PART 1 of 2: Every SLPA has struggled with behavior challenges in their therapy sessions. The good news is - help is here! This session will provide insight into common causes of problem behavior in students with developmental disabilities and communication disorders. Practical tools for positive behavior support will come to life, including: visual supports for understanding, token economies, and capitalizing on student interests. Participants will leave with ideas they can apply immediately to their work with students.

1. CSHA District 7
What Do I Do Monday Morning?
Behavioral Strategies for
the SLPA
Gwendolyn Eberhard, SLP, MT
Director of Speech & Language
Villa Esperanza Services, Pasadena

3. Our Clinic Today
2014 - 8 staf
4 speech-language pathologists
3SL P assistants
3volunteers
1graduate student int er n
1administr ative assistant

5. Today’s Agenda
9:00-10:30 Communicative functions of problem
behavior, power struggles and students who
have special needs, engagement, affect &
motivation
10:30-10:45 BREAK
10:45-11:45 Practical tools and strategies to
improve understanding, expression, and self
regulation
11:45-12:00 WRAP UP

6. Learning Objectives
1. Identify four possible functions of
problematic behavior.
2. Describe the role that affect plays in
development and learning.
3. List four strategies that can be used to
improve student motivation.
4. Describe the role visual supports can play in
supporting language comprehension,
expression and self-regulation.

7. Slideshow & Resources
scaacn.blogspot.com

9. GETTING STARTED

10. What is Behavior?
• Everything we do is “behavior”
• Behavior problems refer to:
– When won’t do what we want them to
– When they do things we don’t want them to

11. Behavior Problems are
Normal!
• In typical development
– Sleeping, Eating, Toilet training
– Terrible Two’s
– Self control
– Responsibility
– Independence
– Academic achievement
• With different developmental
trajectories…

12. Behavior Problems
• In special needs:
– Same stages, different speeds
– May match mental age (not chronological)
– Uneven development
– Learning expectations may take more time,
help
– May not master some

13. Why Focus on Problematic
Behaviors?
• Studies have shown, individuals with
communication and learning difficulties
are much more to have behavioral
challenges
• Great source of stress for educators
and families

14. Why is it important?
• Relationships are negatively impacted
by problematic behaviors
• May stigmatize
• Effect attitudes and practices of
professionals and school communities
• Impact the individual’s quality of life

15. Additional Challenges
• Learners with special needs must
overcome:

16. Everyone Communicates
• Crying
• Reaching
• Pointing
• Gestures
• Facial expression
• Body language
• Tone of voice
• Sounds
• Words
• Phrases
• Sentences

17. Everyone Communicates
• Crying
• Reaching
• Pointing
• Gestures
• Facial expression
• Body language
• Tone of voice
• Sounds
• Words
• Phrases
• Sentences
• Silence, refusal
• Screaming
• Pulling hair
• Falling asleep
• Aggression

18. Everyone Communicates
• Crying
• Reaching
• Pointing
• Gestures
• Facial expression
• Body language
• Tone of voice
• Sounds
• Words
• Phrases
• Sentences
• Silence, refusal
• Screaming
• Pulling hair
• Falling asleep
• Aggression

19. Examples:

20. HUMAN BEHAVIOR

21. Human Behavior
• SOME behavior is biologically driven
or reflexive
• MOST behavior occurs because it
serves a function and/or produces an
outcome.
 Eating - satisfying hunger
 Covering our ears - softens the impact of
the loud noise

22. Human Behavior
• Behavior also serves as a form of
communication.
 Pushing your plate away
 Looking away
 Facial expressions & body language

23. Consider:
• Behavior is often an individual’s best
attempt to communicate in a situation:
 Given his skills,
 Education,
 Physical and emotional state, and
 Past experiences.

25. Human Behavior
• It is often helpful to think of an
individual’s actions as a response,
rather than a pre-determined or willful
behavior.

26. Human Behavior
• “Problematic behaviors” - we as
individuals or a society find them to be
difficult to accept.

27. Examples of Problem
Behavior – NONVERBAL
• Withdrawl, not responding to requests,
refusing, resisting
• Tantrums, grabbing, throwing objects,
pushing, bolting, dropping to the ground
• Mouthing, spitting
• Jumping, flapping, rocking
• Self-injurious – biting, hitting head

28. Examples of Problem
Behavior – VERBAL
• Staying on topic
• “Blurting out”
• Arguing, correcting
• Speech patterns – echolalia,
perseverative speech
• Extreme language

29. Our job:
• Observe
• Try to understand the purpose of
behaviors
• Only then can we hope to offer help.

30. Purpose of Behavior
1. Access - Obtaining a
desired object or
outcome
2. Escape - from a task
or situation
 Attempting to gain control
over an environment or
situation (self-advocacy)
3. Attention - either
positive (praise) or
negative (yelling)
4. Sensory -
 Trying to self-calm, self-
regulate or feel good
(sensory input)
 Blocking or staying away
from something painful or
bothersome (sensory
avoidance)
 Responding to pain or
discomfort

31. Many Factors Contribute
• Within-Child Factors – sleep
deprivation, nutritional issues, GI
distress, arousal/energy, illness

32. Many Factors Contribute
• Environmental Factors
 Noise
 Movement
 Space
 Temperature
 Lighting

33. Many Factors Contribute
• Psychological factors
 Cognitive level
 Language skills
 Negative emotional memory – persons,
places, or activities that are attached to
high degrees of stress for them

34. Many Factors Contribute
• Social Factors
 Complexity of a social environment
 Demand to interact/engage
 Partner Behavior – Our behavior can be a
trigger or a contributing (talk to quickly,
punitive tone with hypersensitive student)

35. Many Factors Contribute
• Multi-Risk Families
 Socio-economic disadvantage

37. Testing Limits
• Intentionally engaging in problematic
behavior
• “Testing limits”
 Cursing and looking at teacher
 Refusal without signs of overwhelm
• Expectations clear
• Supports in place

38. The most effective…
• The most effective teachers and parents
match their teaching style and
expectations to the individual student

39. The most effective…

40. HOW ABOUT YOU?
What motivates/ed you to do well
in school?

41. Intrinsic Motivation:
The activity itself is generating motivation
to participate
Extrinsic Motivation:
Factors outside of oneself influence
your choice to participate

42. Intrinsic Motivation: Children
• The activity itself is generating
motivation to participate
• Newness, novelty
• It has meaning/value to them
• More learning & greater retention
because it’s FUN!!!

43. Extrinsic Motivation: Children
• Factors outside of oneself influence your
choice to participate
 Grades
 Adult approval
 Competition

44. The children that challenge
us…
• What intrinsically motivates them?
• If we can’t include that in our therapy –
what extrinsic motivation can we offer?

45. HOW ABOUT YOU?
What happens when you are not
motivated by a class, an
instructor or lecturer?

46. Emotion Regulation
• Is the ability to respond to the ongoing
demands of experience with the range
of emotions in a manner that is socially
tolerable
 Permitting spontaneous reactions
 And the ability to delay spontaneous
reactions as needed

47. Emotion Regulation
• Is a complex process that involves
initiating, inhibiting, or modulating one's
state or behavior in a given situation

48. Feelings
Observable
Behavior
Thoughts
Physiological
Responses

49. Problem Behavior &
Emotional State
• Most problem behavior is an outcome of
a dysregulated emotional state
• Child is not able to stay regulated
• Most likely NOT intentionally engaging
in problematic behavior

51. Emotional & Behavioral
Regulation
• Focus on the child’s ability to regulate
their emotional arousal
• Prioritizes supporting emotional well-
being
• And results in better behavioral control

52. Emotional & Behavioral
Regulation
• “Availability” for learning and social
engagement
• Resilience to try new things

53. MY EMOTION
REGULATION
PLAN

54. Affect
• Definition:
• An experience of bodily tension that
occurs as a result of perception.
• The way a person reacts to their
emotions.

55. Affect
• It reminds you of something you know
• Affect drives ALL memory
• Emotional memory plays a huge role in
emotional regulation

56. Affect
• Affective reciprocity allows children to
find meaning and to symbolize their
experiences
Affect supports:
 Regulation
 Attention
 Engagement
 Learning in the classroom

57. Emotions & Memory
• Emotions are the affective component
of memory
• Feelings experienced associated with:
 A person (joyful or stressful)
 A place (safe or threatening)
 An activity or experience (fun, interesting,
boring, challenging)
2014, B. Prizant, SLP

58. When kids refuse…
…an activity, or even the transition to
speech sessions
• It may be a result of negative emotional
memory

59. Increase Motivation & Avoid
Power Struggles
• Try and understand the factors at play
• Offer choices and shared control
• Provide a “hook” for each activity at the
beginning to keep them interested

60. Motivation & Positive Affect
Typical social development:
• Response to social and environmental
cues are fundamental to development of
language (and other skills)

61. Reduced Motivation
When Communication & Learning
Disorders are present:
• Vicious cycle: Repeated exposure to
failure and/or correction can reduce the
desire to attempt
Low levels of
correct
responding
Low levels or
reinforcement

62. Our job:
• Plan learning experiences and
opportunities that will provide:
Success + Positive
Emotion

63. Our job:
• Success + Positive Emotion result in:
• Increased motivation
• Enhanced learning
• More rapid acquisition of target
behaviors, and
• Fewer avoidance behaviors

64. Motivation
In Autism Spectrum Disorders:
• Learners often appear poorly motivated
to engage in and respond to the social
world around them
• Social praise may not be enough of a
“hook”

65. Increasing Motivation
6 Strategies:
1. Positive Affect
2. Shared Control, Turn Taking &
Incorporating Learner Choice
3. Interspersing Acquisition and
Maintenance Tasks
4. Reinforcing Reasonable Attempts
5. Varying Tasks and Responses
6. Using Natural & Direct Reinforcers
From Pivotal Response Training, Koegel & Koegel, UC Santa Barbara

66. Increasing Motivation
1. Positive Affect
– Are you being fun?
– Are you having fun?
– Does your voice entice?
– Is your praise enthusiastic?
– Is there a way that everyone could be
experiencing more enjoyment in this task?

68. Increasing Motivation
2. Shared Control, Turn Taking &
Incorporating Learner Choice
– Who is making the decisions?
– Are turns balanced?
– Are you sharing in the choice-making?

69. Increasing Motivation
3. Interspersing Acquisition and
Maintenance Tasks
– If every task was a 7 or 8, I’d give up too!
– How are you planning for success?
– Are your prompts sufficient?
– What does the data say?
• No matter the criteria in the goal, you want to
push for a 90% success rate

70. Increasing Motivation
4. Reinforcing Reasonable Attempts
– This goes along with interspersing
– Praise and gentle correction
• Many students are sensitive to “No”
• Alternatives:
– Let me help you
– I might say…
– Let’s try it this way

71. Increasing Motivation
5. Varying Tasks and Responses
– Hooray for the NEW!
– Repetition with variation
– Mix your targets
• To intersperse drills
– Freshen up your flashcard activities

72. Flashcard Fun
• Magnetic pole
• Paper clips
• Some surprise fish

73. Flashcard Fun

74. Flashcard Fun

75. Increasing Motivation
6. Using Natural & Direct Reinforcers
– Along the lines of incorporating child
choice
– Preferred topics
– Manipulatives that motivate
– Cool pens
– White boards
– Leadership opportunities

76. Emotion (& Behavioral)
Regulation
• Self Regulation
 Independent
• Mutual Regulation
 With help

77. Emotion Regulation
Ideally:
• They can perceive their own
anxiety or overwhelm
• Students will ask for support,
help, break

78. Self and Mutual Regulation
Allow Students to:
• Be organized and focused
• Solve problems
• Communicate
• Maintain social engagement
• Be “available” for learning

79. When Power Struggles Occur
• Use disagreement as a teaching
moment for problem solving,
appropriate negotiation and
compromise
• React in a way that allows the student
to “save face”

80. 15 min BREAK
When we return…
Practical tools and strategies to improve
understanding, expression, and self
regulation

81. 15 min Break – Return at 10:45
TIME REMAINING