Meltdown VS Bad Behaviour?

So you've started working in a SEN school with children with additional needs. Perhaps with different learning difficulties, maybe some physical disabilities, some with autism or Downs Syndrome. And you have had a few incidences of challenging behaviour and are considering how to move forwards and support the child.The behaviour policies where you previously worked or trained in a mainstream school focused heavily on consequences and rewards for behaviours deemed good or bad. But you're not sure whether that is appropriate here, why?

You first need to consider: Is this a meltdown or is it chosen behaviour?

 

Which you decide it is will change how you proceed and how you decide to manage the behaviour.
A meltdown is different to a chosen behaviour because it comes about through sensory overload and almost always happens when a child is so overloaded that they can no longer control their own behaviours easily.

Imagine that you are in a large cinema, and someone keeps turning up the movie volume. It was already loud to begin with but now it is really hurting your ears. You cover them to try and block out the sound but your friend is trying to talk to you and is getting annoyed because they can't hear the sound and now they feel like you're ignoring them by covering your ears. Suddenly, the lights start to flicker, and then they start to strobe on and off in quick succession so you can't see properly either, and your friend doesn't appear to be able to see this either and is still trying to get you to answer her questions. She gets more and more annoyed at you and at some point you find it all too much so you get up and walk out of the cinema. This is an example of sensory overload, it can happen to any of us in extreme circumstances, but for the vast majority of us as adults we have the coping mechanisms and ability to think through an appropriate response (in this case walking out of the cinema) that will not be seen as challenging behaviour but may be seen as rude (such as not answering a friend speaking to us). This is not the case for children, and is especially not the case for children who have a condition which affects their social and communication skills (such as autism). When this happens, our children resort to behaviours that are seen as challenging, maybe they will hit out at those around them - this might be to try and get the things annoying them to stop. Maybe they will cover their ears or eyes - this might be to try and block out the sensory stimulus that is overloading them. Or maybe they will begin to self harm, bang their heads on the table or scratch themselves - this might be to try and make another sense overloaded to take the focus off their already overloaded senses.

If behaviours are indeed a meltdown and occuring due to sensory overloand, no amount of sanctions or rewards will stop this behaviour from happening. When the behaviour happens the child is no longer in full control of their actions. However, there are still some things you can do to support the child and to decrease the amount of meltdowns and challenging behaviours that occur.

1. Record - make a record of what happened. It is best to record what time it was, a brief account of what happened. What was happening before the event and what happened after the event. The aim of recording is to try and work out if there are any triggers for the meltdowns or if there is anything that happens afterwards that helps the child to become calmer and regain control. 
2. Reduce Triggers - if from the recording and observing you have worked out that there are certain triggers for meltdowns to occur then you could work to reduce or avoid those triggers. For example, if you have seen from your observations that loud noises are a trigger and the child is upset by loud noises, then you would try to avoid situations where loud noises may be likely to occur, such as activities involving fireworks. You may also try to lessen the loudness of any loud noises, for example, if you had a very loud door knocker on the door you might replace it with a more gentle doorbell to reduce the likely noise from this. 
3. Coping mechanisms - despite everyone's best intentions, it is impossible to avoid all triggers. This means that at some point the child you're supporting will experience sensory overload. As you know this is likely to happen, you can support your child to use coping mechanisms to help themselves when this inevitably occurs. For example, if you know that loud noises will be a trigger to a child then you might explain to the child that they need to carry ear defenders and put these onto their ears to block the noise when loud noises start occuring. You may also support a child to explain that in the event they don't have ear defenders they could put their hands over their ears to temporarily block out the sound and move to a quieter place. You need to work out that coping mechanisms will work for different triggers and then support the child to learn to use these gradually. 
4. Calm Down Techniques - there will always be times when a meltdown occurs despite trying to avoid this happening. When a meltdown occurs it is best to try and find methods to support the child to regain their calmness while limiting any behaviours that might hurt or break anything. So for example, if a child often becomes upset and starts banging their head, then you may want to have an area set aside with soft furnishings like cushions or bean bags so that they are unlikely to hurt their heads when doing this. If you know that they like soft lights or music then you may want to have soft lights or music in the area to help the child calm down. During the meltdown is not a time to discuss the behaviour with the child, they are not currently in control of their behaviours and they are already so overloaded that they are unlikely to be able to express themselves or explain things to you let alone be able to take in anything you are saying to them. Now is the time for calm reassuring words and comforts. 
5. Discussion - after a child has had sufficient time to calm after a meltdown - wait. When a child has just reached calm they are still feeling the effects of the adrenaline and fright that has gone through them during their meltdown. Discussing the incident with them at this point might lead to them getting upset and going into another meltdown. So once a child appears calm always wait a bit longer before discussing the incident with them. Once they are calm ask them to explain what happened and why they were upset. The information they give might help to feed into your recording and help you to spot triggers you might not have realised were upsetting the child. You can also discuss with the child any coping mechanisms they could have used and remind them that they need to try and use them next time this happens. 

 

But what if the behaviour is not a meltdown? What if it is a chosen behaviour?

Not all challenging behaviours will be as a result of a meltdown. It's often said that one way of telling a meltdown from a chosen behaviour, is if you give the child something they like a meltdown will not generally stop whereas a chosen behaviour often will. Just like with any child, there will be times when a child has chosen to act in a specific way. However, just like with all children, challenging behaviours are a form of communication, the child is trying to say something.  Working out what the child is trying to communicate is the best way to try and lessen the behaviours. For example, is the child trying to gain adult attention? Are they trying to get something they want? Are they bored of what they are doing? Are they trying to get out of something? Or a whole range of other reasons. There are some different methods you can use to try and lessen these behaviours:

1. Alternative ways to communicate - support the child to explain what they want without using behaviours to do this. For example, you might remind the child that if they want something they can ask for it, or provide the child with picture cards if they have limited verbal communication. 
2. Provide more of the thing they are trying to get - so if the child is wanting time with a particular toy, proactively give them more time with this toy before they choose to use challenging behaviour to try and get it. However, give them clear time limits and warnings of when their turn is going to end. 
3. Give them appropriate ways to get out of things they don't like for short periods - if you know a child finds a certain activity difficult and doesn't like it, give them an appropriate way of getting out of the activity for a short period. This allows them to take a break without disrupting the activity for others. You might tell them they can ask for a break, or you might give them a 'take a break' card they can give to an adult to leave the activity for a few minutes. You might use a timer and set an amount of time they can leave the activity for. 
4. Rewards - help children to understand when behaviour is appropriate by rewarding this behaviour. The rewards don't have to be big like toys or stickers, simple praise is a big motivator for most children. So if a child is at an activity you know they don't usually like then you can give them some praise for being there and joining in. You might also use a reward if a child does something for a specified time, like if they stay at an unfavoured activity for five minutes then they can have two minutes at a favoured activity. 
5. Sanctions - sometimes sanctions are necessary. However, I think the best sanctions are natural consequences from the behaviour. For example, telling a child they will now have to write 100 lines is not a natural consequence from them hitting a friend during play or throwing all the colouring pencils aroumd during an art lesson. A natural consequence is something that happens because of the behaviour. So for instance if the child hits a friend while playing, they might have to sit out of play for two minutes because they are not playing gently. If they have thrown the colouring pencils around during an art lesson then a natural consequence would be having to spend two minutes after the lesson missing their recess to pick the pencils up again. Personally, I think consequences work much better as they naturally explain to the child that the behaviour isn't helpful to others and also not to themselves. 

Not everyone will use all of these techniques as not all will work for everyone. Some people don't like using rewards and sanctions as they feel that these are extrinsic motivators for children and once the adults no longer support the child they will return to their old behaviours. Instrinsic motivators are better as these are motivations that come from within the child and will always exist. However, personally I think a mixture of the techniques helps overall. Using rewards and sanctions occasionally help to teach a child which behaviours are appropriate and which aren't.

However, this is all a learning process for everyone. No one can work out whether a behaviour is a meltdown or a chosen behaviour 100% of the time. We all get it wrong once in a while, and even when we get it right, we don't work out what the best course of action is in every instance. It is okay to get it wrong and it is okay to keep trying and keep observing to try and support the child more as you continue working with them. 

Disempowering Destructive Classroom Behaviours.

Picture the scene, you've just started teaching a new class. You have spent time over the holidays putting up displays to go with your new topic. Word walls and working walls, all backed neatly with pretty borders - a nice learning environment for the students. You've put out trays at the front with all your resources for the first week. Trays of work sheets, trays with question cards, games, arts and crafts materials and anything else you could think of that your students might need.

The first day comes and everything is going well. Until a student gets upset and despite you using your best de-escalation strategies the child gets more and more upset until they angrily tear down your displays, tip all your trays of resources onto the floor and begin shredding the worksheets you had neatly put out. You successfully manage to support the child to calm down and to help clear up the mess. You use the school's behaviour policy and enact whatever strategies they have in place for this.

But at the end of the day, you're left with a classroom which is no longer a nice learning environment, it's a mess, your resources have been destroyed and you're left with a lot of work to try and redo the displays in time for tomorrow. And you don't even know if this will happen again tomorrow.

This article isn't about how to support the child with their behaviour. You will already be on this, and the school policies on this will hopefully support the child. But we all know this is not an overnight process. So what can you do in the meantime?

Disempower the behaviour! Change how it affects you and your classroom. 

1. Rethink how you back your displays. Can you back them with cloth or vinyl type materials rather than paper so that if they are pulled down they are unlikely to rip and can be more easily put back up? Do you even need to back them at all? Are the boards covered in felt which would be good enough as a backing?
2. Rethink what you put on to your displays. Can you make the displays so that they are up for longer and so you can laminate the pieces that go on to the display? This would mean when they are pulled down they are unlikely to tear and can be put back fairly easily. If you like to put children's work onto the display consider using blutack to fix these onto laminated backing cards. This will mean if they are pulled down they are less likely to tear and may even be pulled down while still attached to the laminated backing card. You could also consider photocopying children's work and putting up the photocopy and keeping the original in a safe place so that it can be photocopied again if necessary. 
3. Make use of high shelves and lockable cupboard storage for resources you do not need immediate access to. Ensuring that your resources for the afternoon lessons or the rest of the week are safely stored away means that you can relax knowing that in the event of student becoming destructive your whole week's worth of work won't be destroyed. 
4. Use decoy bundles of papers in strategic places that you know can be destroyed with no impact to yourself or the other students. Scrap paper from the printer area can be used for this. Bundle it up into a tray as if it is going to be used for a lesson and place it closer to the student than any resources you need for the day. That way if a student becomes destructive the likelihood is that they will aim for that pile first giving you time to move any other trays of worksheets or resources into a cupboard is necessary. 
5. Have students do their work on separate sheets which are then glued into their books or filed into folders. That way if a student destroys their own work you will only lose one piece of their work rather than an entire book of work from the year. 

These strategies will not change the student's behaviour but they will hopefully help the behaviours to have less of an impact on you, your classroom and the other students.

Share with us in the comments any strategies you have used to try and decrease the impact of destructive behaviours in your classroom.