WEBVTT 00:00:05.916 --> 00:00:07.306 Hi, I'm Marc Atkins. 00:00:07.306 --> 00:00:11.926 I'm a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Institute 00:00:11.926 --> 00:00:16.106 for Juvenile Research in University of Illinois at Chicago. 00:00:16.106 --> 00:00:21.966 The first issue that we'll talk about is when is it important to understand 00:00:21.966 --> 00:00:26.736 that sometimes kids misbehave and it's because they really don't have the skills 00:00:26.736 --> 00:00:28.216 to manage the situation they're in. 00:00:28.216 --> 00:00:32.766 And one of the things we talk about in the Guide is that there are times 00:00:32.766 --> 00:00:36.556 when teachers can really kind of pick up on this a little bit. 00:00:36.556 --> 00:00:39.726 Teachers can do this probably about as well as anyone because they get 00:00:39.726 --> 00:00:41.986 to see kids in so many different situations. 00:00:41.986 --> 00:00:47.366 So, the one thing that might be apparent is that there's a certain period of the day 00:00:47.366 --> 00:00:52.826 when particular kids are very off-task or they're becoming disruptive, 00:00:52.826 --> 00:00:58.106 and the question that we might as is: Is that because they don't know how else to behave, 00:00:58.106 --> 00:01:00.556 or is that because they are trying to get out of doing some work? 00:01:00.556 --> 00:01:05.525 There are times when kids have learned that certain ways of behaving are really going 00:01:05.525 --> 00:01:10.706 to get them what they want, and we've seen that when some kids are more prone 00:01:10.706 --> 00:01:12.266 to be aggressive than other kids. 00:01:12.576 --> 00:01:18.286 We get especially concerned about it in situations in which a very minor cue, 00:01:18.476 --> 00:01:25.596 or a very minor provocation, leads to a large eruption in a child, 00:01:25.596 --> 00:01:28.226 and we think, "Wow, what caused that?" 00:01:28.226 --> 00:01:32.206 And some of very important research that's been done over the years has shown 00:01:32.436 --> 00:01:34.846 that certain kids misinterpret those minor cues. 00:01:34.846 --> 00:01:38.646 For instance, in a game of basketball, a child is running up the court, 00:01:38.946 --> 00:01:42.336 and a teammate throws the ball, and it hits the child in the back. 00:01:42.336 --> 00:01:44.386 Some people would look at that as an accident; 00:01:44.566 --> 00:01:48.446 other kids would look at that that he was out to get me. 00:01:48.486 --> 00:01:52.726 And those kinds of situations that are somewhat ambiguous, some kids misinterpret. 00:01:53.036 --> 00:01:59.546 There's been a lot of work done to sort of help kids understand that there are different ways 00:01:59.546 --> 00:02:04.506 of looking at those situations, and you don't always have to interpret them in a negative way. 00:02:04.716 --> 00:02:12.176 Sometimes teachers will feel the need to intervene with certain kids or their classroom to sort 00:02:12.176 --> 00:02:16.306 of help them learn to get along a little better, and these have various names. 00:02:16.306 --> 00:02:21.296 So, a social skills training program, for instance, which could be a program that is delivered 00:02:21.296 --> 00:02:27.196 to the entire classroom, and lesson plans might break down the task of getting along 00:02:27.196 --> 00:02:32.806 with each other into some component skills, such as listening to each other well and sharing 00:02:32.906 --> 00:02:36.936 and talking to each other in a way that's acceptable. 00:02:37.316 --> 00:02:42.386 An alternative, and one that is often given the same name is social-emotional learning, 00:02:42.426 --> 00:02:45.586 social skills training can be part of a social-emotional learning program. 00:02:45.926 --> 00:02:54.666 These programs as well can be done in classwide instruction where kids are given examples 00:02:54.806 --> 00:03:02.116 or lessons in how to talk to each other and listen to each other in the same kind of way. 00:03:02.116 --> 00:03:06.786 And what's helpful about that is that it can provide the kids 00:03:06.786 --> 00:03:08.716 and the teacher a common vocabulary. 00:03:09.086 --> 00:03:13.526 Positive reinforcement or positive attention is probably the most powerful tool 00:03:13.526 --> 00:03:15.156 that teachers have to manage behavior. 00:03:15.846 --> 00:03:21.146 There's a wealth of research that's shown us that attending the positive behavior will increase 00:03:21.146 --> 00:03:27.016 that behavior, particularly with younger kids but also with older kids as well. 00:03:27.336 --> 00:03:30.076 Sometimes that attention will come from their peers, 00:03:30.676 --> 00:03:35.136 or often the attention will come from the teacher, but the one thing that teachers can keep 00:03:35.136 --> 00:03:40.806 in mind is that what they attend to is showing the kids what is important to them, 00:03:40.806 --> 00:03:45.676 and if they are attending the negative behavior, then that negative behavior tends to increase. 00:03:45.706 --> 00:03:49.456 If they are attending the positive behavior, that positive behavior tends to increase. 00:03:49.496 --> 00:03:55.676 I think a nice example of a situation in which teaching skills can be nicely integrated 00:03:55.676 --> 00:03:58.086 into the routine of the day is teachers 00:03:58.086 --> 00:04:06.016 who have used group-administered classroom management programs, 00:04:06.016 --> 00:04:12.856 such as programs that give the entire class a reward for the behavior either 00:04:12.856 --> 00:04:18.176 of one particular child or a subset of kids, and there are also programs where everyone 00:04:18.176 --> 00:04:20.245 in the class is working for the same reward. 00:04:20.456 --> 00:04:25.556 We use the procedure in which all the kids in the class were working 00:04:25.676 --> 00:04:28.596 to get a 20-minute recess at the end of the activity. 00:04:28.676 --> 00:04:33.046 The way that this program worked, however, is if anybody in the class broke a rule, 00:04:33.306 --> 00:04:35.576 if anybody in the class violated it-for instance, 00:04:35.576 --> 00:04:40.416 they called out-everyone in the class lost one minute of free time. 00:04:40.496 --> 00:04:44.266 So, if this happened five times, the whole class would lose five minutes. 00:04:44.266 --> 00:04:50.476 These groups contingencies, you can imagine, can be very effective because the first student 00:04:50.476 --> 00:04:57.966 who inadvertently blurts out something will then have his/her peers say, "Ssh, be quiet. 00:04:58.056 --> 00:04:59.096 Sit down." 00:04:59.126 --> 00:05:03.516 And after a couple of these times, everybody in the class gets it. 00:05:03.516 --> 00:05:04.656 We're all working together. 00:05:04.866 --> 00:05:09.126 I think we have a number of ways now, a number of opportunities for teachers 00:05:09.336 --> 00:05:11.976 to incorporate some new language in their classrooms, 00:05:11.976 --> 00:05:15.786 to give kids some new ways of understanding how to get along with each other. 00:05:16.116 --> 00:05:21.716 In an everyday world that can be so powerful for kids to learn, 00:05:21.936 --> 00:05:28.096 that they can actually manage their behavior and be more effective either on the playground 00:05:28.096 --> 00:05:30.766 or making friends or actually getting their work done. 00:05:31.146 --> 00:05:37.236 That can have a long impact for kids by not only helping them learn to control themselves 00:05:37.496 --> 00:05:41.076 and have more pride in their work but also helping them feel engaged in school, 00:05:41.246 --> 00:05:45.976 which we know is a tremendously important activity for kids as they grow older.