This document discusses managing challenging behaviors in early childhood education settings. It emphasizes using the teaching pyramid model to promote positive behaviors through supportive relationships and preventative strategies. For children exhibiting challenging behaviors, the document recommends collecting observational data to understand the triggers and functions of behaviors before developing individualized intervention plans implemented consistently across settings and with family involvement. Effective plans address the underlying reasons for behaviors and teach replacement skills rather than punishing.

1. Managing Challenging
Behaviors
Chapter 18 in The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood
Education by Allen, K. Eileen and Cowdery , Glynnis E. (2015). Pearson.

2. Connections
• This chapter should remind you of EDU 146
• The teaching pyramid model is emphasized in this chapter
• Many of our local schools have implemented Positive Behavior
Strategies (PBS) in an effort to teach and encourage appropriate and
acceptable behaviors consistently throughout each school.

3. NAEYC Connections
• Standard 1: Promoting Child Development and Learning
• Standard 2: Building Family and Community Relationships
• Standard 3: Observing, Documenting, and Assessing to Support Young
Children and Families
• Standard 4: Using Developmentally Effective Approaches to Connect
with Children and Families
(2011, NAEYC)

4. Clarification
• Challenging or problem behaviors are behaviors that negatively
impact a child’s opportunities to learn or develop relationships; they
may be destructive, dangerous, or otherwise beyond social norms
• Challenging behaviors are not (unless they become a pattern):
• Behaviors that are annoying
• Behaviors that are age or developmentally typical; however, we cannot allow
hurtful and harmful behaviors and must work to eliminate age typical
behaviors that fall in those categories; examples: biting for an 18 month old or
hitting for a frustrated 3 - 4 year old.
• Behaviors that are the result of temporary influences such as hungry, tired, or
ill children.

5. Multiple Influences
• Remember NAEYC Key Element 1b – Knowing and understanding the
multiple influences on development and learning?
• Cultural expectations
• Parental expectations
• Reactions to behaviors
• Environments
• Individual characteristics of a child’s temperament
• Goodness-of-fit (see the excellent example on p. 475 of your text)

6. Excuses, Excuses
•STOP! DO NOT:
• Make excuses for inappropriate behaviors. This can be especially damaging
to children with developmental delays.
• Lower behavioral expectations for children with developmental delays. All
children can learn acceptable behaviors
• Expect children to never have challenging behaviors. All children have
challenging behaviors at some time. It only becomes a major problem if it
is allowed to become the norm.
• Blame the behaviors on failure to take medicine, eating too much sugar,
etc. That takes the blame off the child and provides no reason to control
one’s behavior.

7. So. . .
• Do you know typical social and emotional development for young children
and can you identify potential deviations from typical behaviors?
• Are you one to respond appropriately to occasional misbehaviors?
• Can you determine if your environment is a “goodness of fit” for a child?
• Have you considered family and cultural expectations and do you have the
ability to reconcile differences in expectations?
• Do you have the skills to determine if certain behaviors are interfering with
a child’s day to day learning and interactions?
• Do you know how to evaluate your classroom using the Teaching Pyramid
for Social Emotional Development?

8. Teaching Pyramid
• The text explains the Teaching Pyramid model very nicely, but both
the CSEFEL and TACSEI websites provide many additional resources
and further information. This is an excellent model to use for all
children, including those with challenging behaviors and those with
developmental delays. Pyramid Model Overview
• The suggestions on p. 476 in your text are excellent resources as you
work on your environment Key Assessment.
• Compare Tier 1 – building positive relationships to NAEYC Key
Element 4a: Understanding positive relationships and supportive
interactions as the foundation of their work with children

9. What Does It Mean?
• Develop those relationships
• Children to children
• Children to adults and vice versa
• Adults to adults
• Have preventive measures in place
• Supportive environment
• Clear and consistent expectations
• Interesting and challenging materials, equipment, and activities
• 80 – 85% of your children will be fine and have few behavior issues
with the first 2 tiers in place. What about the rest?

10. What About the Other 15 – 20%?
• The 3rd tier takes care of about 15% of the remaining children – those who
need additional social and emotional teaching support.
• May be direct and/or indirect
• Children need opportunities to practice skills being taught
• The children with developmental delays and specific problems with social
and emotional development – the final 5% - may need support through
intensive individualized interventions
• Observation, assessments, and planning with a team is necessary
• Parents are part of the team and need to help ensure consistency of plans across
environments
• Consistency from everyone is key
• Regular reflection, follow-up, and on-going support are all vital

11. Remember!
• Prevention is key!
• Reframe your thinking – Instead of expecting kids to behave before
they get to do the fun activities, have the inviting environment and
the strong relationships that keeps them engaged and wanting to do
the right thing!
• Before you blame the children,
• be willing to carefully observe and assess the situation, and
• reflect on your own practices to see what may be triggers or maintaining
consequences that make misbehaving more attractive than behaving.

12. Positive Behavior Plans
1. Work together with the interdisciplinary team and parents to
2. Identify the challenging behavior
3. Identify the circumstances of when the behavior occurs through
systematic observations
1. Where?
2. How often?
3. With whom?
4. Can the antecedents (triggers) and the maintaining consequences be identified?
(More observation information later)
4. Work with team members to
1. Design interventions
2. Ensure everyone can implement the interventions across settings

13. ABCs of Behaviors
• Through observations, teachers or others can identify the specific
behaviors, the triggers, maintaining consequences, and the purpose
(function) of the behavior
• A = Antecedent or the trigger. What happens right before the behavior
occurs? Example: you have called the children in from the playground and
Johnny always pitches a fit when it is time to come in from the playground.
• B = Behavior. What is the behavior in objective terms? “Pitches a fit” can
mean several different things to different people. Does he run the opposite
direction yelling that he is not going in? Does he start crying? Does he
immediately say “No, and you can’t make me!”? Does he begin to whine and
say he isn’t through playing? Does he do all of the above on different days?

14. ABCs of Behavior (cont.)
• C = consequences; here we are talking about “maintaining
consequences”
• What happens after the behavior that keeps that behavior occurring?
Continuing with our example – Does Johnny get a few more minutes outside?
Does he get attention when the teacher starts fussing at him? Does he get
attention when the other kids start fussing at him? Does he get out of doing
the next thing because he gets put in time out?
• That brings us to “function”; again, what does Johnny get out of this
behavior?
• The function of most all behaviors can be categorized as A-P-E

15. The Function of Behaviors – APE
• That brings us to “function”; again, what does Johnny get out of this behavior?
• The function of most all behaviors can be categorized as A-P-E
• A = Attention – the teacher yelling at Johnny
• P = Pleasure – gets a few more minutes outside
• E = Escape – gets put in timeout so he doesn’t have to participate in the next activity
• Another way to categorize behaviors is P-A-I-R
• P = Power – a bully or perhaps the pleasure of dominating
• A = Attention
• I = Inadequacy; this is generally the child who is trying to escape; she doesn’t want to do a
task because she doesn’t like it or understand how to do it
• R = Revenge
• Keep in mind! These kids are not doing this intentionally. They are not plotting to
make your life miserable!

16. This Takes Time and Effort!
• These observations and assessments take time
• Only after careful analysis of the information do you and the team identify a
replacement behavior and begin to plan the intervention
• Time to implement the plan
• Needs to be implemented consistently
• Need to be implemented across people and environments
**** Be prepared to stick it out! Behavior is challenging to change!
**** Expect the child to exhibit more of the problem behavior for up to
2 weeks or more.
**** Change will happen if adults will stick to the plan, but it take
effort!
Don’t
Quit!

17. Cultural Barriers
• Adults who believe they tried. They made an effort to follow the
recommendations of the “experts”, but it did not work! Problem was, they did
not follow through with the difficult part.
• Failure to follow through for everyone. Perhaps the parents or an assistant or the
teacher or the substitute or the grandparents or anyone else could not deal with
seeing the poor little person so unhappy and not get his/her way. They have a
hard time believing that the intervention is an effort to help the child in the long
run.
• People who believe that punishment is more effective than prevention. These
people may be too busy or are just in the habit of punishing children who “should
know better” instead of understanding that adult guidance, respectful
environments, and positive relationships go much further in positive social and
emotional development. Or, they may literally want to do better, but have not yet
developed their own skills that help this happen.

18. Cultural Barriers (cont.)
• Adults who truly do not know typical child development. They may
be punishing age-typical behaviors rather than teaching
developmentally appropriate skills and supervising well enough to
redirect or otherwise intercept age-typical behaviors that are
problematic. Example: Think of the adult who punishes an exhausted
2 year old who really needs a nap as she is being dragged all over
Wal-Mart for several hours.

19. Collecting Data
• Choose the best type of observations and data collection for the
behavior that is being observed
• Choose a simple way to collect the data. Example: carry an index card
and pen in an apron pocket. The text suggests several methods
• Behaviors that may be appropriate for various types of data collection
• Hitting and biting – frequency counts
• Tantrums – duration
• Behaviors that may occur over either a longer or a shorter period of time –
interval
• Must have a clearly defined behavior prior to observation so that all
observers are collecting data regarding the same behavior

20. Common Problems and Solutions
• Excellent strategies are provided for many common age-typical problems
found in childcare settings
• Teachers must determine the function of the behavior when choosing the
most effective solution
• Some key points
• Time out is not to be used as first resort or cavalierly
• Catch the child being good – we waste too much effort and provide too much
attention calling children down for inappropriate behaviors
• Ensure a child returns to complete a task she was avoiding prior to letting her do
something else
• Remember that transitions are extremely important
• Beware of the withdrawn child – do not ignore him or her just because it’s easy

21. Common Problems and Solutions (cont.)

22. Common Problems and Solutions (cont.)
• The previous video clip “Preschoolers Group Time”, is a perfect
example of the child with disruptive behaviors
• Your text provides excellent information about the function of the
behavior and some possible solutions on pp. 487 – 489.
• Other common problems and solutions are offered
• Remember, families must be part of the solution
• Think DAP and NAEYC Standard 2 – “Building Family and Community
Relationships”

23. References
• Allen, K. E., & Cowdery, G. E. (2015). The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in
Early Childhood Education. (8th Edition). Cengage Learning. Stamford, CT.
• CSEFEL: Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning.
(n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2014, from http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/
• ECA Learning Hub. (2011, September 20). Preschoolers group time.
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFo7hdAjWGg
• National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2011). 2010
Standards for Initial Early Childhood Professional Preparation. Retrieved
from http://www.naeyc.org/ncate/files/ncate/Initial_2pager.pdf
• TACSEI. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2014, from
http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/