CHCIC510A: Establish and implement plans for developing cooperative behaviour
Implement and monitor behaviour plan
Contents
Implementing your plan 3
Acknowledging the child’s uniqueness 3
Inform child of specific expectations for behaviour in ways appropriate to their level of understanding 5
Considering the typical development level of children 5
Inform all workers involved in implementing the plan of its rationale, limits and strategies 7
Involving all staff 7
Inform all involved of strategies so all are reinforcing the plan 9
Implementing behaviour management strategies to reinforce the plan 9
Applying consequences 11
Reinforcing goals and objectives 13
Monitoring and maintaining the plan 15
Monitoring 15
Negotiating goals and strategies 16
Support workers to implement the plan effectively and consistently 17
Staff development 17
Implementing your plan
A behaviour plan, once developed, needs to be implemented. How do we ensure that implementation has the best chance of success? To ensure success, it is best to go about implementation in a systematic way.
These are the key steps you will need to take:
- Inform the child of specific expectations for the behaviour in ways which are appropriate to their level of understanding.
- Inform all workers involved in implementing the plan of its rationale, limits and strategies.
- Inform everyone involved of strategies so that everyone is uniformly reinforcing the plan.
- Discuss with everyone involved factors which may lead to or maintain inappropriate behaviour as far as possible.
- Ensure all caregivers are supported in their attempts to implement the plan effectively and consistently.
Acknowledging the child’s uniqueness
I will acknowledge the uniqueness and potential of each child. (AECA—Code of Ethics)
Each child is unique. The feelings or needs that triggered the child’s behaviour are not necessarily the same triggers faced by other children. Each child has a way of responding to stress, anger, frustration and so on. Their response to your guidance may not be the same as another child’s response either. When implementing a plan, we need to always keep this in mind.
Recognising the uniqueness of each ‘incident’
Consider the following situation:
The staff at Brushtail Possum Children’s Service have developed a behaviour plan for Sam, a toddler. Sam does not listen to his caregivers (egthey would call him back indoors after the outdoor play routine and he would not budge).
One day, Sam has a tantrum, kicking and screaming. Sam has been at the centre for six months but has never had a tantrum. True, he does not follow instructions, but he has always been non-compliant in his quiet manner. This is a new situation. The goal of the plan the staff had developed had been to encourage Sam to follow instructions—it had nothing in it to do with tantrums.
When faced with any incident where a child behaves inappropriately, we do not simply try to implement our behaviour plan for the child—because the plan in hand may not be totally relevant to every situation involving the same child. Each situation has its unique aspects.
We will still need to ask ourselves these questions:
• Is this normal behaviour for this age under these circumstances?
• Am I aware of the reasons and/or feelings behind this behaviour?
• Are my expectations of this child appropriate for a child of this age?
• Is my response to the behaviour appropriate for a child of this age?
• Is my plan relevant to this situation? If not, can I modify my plan for this situation?
Inform child of specific expectations for behaviour in ways appropriate to their level of understanding
When implementing a plan and monitoring a child’s behaviour, it is important that we continue to consistently provide children with clear, positive guidelines as to what is acceptable behaviour.
Older preschoolers can be involved in the decision-making process about their behaviour. They will be able to discuss the appropriate limits related to the activity or experience and state the consequences of not responding to these limits (eg during story time, everyone is able to see, hear and enjoy the activity).
Let’s look at the following example:
A number of preschoolers are very disruptive at group time. They get restless, they start poking other children with their toes and one of them even starts rolling around on the floor.
Suppose you have already drawn up a behaviour management plan for these children. You need to put your plan into action now. The plan’s objective states: To minimise disruptive behaviour during group time. How do you work towards this objective?
Considering the typical development level of children
The first thing you need to do is to consider the typical developmental stage of this age group—preschoolers. Ask yourself these questions:
• What can they do?
• What do they like doing?
• What can I reasonably expect from their behaviour in the situation I am planning?
This exercise should help you decide on the type of experiences you select, how to involve the children and follow their lead in play, appropriate choices to offer them and how best to communicate your expectations to the children.
Communicating expectations that are clear and positive
Example: Group-time strategies
Clearly identify expectations before the activity begins. You would do this by asking the children to state limits rather than telling them what you expect.
You could say: ‘This morning’s story is about billy goats. Do you know any stories about billy goats?’ This would probably arouse their interest.
You could then say: ‘Well, we will all learn a little song about them first so that we can sing it during the story.’
After teaching the children the song, you might say: ‘Now, I am going to tell the story using the feltboard. The first time I tell the story I am going to hold the felt pieces and then at the end of the story I would like each one of you to hold one of the goats and help me tell the story again.’
‘I really want everyone to hear so what do you think we'll all need to do? Yes, be very quiet. Listen carefully. Then we will all know what to do when we all have to tell the story together.
For everyone to see the animals on the board, how will you need to sit? Yes, we all need to sit still, on our bottoms.
We will also need to be comfortable and cosy. How do we make sure we are comfortable? Yes, we sit in our own space—with legs crossed or straight out as long as we don't disturb someone else.
Well, I can see that you are all sitting properly everyone, now we are ready to hear what happens to the goats in our story.’
Other aspects you can manage to ensure minimum disruption during group time include:
• making sure children have their backs to the light so that it is on the feltboard or the book and they do not have to squint to see the story
• checking that every child can see the story and can hear you
• building in some interactive components so that children spend some time listening and some time taking part
• giving children the option of sitting next to someone of their choice (eg their friend); you might also build in an interactive component where children pair up as part of the telling of the story
• making sure the room is quiet before you begin the story—eg make sure there isn’t any background music or staff moving furniture
• ensuring the story is appropriate and interesting.
Activity 1
Inform all workers involved in implementing the plan of its rationale, limits and strategies
Involving all staff
It is important that everyone concerned with or involved in the care of the child is informed of the strategies of the plan. The parties involved would include:
• staff and care providers
• parents and family members
• other professionals (as appropriate)
• the child (as appropriate).
Why do we inform all parties?
• To ensure continuity of care, both centre staff and family members need to be using the same strategies or techniques in order to eliminate or modify the behaviour of concern.
• The implementation of the program will be far more effective by all those involved in the program demonstrating an awareness of the goals and cooperating, as there will be shared responsibility.
• For the child, consistency will be evident and they will see the adults as responsive to their needs and will feel valued as a result.
• To ensure consistency, all staff need to be fully aware of certain guidelines for responding to all behaviours and be aware of the philosophy and policies that are in place.
Reflect on the following statement:
Staff communicate effectively to promote respect and professional teamwork (QIAS Principle 1.6)
Agreeing on expected limits of behaviour
All stakeholders should agree on the expected limits and ensure that they are all aware of the need to consciously tune in to the messages they are conveying to the child.
Agreeing on behaviour management strategies
Workers agree on the appropriate strategies from a range of behaviour management strategies according to the child's age, circumstances and the use of the strategy.
When considering the implementation of strategies, staff will need to acknowledge the following factors:
• What are the feelings identified by staff?
• What are the reasons for these feelings?
• How long has the child's behaviour existed? (This will greatly influence the choice of strategies and the implications for altering that behaviour.)
• What is the child's ability to learn new behaviours (according to their age and abilities)?
• Is there a need for variations in care?
Let’s look in greater depth at the final point—the need for variation in care. Variation in care may be needed for these reasons:
• short attention span
• poor impulse control
• poor concentration
• ease of distraction
• emotional problems
• learning disabilities
• chronic health problems
• motor problems
• sensory loss
• communication problems (receptive, expressive language).
Inform all involved of strategies so all are reinforcing the plan
Implementing behaviour management strategies to reinforce the plan
Examples of strategies
The strategies you choose depend on the child's needs and age and developmental level.
Strategies include:
• creative problem solving (facilitate skills of conflict resolution)
• discussion of feelings
• appropriate ignoring (staff agree to ignore certain behaviours)
• diversion or distraction (only in an age-appropriate or danger situation)
• redirection (offer child the choice of other learning experiences)
• signal interference (a sign from the carer to the child)
• proximity control (staying close to support the child)
• modelling (being a good example)
• positive reinforcement
• prevention (stepping in to stop behaviour as the trigger is observed – the carer acknowledges the child's need at this point to assist the child to develop skills)
• discussion or post-situational follow up (this is a suitable strategy for older children)
• application of natural consequences and logical consequences.
We will focus on some of these strategies later.
Reflect on the following:
Ensure that my practices reflect consideration of the children's perspective. (AECA - Code of Ethics)
Best interests of the child are to be primary consideration in all measures concerning children. (United Nations Convention on Rights of the Child – Article 3)
Redirection
Redirection, along with distraction and personal space (or ‘time out’) are strategies using behavioural consequences.
Redirection is about channelling children's feelings into ways of behaving appropriately. This is a useful strategy as you acknowledge a child's feelings by offering them a choice and then redirecting them to an activity with a similar outlet for their feelings.
Reflect on this situation:
Jan is painting at the table with other four-to-five year olds. A dispute breaks out when Ali refuses to hand over the pot of blue paint. Jan flicks her paint brush at Ali and then at the others when they say they will tell on her.
You move quickly and you take Jan aside (so that she will not feel humiliated in front of the other children). You say: ‘Jan, it seems like you are angry, but I can't allow you to throw paint around as it might get into someone's eyes. Remember that paint is for painting with.
Would you like to go back and paint? Or would you like to come and help me set up the toddlers’ play equipment?’
This method differs from 'reward and punishment' because it holds children responsible for their own behaviour while allowing them to make decisions about appropriate actions. As carers, we need to be careful not to try to 'control' behavioural situations to meet our own needs.
Distraction
Distraction is not the same as redirection. When you distract a child you simply change the focus of the child's attention. This is a particularly useful strategy with infants and younger toddlers. An example is: ‘Look Harry, there goes a big red fire engine!’
Personal space
Personal space or time should never be seen as a sign of punishment. It is a technique that should be used sparingly and carefully. Use it only when the child is very angry and needs time to cool down. Also be careful when using it with very young children or children who are not at the cognitive level where they can understand the reason.
If we are not careful in the way we implement the personal space strategy we might inadvertently intensify the negative behaviour of the child. Our action may also leave a child discouraged and lacking in self-esteem. This may also cause rejection by their peers.
We must avoid making the child feel that they have been rejected and separated from the other children. On the other hand, the other children must not be made to feel that the child has been separated from them. So, it’s important to avoid having a special ‘time out corner’. Instead, carers can set up ‘space alone’ activities to provide for children displaying disruptive behaviour to withdraw to—without having to remove them completely.
Be gentle when you lead the child to their ‘personal space’ and make it clear why they are being taken there. You might say: ‘Mamadou, you are feeling very angry. You will feel less angry after a while. You will feel better. Would you like to come to the book corner for a while? You can play with that wooden puzzle that you like.’ You might say: ‘Would you like to go and play with the blocks in that corner, or with water outside? We can set up a basin of water and you can find out which things sink and which ones float.’ Make sure that the activity you suggest is for one child only.