Section IV. Roots of Challenging Behavior On a daily basis, teachers must contend with a developed to help implement school support for range of challenging behaviors in the classroom. children traumatized by family violence. It is Children can have difficulty regulating their necessary to support all children by the use of emotions or difficulty with academics. They may literacy interventions, classroom accommodations also have difficulty with social interactions, such as and specialized instruction, as children respond well participating in a group or negotiating sharing. As a to these teaching approaches. Nevertheless, there result of any of these complications, students may are few resources available that are designed disrupt the classroom by making threatening specifically to guide teachers in being able to gestures, insulting other students and even optimally help these children. becoming physically disruptive. An important part of this guidebook is to ensure These challenging behaviors may be a consequence that teachers and parents know about the of one or more stressors, such as a hidden or consequences of using R/S as a classroom diagnosed academic disability, lack of social skills, management strategy. It is believed that improved traumatic experiences, or the death or significant knowledge of R/S will lead to reduced use, since loss of a parental figure. A child may have a mental research has established that R/S leads to physical illness such as ADHD, Autism, Depression, and psychological trauma, and possibly severe Anxiety, Oppositional/Defiant Disorder or other physical injury or death. The use of restraint and conditions. Unidentified abuse and neglect may also seclusion also affects children, staff and bystanders be the root of the challenging behavior. Lastly, because it can trigger emotions such as humiliation, unsafe environments, domestic violence and verbal, fear, loss of control, and anger. The use of restraint physical or sexual abuse contribute to childhood and seclusion thus has a profound impact on the stress. quality of relationships. Research has shown that adverse effects of R/S include increased rates of The document Helping Traumatized Children Learn, aggression and violence, problematic behavior, published in 2005, presents evidence showing that lose-lose outcomes for everyone, and abuses. school and family environments that do not recognize or know how to attend to challenging Our aim is to introduce an alternative approach to behaviors contribute to the perpetuation or classroom management that values children by exacerbation of the child’s symptoms. For this supporting teachers, parents, staff and reason, a collection of resources has been administrators. The mental health system and the
Section IV. Roots of Challenging Behavior On a daily basis, teachers must contend with a range of challenging behaviors in the classroom. Children can have difficulty regulating their emotions or difficulty with academics. They may also have difficulty with social interactions, such as participating in a group or negotiating sharing. As a result of any of these complications, students may disrupt the classroom by making threatening gestures, insulting other students and even becoming physically disruptive. These challenging behaviors may be a consequence of one or more stressors, such as a hidden or diagnosed academic disability, lack of social skills, traumatic experiences, or the death or significant loss of a parental figure. A child may have a mental illness such as ADHD, Autism, Depression, Anxiety, Oppositional/Defiant Disorder or other conditions. Unidentified abuse and neglect may also be the root of the challenging behavior. Lastly, unsafe environments, domestic violence and verbal, physical or sexual abuse contribute to childhood stress. The document Helping Traumatized Children Learn, published in 2005, presents evidence showing that school and family environments that do not recognize or know how to attend to challenging behaviors contribute to the perpetuation or exacerbation of the child’s symptoms. For this reason, a collection of resources has been developed to help implement school support for children traumatized by family violence. It is necessary to support all children by the use of literacy interventions, classroom accommodations and specialized instruction, as children respond well to these teaching approaches. Nevertheless, there are few resources available that are designed specifically to guide teachers in being able to optimally help these children. An important part of this guidebook is to ensure that teachers and parents know about the consequences of using R/S as a classroom management strategy. It is believed that improved knowledge of R/S will lead to reduced use, since research has established that R/S leads to physical and psychological trauma, and possibly severe physical injury or death. The use of restraint and seclusion also affects children, staff and bystanders because it can trigger emotions such as humiliation, fear, loss of control, and anger. The use of restraint and seclusion thus has a profound impact on the quality of relationships. Research has shown that adverse effects of R/S include increased rates of aggression and violence, problematic behavior, lose-lose outcomes for everyone, and abuses. Our aim is to introduce an alternative approach to classroom management that values children by supporting teachers, parents, staff and administrators. The mental health system and the
FINAL_GUIDEBOOK_Nancy_I_Macias-Smith_04_11_2012_REV_SL_JL_BL_NMS_v2-1-.docx