts” are easier to comply than “stops.” Tell the
child what to start doing instead of what to stop
doing.
 If you need to give more than one command, make
sure that you break each command into a specific
action that the child does.
 Separate different commands; you can either put a
brief 3-to-5 seconds pause in between, or you can
number the different steps (1, 2, and 3). Then, ask
the child to repeat in her own words each step, so
that you can clarify.

25.  Make sure that you give a clear time limit,
for example, “right now” or “before _____.”
 Do not expect instant compliance; give the
child 5-to-10 seconds to comply with the
command.
 If after the ten seconds the child still does
not comply, repeat the directive, but this
time adding, “You need to…” and giving a
mild consequence. For example, you would
say, “You need to _____; if not, you have to
go to time out for five minutes.” Be
consistent in enforcing any consequence that
you give the child.

26.  Walker, H. M., & Walker, J. E. (1991). Coping
with noncompliance in the classroom: A
positive approach for teachers. Austin: Pro-
Ed.

27.  OUR FACEBOOK PAGES AND
GROUPS
 PSYCHOEDUCATION FOR
TEACHERS (Page)
 https://www.facebook.com/
psychoeducationalteacher
 FREE OR CHEAP TEACHING
RESOURCES (Page)
 https://www.facebook.com/
freeresourcesforteachers/
 WE TEACH THE WORLD
(Group)
 https://facebook.com/group
s/222247571474300
 BOOKS IN CHILD GUIDANCE
 THE PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL
TEACHER
 https://www.amazon.com/a
uthor/thepsychoeducationalt
eacher/