Behavioral Support Plans in Early Childhood Education

Behavioral Support Plans

 For my final paper, I am going to be discussing some behavior support plans

for children. I will also be describing what the purpose is for behavior management

in Early Childhood Education settings, and including why it’s important to think

proactively. I will also incorporate some specific challenging behaviors. Also, in

my final paper, I will discuss three strategies that teachers or educators may use in

order to determine functions of challenging behaviors and design an individual

support plan for each one of the challenging behaviors which will include the

functions that are possible for the behavior, specific positive behavior supports,

and replacement behaviors. Lastly, I will be summarizing the role of the teacher in

designing and implementing a behavior plan for a classroom.

 The main purpose of having behavior management in the Early Childhood

Education setting is to help the children be able to exhibit behaviors that are

conducive to learning and to be able to teach children social behaviors so that

 they will know how to behave appropriately at school and at home as well. I truly

 believe that behavior management is a very crucial topic in the education field,

 especially in Early Childhood Education. 

  Classroom behavior management refers to the discipline system that teachers

 and also, schools put into place in order to teach their students how to control their

 behavior. It includes things as simple as how to submit assignments in the

classroom and as complicated as how to handle bullying in the classroom/school.

Effective classroom management maximizes student learning because there is less

time that is being spent on commotions and other behavior issues that could occur

(Zimmerman, 2012).

 One very important rule of behavior management in an Early Childhood

Education setting is that teachers/educators need to be consistent in everything

that they are doing and teaching in the classroom. It does not matter what method

a teacher/educator chooses to use in their classroom, they just need to be

consistent with it so that it will work effectively. If children notice that the

teacher is being erratic how they respond to challenging behavior, they will not

be as eager to make the appropriate choice as to how to behave correctly in the

classroom. If a teacher/educator is able to create and implement a behavior

management plan that is successful in their classroom, the classroom will be a

safe and welcoming environment for the children which will the children excited

about coming to school and they will be ready and eager to learn each day.

 Behavior management in an Early Childhood Education setting also helps to

reduce behavior problems and it also changes the attitudes of children. Effective

behavior management skills will include challenging behaviors, strategies that

teachers can use to be able to determine the functions of challenging behaviors

and having an individual support plan for each of the challenging behaviors that

 are being exhibited in the classroom. Behavior management is also important in

being able to prevent any behavioral problems that children may bring into the

 classroom. Some such behaviors may include hitting, biting, kicking, and acting

 out of control while in the classroom. These certain behaviors are known as

 challenging behaviors. Some children that exhibit these types of challenging

behaviors may suffer from certain disorders such as ADHD or even ADD.

It is very important that teachers/educators create a plan that would help

reduce any behavior problems that is occurring in the classroom. When there are

good behavior management skills being used in the classroom, there will be a lot

fewer disruptions to occur and children will be focused on their school work.

 I think that it is very important to think proactively because when you are

being proactive you do not let others or their actions try to dictate how you think

and behave. It is very important that teachers/educators are proactive when

working with children, especially children in the Early Childhood Education

setting. It is very important that teachers/educators also realize that when creating

and implementing a behavior plan that sometimes a certain strategy may not work

but it is okay to make changes and choose another strategy that will coincide with

the child and their behavior resulting in having positive results in the end.

Applied Behavioral Analysisor ABA is a type of therapy that focuses on

improving certain behaviors and is highly effective for children that have

psychological disorders. When teachers are using Applied Behavioral Analysis,

they will be able to determine what behaviors the child is exhibiting that is

needing to change. The teacher will then set goals and what outcomes they

would like to see. Teachers will need to establish ways on how they will make

changes and improvements in the classroom to help the child be able to change

their challenging behavior. The teacher will need to evaluate the child now and

record the results. The teacher will need to help the children to learn new behavior

 skills and learn how to avoid any negative behavior. The teacher should review the

progress that the child is making on a regular basis and be sure to record the

results. After each review, the teacher needs to determine whether any more

 modifications need to be made.

 Another strategy would be for teachers to perform a Functional Behavioral

Assessment. For teachers and educators to be able to determine the functions of

behavior to write an effective Functional Behavior Analysis, they will need to

collect data. There are three different kinds of data that teachers and educators can

use to be able to determine the functions of behavior: Indirect Observational

Data, Direct Observational Data, and if needed there is Experimental observational

Data. Teachers can find forms that are available for use online to collect data.

 For teachers using Indirect Observational Data, the first thing that they will

need to do is to talk to the child’s parents, former teachers or other teachers that the

child has throughout the school day and any other people that has supervised the

child for any reason. When the teacher is talking to these people, they will need to

give a very detail description of the behavior.

 For teachers using the Direct Observational Data, they will record how

frequently a child exhibits a certain behavior during a certain time period. The

teacher can use a tool that is called a scatter plot that will be able to show if they

are any patterns of how often the behavior is occurring in the classroom.

 If a teacher finds that the Indirect Observational Data and the Direct 

Observational Data is not being effective, they could try the Experimental

Observational Data. This kind of Observational data is when the teacher would

actually set up the observation in another room instead of inside the actual

classroom. They will need to record the results two different ways… paper and

recording the observation on videotape are two great ways to record the results.

 Once the teacher or educators has collected enough information about the

child’s behavior, they will be able to complete their analysis and be able to create a

behavior action plan so that the child, their parents, and the teacher can implement

the action plan, they can begin to monitor and evaluate to see if the goals and

objectives that have set in the action plan is, in fact, being met. With ongoing

review and evaluating, teachers and parents can change and adjust the behavior

action plan if changes are needed.

Example of a Behavior Intervention Plan

          Name Susie Q. Jones        Start Date of BIP 2/18/2019

References:

• Drecktrah, Ph.D. , M. and Marchel, Ph.D. , M. (2007). Functional Assessment: Analyzing Child Behavior. Earlychildhood NEWS – Article Reading Center. [online] Earlychildhoodnews.com. Available at: http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?domainredirect=true&ArticleID=255 [Accessed 16 Feb. 2019].
• Kaiser, B. & Sklar Rasminsky, J. (2012). Challenging behavior in young children. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
• Neislen, S.L., Olive, M.L., Donovan, A. & McEvoy, M. (1998). Challenging behaviors in your classroom? Young Exceptional Children, 2 (1), 2-10.
• O’Neill, R.E., Horner, R.H., Albin, R.W., Sprague, J.R. & Storey, K. (1997). Functional assessment and program development for problem behavior: A practical handbook (2^nd ed.) Pacific Grove, CA: Brookes/Cole.
• Alberto, P.A., & Troutman, A.C. (1999). Applied behavior analysis for teachers (5^th ed.). Columbus, OH: Merrill.