APPLICATION OF PBIS WITHIN A
CENTER-BASED PRESCHOOL
January, 17 2013
MAASE – SLIP Conference
Denise Ludwig, Ph.D.
David Ames, LMSW
Melissa Mercer, LMSW
GRAND RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Learner Objectives
• Participants will be able to describe the purpose and rationale of applying
Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) to preschool classroom,
home and community settings
• Participants will be able to identify family roles in implementation of PBIS
within home and community settings
• Participants will be able to describe the process used to implement PBIS
for the birth to five year old population through staff development,
learning walks, and teaching new and expanded skills to replace
challenging behaviors within the classroom, home and community settings
Program Components
• County wide home based services for birth
through 5 years old
• Parent groups
• Cross categorical ECSE classrooms
• Co-teaching and cluster inclusion models
• Transdisciplinary related services team
• Community based instruction
PBIS: Defined
- an evidence-based approach that
focuses on teaching new skills and
replacement behaviors to modify and
change undesired behavior
- for preschool = develop staff skill sets in
use of parent coaching and classroom
strategies for prevention and
replacement behaviors
Why did we align and implement PBIS with the
birth – five year population?
How did we align and implement PBIS with the
birth – five year population?
Process for Implementing PBIS
within a Center-Based Preschool
 Provide staff training regarding PBIS
 Staff identify critical elements of PBIS Initiative expectations as related
to the birth-five year population
 Staff define ‘behavior’ (for both classroom and home) and ‘strategies’
as related to the birth-five year population
 Develop PBIS Team
 Develop BERT Team
 PBIS Team identify evidence-based strategies for implementation
 PBIS Team develop staff manual for implementation (including embedding
expectations within lesson plan routines, documentation formats, common
vocabulary, resources, seamless service procedures)
IMPLEMENTATION PROCESS continued
 PBIS Team develops parent manual for implementation, including
parent ‘contract’
• Align PBIS terminology with customer-district expectations
 Implement strategies using classroom routines and parent coaching
model
 Complete Learning Walks for classroom and home community
programs
 PBIS Team evaluate data
 Ongoing evaluation of PBIS Process
Alignment of Preschool PBIS Model with
Elementary Model
Elementary Model
• Prevention
• Universal Expectations
for behavior
• All areas of the school
• Positive attention and
reinforcement of expected
behaviors
• Promote core values of
respect, responsibility and
safety
• Predictable consequences
• Interventions and strategies
are taught to reinforce
expectations
• Responding to inappropriate
behavior
Preschool Model
• Prevention
• Universal Expectations for
behavior
• All areas of home, community
and school
• Positive attention and
reinforcement of expected
behaviors
• Participation in home and school
routines, social play and safety
• Cued consequences
• Relative frequency of re-teaching
and reinforcing expectations
• Identifying and teaching
replacement behavior
Framework for Viewing Behaviors in
Preschoolers
•
•
•
•
•
•
All behaviors meet a need
All behaviors have a purpose
All behaviors serve a communicative intent
All behaviors are dependent on skills sets
All behaviors are reflective of environmental ecology
Interpretation of behavior utility is
determined by classroom team and/or parents
PBIS Team
• School Social Workers
• Teachers
• Service Coordinators
• School Psychologist
• Administrator
and for 0-3
• Parents/Guardians
Wellerwood Early Childhood Center
Ken-O-Sha Preschool
2010-2013
Welcome to B.E.R.T.
(Behavior Emergency Response Team)
B.E.R.T. is an in-building team that will aid classroom
staff during extreme behavioral emergencies by keeping
other students safe and away from the student who is
experiencing the extreme distress.
What B.E.R.T. is….
•
•
•
A response to an extreme student
behavior that cannot be dealt with by
classroom staff alone.
A team to provide support when one-onone intervention is required and help is
needed to maintain student learning and
safety.
Staff members who will remove other
students from the area of an emergency
in order to ensure safety and continued
learning.
What B.E.R.T. is not…
• Not a M.E.R.T. call.
• Not a Security drill (Code Red).
• Not a response to a known,
expected, or frequent behavior.
• Not an exemption from dealing
with challenging behaviors from
students.
PBIS Team Reviews Incidence and
Evidence-Based Strategies
• Incidence of Challenging Behavior: What Does
the Research say?
--Children with DISABILITIES exhibit challenging
behavior three times more often than children
without disabilities (Hemmeter, Ostrosky, &
Fox, 2006, U.S. General Accounting Office, 2001)
--10% to 40% of INFANTS AND TODDLERS WITH
DISABILITIES exhibit behavioral challenges
(23rd Report to Congress on IDEA, 2001)
Incidence of Challenging Behavior: What
Does the Research say?
The prevalence of SEVERE behavior problems is
estimated at 3-6% of the general preschool
population and 30% among LOW-INCOME
preschoolers (Qi & Kaiser, 2003)
--
-- There is a CORRELATION between LANGUAGE
DISORDERS and PROBLEM BEHAVIORS for BOYS
(Beitchman, et al, 2001; Feil, 2000**)
THE REALITY
For a parent with a 2-YEAR OLD with
Challenging Behavior, the INCIDENCE is
100%
Professional Development
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
School-wide expectations
Acknowledgment system
Positively stated expectations
Organized and predictable environment
Co-teaching
Home visit expectations
Staff manual
Family focused interventions for birth – three (strategies for
teaching specific behaviors, strategies for responding to
inappropriate behavior)
Preschool Classroom Model Universal
Expectations
Listening Ears
We do this by:
• Following Directions
• Responding to others
Walking Feet
We do this by:
• Walking into and out of the building
• Walking instead of running
• Keeping feet on the floor
Looking Eyes
We do this by:
• Looking at the teacher
• Looking at toys
• Looking at friends
Gentle Hands
We do this by:
• Keeping hands to self
• Using gentle touch
• Being gentle with friends
Be A Friend
We do this by:
• Saying hello and goodbye
• Sharing toys
• Waiting for your turn
Be Ready To Learn
We do this by:
• Hanging up backpack
• Putting away belongings
• Cleaning up
• Trying all activities
PBIS Staff Manual
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Components of PBIS:
– Clearly Defined Behavior Expectations
– Acknowldeging and Reinforcing Target Behaviors
– Consistently Responding to Challenging Behaviors
School-Wide Expectations
Behavior Expectation Matrix
Instructional Expectations for Lesson Plans
Understanding Behaviors
Universal Classroom Activities and Methods
BERT
Home Community Parent coaching Elements
Acknowledgement System
Functional Assessment
BIP
Parent Manual
Home Community Service:
Individualized Expectations
• Service Coordinator discusses “Framework for
Viewing Behaviors in Preschoolers”
• Parent(s) and Service Coordinator determine
expectations
• Parent Coaching for Strategies to respond to
inappropriate behaviors
• Parent Coaching for Strategies to teach new
replacement behaviors
• Embedded with Daily Routines
CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Disrupted Sleeping or Eating Routines
Physical Aggression
Verbal Aggression or Screaming
Throwing or Breaking Things
Severe Tantrums
Head Banging or Other Self-Injurious Behavior
Noncompliance
Withdrawal
New developmental skills
What is a Challenging Behavior?
A “Challenging Behavior” is any repeated
pattern of behavior that interferes with
• engagement in healthy social interactions
• participating in the
classroom or home
routine
• learning new things
with peers and adults
REASONS FOR CHALLENGING BEHAVIORS
1. To obtain/gain attention, desired object,
desired activity, sensory stimulation
2. To avoid/escape (difficult task, boring task,
physical demand, non-preferred activity,
parent/peer/adult
Who Determines If a Behavior is
Challenging?
Challenging Behaviors are defined by
classroom teams and individual families.
Classroom teams determine child behavior as
a function of participation in age appropriate
activities/routines.
Families’ perceptions of what constitutes an
appropriate or inappropriate behavior are
different, and dependent upon familial culture
and values.
Establish the Parent’s Concern(s)
• Allow the family to identify the behavior they would like to
see change
• Each family may have different priorities
Why Encourage Family Participation
• Parents are the primary variable in their child’s development
both now and in the future
• Parents know their child best
• Parents will always be present
• Parents have a real interest in seeing change
Support for Use of PBIS with Families
• Key principles in family centered service
1. family empowerment
2. social supports
3. building relationships as the basis for interventions
4. communication
5. parent access to information/services (Ludwig, D., 2009; Resch, J. 2010)
HOME PRACTICES: Identify Family
Structure
Variables that may impact family routines and practices:
– Family history
– Values
– Personal parenting style
– Make up of home
– Resources available
– Parents own experiences growing up
– Parents physical and mental health
– Parents schedules (jobs, etc…)
HOME PRACTICES: Build a Relationship
•
Respect the familial structure
•
Accept a parent’s truth (this may not change so work with it)
•
Practice active listening
•
Approach the situation with a “not knowing” attitude
•
Emphasize a parent’s strengths
•
Allow the family to set the agenda
•
Focus on functional goals for real activities
HOME PRACTICES: Why Use Routines
•
Natural places and activities that happen in a child’s life
•
Use of contexts in which a child needs to learn new skills
•
Use of natural and logical reinforcers –take into account a child’s preferences
•
Promote the development of new communication and social skills in predictable
settings
•
Allow for maintenance and generalization
•
Develop functional and meaningful plans that provide opportunities to practice
new skills
WHY PBIS HELPS PARENTS TO
UNDERSTAND BEHAVIOR?
Traditional response to challenging behaviors at home
may be punishment….
use of harsh punitive
discipline is associated
with an escalation of
Challenging
Behaviors…….
Understanding the Child’s Behavior
Understand the function or purpose of the behavior
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Decide which behavior is interfering with participation in home
routines. Which routines?
Decide how you want that behavior to change.
Observe the challenging behavior. What happens before and after the
behavior?
Develop an understanding of the purpose of the behavior
Modify the environment to increase desired new behavior
Identify new skills to teach (to get the same result)
Match the intervention to the purpose of the behavior
Focus on the purpose of the behavior.
Coaching Parents in Viewing Behavior
• How do you respond to your toddler’s or preschooler’s
challenging behavior?
• What have you done in response to his/her behavior?
• How do you feel when he/she acts this way?
• What has happened before this behavior?
• How do you think your child feels?
• Why do you think your child is behaving this way?
• Have there been any changes in your home that might help us
understand?
• How have these behaviors changed your relationship with
your child?
PBIS STRATEGIES: Use Prevention
Strategies
• Teach clear expectations for behavior within
routines
• Focus on presence of a positive behavior
• Address the environment to modify future
behaviors
PBIS STRATEGIES: Use Prevention Strategies
• Change the physical environment to support new skills (make
challenging behavior irrelevant)
• Use verbal, visual, and auditory cues to signal the beginning
and end of an activity
• Provide visual schedules
• Select reinforcer prior to activity
• Adapt and adjust expectations
• Break expectations into steps
• In the classroom have activities prepared and accessible
• Provide choices
• Provide an effective communication system for every child
PBIS STRATEGIES: Teach Replacement
Behaviors
• Teach an alternate behavior to serve the same purpose
• Teach a behavior that helps the child reach the purpose
quicker and easier than the challenging behavior
• When the purpose of the behavior cannot be honored (e.g.
kicking and screaming), teach a skill that will result in a
desired outcome, not just replace the behavior
PBIS STRATEGIES: Teach Replacement
Behaviors
Teach a child functional ways to communicate desires such as:
–
–
–
–
–
to request help
Request attention appropriately
Request a break
Say “No” or “All done”
Identify and express feelings
PBIS STRATEGIES: Teach
Replacement Behaviors
•
•
•
•
Use A Least to Most Prompting Procedure
Use Errorless Learning
Teach a child to wait for a reinforcer
Teach expected behaviors in every part of the
routine
• Use Over correction
• Teach during planned activities as well as
teachable moments
PBIS STRATEGIES: Responses to Challenging
Behavior
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Redirect/cue to use appropriate “new replacement skill”
State “exactly” what is expected
Use “wait-time”
Praise/reinforce when replacement behavior is performed
Use common and consistent language
Offer acceptable choices
Do not allow a child to escape expectations via the use of
challenging behaviors
Not SWIS…CHEDDAR
Child Educational Data Determines Appropriate Responses
• Classroom documentation
• Concern identified at home with parent
PBIS Works
• An integrated approach to applying PBIS
within the home can lead to positive
outcomes for both children and their parents.
Why PBIS Works for Children
• It creates a shared experiences where adults
and the environments respond predictably
• It creates shared expectations where adults
expect and teach same skills
• It increases functional skills for children that
are useful and generalize to multiple settings
Why PBIS Works for Parents
• It provides evidence-based supports to
address their child’s behavior
• It respects each child and family as unique
• It can be imbedded within a family’s daily
routine
• It focuses on teaching the skills parents want
their child to learn
Why PBIS Works for Center-based
Preschool Programs
•
•
•
•
It is an evidenced-based practice
It focuses on teaching
It is individualized to meet every child’s needs
It creates a predictable environment that
allows for multiple learning opportunities
• It can be imbedded in all parts of a child’s day
• It prepares children for their receiving
program
APPLICATION OF PBIS WITHIN A
CENTER-BASED PRESCHOOL
Thank you !