Young Children - May 2008 - (Page 19) Children’s challenging behavior during transitions may be related to how program staff structure, schedule, and implement transitions. or the classroom rules and routines are different than at home. Additionally, the program may be only one of several places where the child spends time each day (for example, Head Start, child care, relative care), and there may be different expectations in each setting. It is possible that at one site children must remain seated during snack until all children are finished eating and at another site individual children may leave the table and look at a book while other children finish. Children also may not understand what to do when program staff implement routines differently on different days (for example, on some days children wash their hands, then get their placemats for snack; and on other days they get their placements first and then wash). Some children may have a difficult time with transitions due to disabilities (difficulty with change is a characteristic of autism, for example) or limited communication, socialemotional, or cognitive skills. For example, some children may take longer to process directions. If adults give too many directions at once or give oral directions without cues, such as holding up a backpack to signal that it is time to go home, these children may not know what to do. In these situations, teachers may view the child as engaging in challenging behavior rather then recognizing that the child needs to learn a skill or receive additional cues to understand the direction. Mary Louise Hemmeter, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. She is the director of the Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning and faculty on the Technical Assistance Center for Social Emotional Interventions. ml.hemmeter@vanderbilt.edu Michaelene M. Ostrosky, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is also a faculty member on the Center on the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. ostrosky@uiuc.edu Kathleen M. Artman, MEd, is a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University. She has taught young children with multiple disabilities in inclusive early childhood settings and is working on projects related to professional development around challenging behavior. Kathleen.m.artman@vanderbilt.edu Kiersten A. Kinder, MEd, is a doctoral student in early childhood special education at Vanderbilt University. She has nine years of teaching experience in inclusive preschool classrooms and is working on developing effective professional development and ongoing support for teachers. kiersten.a.kinder@vanderbilt.edu. This article is available online in Beyond the Journal, May 2008, at www.journal.naeyc.org/btj/200805. Finally, some children may engage in challenging behavior during transitions because they do not want to stop what they are doing, they do not want or need to go to the next activity, or the transition occurs without warning. Consider a child who is making a block structure when the teacher says it is time to line up and go to the bathroom or children who are looking at books when the teacher announces it is snack time. These situations often result in challenging behavior because the children are not motivated for, in need of, or interested in the next activity. Sometimes teachers may not realize why children are having challenging behavior and may assume that a child is having a bad day, is ignoring the teacher, or is stubborn, when in fact the child may not know what to do. It is important to consider all the possible reasons a child is having a difficult time and then identify strategies to support the child during transitions. In the next section, we provide ideas and strategies for planning, designing, and implementing transitions to support all children and to decrease the likelihood that challenging behavior will occur. Plan for success Designing a schedule that minimizes transitions and maximizes the time children spend engaged in developmentally appropriate activities is the first step in decreasing challenging behavior. Schedules in which children engage in planned activities or projects for significant periods of Young Children • May 2008 19 © Bob Ebbesen http://www.journal.naeyc.org/btj/200805
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