I always love adding more behavioral reinforcement systems to my bag of tricks for two reasons. The first being, behavior and communication go hand in hand. Our behavior is one way we communicate how we feel. As therapists, we have to shape the way children communicate how they feel by teaching them to use their WORDS and problem solve situations. I get kiddos who can’t stay in their seat, are off task, TOUCH EVERYTHING, shout out in the group and the occasional kiddo who has extreme behaviors (i.e. knocking over furniture, yelling, tantrums, cussing, etc.). I want my students to be successful in my room, so having extra tricks for these squirrely types of kids makes life easier for me and them. Secondly, the more resources we can provide for our teachers and team makes us valuable professionals on our campuses!
One of my colleagues and her para educator came up with a great visual reinforcement system that has worked well with a couple of her students. I wanted to share their simple, yet POWERFUL idea with you today. When you need to shape your student’s squirrely off task behavior, you can use this system to keep him/her focused. First, you explain to your students what “squirrelly” means. Then you can tell your students “In class we CAN NOT be squirrely squirrels. We have to sit at our desk, complete all our work and then turn it in. At recess we can be squirrely and run all around.” The student can start off with 3 to 5 squirrel tokens. You can take a toke away each time the student is being “squirrely”. However many squirrel tokens they have left can be put towards computer time, prize box, or earn “school dollars”. This is a great visual reminder for students to think about there behavior. This system can also work for those kids who are not motivated to get all their work completed. You can get those squirrel visuals HERE. Let me know how you keep your kids motivated in the speech room. How do you help your special ed. and general ed. teachers with behavior interventions?
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