Sasha explains how educators and parents unintentionally trigger challenging behavior through expectations, instructions, and responses. She introduces an observation form that tracks expectations, how they're communicated, student behavior, and adult response, helping you see where you might be part of the problem and what to change.
Welcome back to our 10 Quick Wins for Behavior Change. Now we're gonna talk about if you are part of the problem. Guess what? You probably are. Our behavior is impacted by our environment. Let's say I walk into my kitchen and I see a huge plate of freshly baked cookies. You better believe that my behavior is going to then be eating one of those cookies. Let's be real, maybe eating more than one. But if I were to walk into my kitchen and see that same plate of freshly baked cookies, but I also see my daughter standing there who tells me, "I just baked these cookies and I'm bringing them to my first grade class and there's only enough cookies for each child to get one cookie." Well, then I'm not gonna eat one, guys. I'm not gonna be the jerk that takes a chocolate chip cookie from a first grader. Because the environment is not just the stuff. Your environment is the stuff and the people, and that impacts your behavior. So now that we know that the environment is the stuff and the people, we wanna think about, for our students' behavior, how the environment plays a role in challenging behaviors. You may think, "Oh, it's not me. I'm not part of the problem." But guess what? My name is Sasha and I am a problem behavior causer. None of us do it on purpose, guys. None of us wake up on a Monday morning and get a real big cup of coffee and think, "You know what? Work has been a little boring. I'm gonna mix things up and cause some challenging behaviors today." No, of course not. We do it unintentionally, but the way that we respond or react or give expectations or set up an activity or give feedback could in turn cause problem behaviors. So this step, I want you to really think about what your role is. As we said at the start of this mini course, the only behavior you have complete control of is your own. It starts with you. When you change your behavior, you can in turn cause positive behavior change. Now I have a cool tool to help you do this. I have an editable student observation form. You're like, Sasha, that doesn't sound that exciting, but it is because when I observe, I don't just randomly take notes. That doesn't really point me in the right direction of what's going on. I want a little bit of a a more purposeful observation. And on this observation form, there's a few things that we're looking at. We're first looking at what are the classroom expectations. Basically, what should the student be doing? What are they supposed to be doing? Then how is that expectation communicated? That plays a big role if the student is able to be successful. Was it a verbal direction? Was it a group direction? Was it a visual direction? I want to know that. That can really impact that next part, which is the student behavior. Are they meeting those expectations? They're doing what they're supposed to be doing, or Are they engaging in a negative behavior, meaning they are unable at this time to meet those expectations? And then last, what's the adult response? So this is a little bit of a tweak on that traditional ABC data, and this really helps me hone in on what my role is, because my role is right before and after that behavior, how that expectation is communicated and what the response is. And that helps me determine when that child is able to be successful. So think about this. What role do you have in this problem behavior?
