Our second webinar with Dr Anna Winneker explored why children exhibit challenging behaviour, what challenging behaviour can tell us, and how teachers in early childhood contexts can respond positively and effectively to children with challenging behaviour. Anna also discussed the kinds of strategies that teachers can use to support all children’s social and emotional competence and reduce the incidences of challenging behaviour. Dr Anna Winneker is an Associate Research Professor at the University of South Florida. She has a professional and educational background working with children identified with emotional/behavior disorders in settings ranging from residential treatment to inclusion. Anna currently directs the Program-Wide Positive Behavior Support Project at USF.
Challenging behaviours are intense, and it can be hard to take a step back and analyse what is happening and why, but this is really important. When behaviour supports that typically work for other children are not working, or the behaviour is getting more intense, stepping back and examining why the behaviour occurs is crucial. Effective supports that reduce the incidence of challenging behaviour depend on teachers’ understandings about why a behaviour is occurring.
There are many reasons why children exhibit challenging behaviour, including developmental differences, speech and language delay, and environmental triggers. It can be due to something as simple as being hungry or tired to something as intense as trauma. Challenging behaviour can also be due to children not knowing how to use materials, and therefore using them inappropriately. Teachers might also think about their own values and beliefs about acceptable behaviour, and the kinds of behaviours that they find personally challenging, triggering or irritating, so that they can practise responding calmly.
Teachers’ first response to challenging behaviour should be trying to determine the reason for the behaviour, or why the behaviour happens. This detective work is quite familiar to teachers in their everyday teaching. For example, when a child pushes another down, teachers usually try to determine why the child pushed in order to decide how to respond (was it because they wanted to play and didn’t know how to ask? Or because they wanted a toy in the other child’s hands?). Teachers need to stop and ask ‘what does this behaviour mean?’ or ‘what can this behaviour tell me?’ They can look at the context around the behaviour, particularly what happens before (antecedent) and what happens afterwards (consequence). They can ask themselves ‘what might be inadvertently reinforcing that behaviour?’ For example, if pushing someone down always gets the child a toy that they want, the child is likely to continue using this behaviour rather than the more complex and possibly less successful strategy of making a request.
Positive behaviour also depends on a foundation of universal practices that are in place for all children. These practices include creating predictable and safe environments for children, clear routines that are explicitly taught, effective transitions between activities, and positive directions. All children benefit from the explicit teachingof social and emotional competence. When there are issues with challenging behaviours, it is useful to assess whether all these foundational practices are in place, as it is easy to inadvertently let some things slip in busy early childhood settings. It is important to first ensure that all children are getting everything they need to support positive behaviour.
Positive behaviour requires teachers to be proactive not reactive. The teaching of social and emotional skills to prevent challenging behaviours should ideally occur before problems are occurring. Teachers should focus on explicitly explaining skills such as how to ask a friend to play, as well as how to identify and respond to emotions in themselves and others. Repeated discussion and practice using the same concepts and same language is very important. Social and emotional skill development, practice, and reinforcement needs to occur all day long.
Partnering with families and being culturally responsive can be particularly helpful for children with challenging behaviour, in helping teachers to develop other perspectives on the child’s behaviour. This might mean finding out about family’s values, what is happening at home, and what works for them. Strong relationships are crucial so that if a challenging behaviour does occur, teachers can draw on their strong relationships with families to engage in honest and productive conversations. Teachers may discover that what is promoted at school doesn’t align with what is promoted at home, in which case it can be useful to work with families to help children bridge the different expectations at home and the early childhood setting, while accepting those differences without judgement. Sometimes families may be uncomfortable to share what is going on at home, so showing interest and trusting families is important to build relationships which allow families to share more over time.
The principles of trauma-informed practice for all children are helpful, as challenging behaviours may be caused by triggering events related to past trauma, or to current and ongoing trauma. Trauma-informed practices can include things like checking in with children about how they are feeling at the beginning and at the end of each day, as well as prioritising the development of strong relationships, which help children to feel a sense of safety and belonging. Children with persistent challenging behaviour are often those that benefit most from positive attention and strong relationships with teachers.
It is not often necessary for teachers to develop entirely new practices for children with challenging behaviour, but more a case of adapting and individualising what they do already for all children. For example, teachers may talk through the routine everyday with all children, but provide more regular reminders for one or two children.
Skills cannot be taught in the immediate context of challenging behaviour as this may in fact escalate the behaviour. In the moment of the challenging behaviour, if there has been prior teaching of particular skills to replace the behaviour, teachers may try providing a brief reminder about the acceptable alternatives to the behaviour. Otherwise teachers should just interrupt the behaviour and redirect children to other activities.
It is important to provide some teaching in relation to the problem behaviour when children and teachers are calm, as well as plenty of opportunities for the child to practise and be praised for their efforts. Teachers might revisit the context of the challenging behaviour, and help the child practise the alternative strategies that have been taught. They can also use mat-times with the whole group to talk about strategies, presenting the group with the problem behaviour that is occurring for some children, and what might be practised instead. Children might also identify examples and non-examples of how to use materials and equipment appropriately, if this is what is needed. This shared problem-solving can encourage children to be part of the solution and really proactive about supporting each other’s behaviour. It is also important to anticipate when problem behaviours may occur and remind a child of the strategies they have been practising, such as when they move into free play. Pre-empting behaviours, being close, and giving lots of positive attention can be really helpful. By being present during play, teachers may be able to offer a timely reminder of alternative behaviours at the appropriate moment.
Neurodivergent children may need more support developing social and emotional skills, due to differences in the way their brains are wired, and potentially more difficulty with skills related to executive function (inhibition of impulses, being flexible, and remembering what to do in a given situation). They may be more easily overwhelmed by sensory information and require more support with self-regulation. Co-regulation, with an adult reassuring children through a focus on and sharing of their own regulated state of mind, is a very helpful strategy here. Neurodivergent learners may need more intensive supports and more of the explicit teaching provided to all children, as well as a lot of additional practice. Teachers may also need to trial several strategies before landing on the one that connects for that child and that makes sense for them. Teaching strategies might be individualised for neurodivergent learners by accounting for their preferences for particular sensory inputs or outputs. Often the strategies that are put in place for neurodivergent learners can be helpful for many more children in the group, and this can reduce the workload on teachers in needing to provide many different types of support.
