by Making Room on Saturday, 15 January 2011 at 23:58
“He
falls to the ground and starts screaming whenever I ask him to come in
from recess!” The teacher was exasperated, I could tell by the look on
her face. Something needed to be done and that’s why she had invited me
to her morning staff meeting. As a Behavior Analyst one of my primary
responsibilities within my school district is to “problem solve”
behavior problems. I wanted to share with you the first step that I
take in that process in the hopes that it may give you another way of
problem solving challenging behaviors or allow you to ask better
questions (which usually result in better answers!) of people who are
responsible for your child’s challenging behaviors at school or in a
community setting.
The first step in problem solving a challenging behavior is to ask yourself (or others), “Is this a CAN’T DO problem or a WON’T DO problem?”
It is very very important to answer that question before attempting to
implement a solution. Failure to do so will often result in more
problem behavior!
“CAN’T DO” problem behaviors. These
are behaviors that are due to your child’s inability to perform a
specific skill. Because your child cannot perform the specific skill,
s/he will engage in whatever behavior is necessary in order to
communicate this fact to you! In the above example, the learner may
have been engaging in a tantrum because he did not have the ability to
say, “I don’t want to stop swinging and go back inside. Can I stay
outside a little bit longer?” The solution for CAN’T DO problem
behaviors is to TEACH the skill that is needed. In this case, the
learner, if not able, should be taught a more appropriate way (words,
sign language, pictures) to be able to communicate his desire. If the
only way he has is to communicate is through “body language” then that’s
how he’s going to get his point across!
“WON’T DO”
problem behaviors. These are behaviors that are due to your child’s
lack of motivation to want to follow an instruction. S/he knows how to
do what you are asking, but does not want to do it! In the above
example, the learner had the ability to say, “I don’t want to go inside”
(and in fact DID say this!). His issue was that he simply was not
ready to come back inside! The solution for WON’T DO problem behaviors
is to create MOTIVATION. In this case, we needed to find a way to make
following directions more beneficial from his perspective, and if
successful in doing this, he would follow directions to come inside.
The
bottom line is this: you could offer me $100 to solve a complex
trigonometry problem and it just isn’t going to happen. I don’t know
how to do it! You could spend a lot of time trying to teach me how to
pick up my socks (which I know how to do) and put them in the
laundry…but if I’m not motivated to do it, I’m not going to do it!
Solving CAN’T DO problems with motivation and WON’T DO problems with
teaching a known skill typically does not work. CAN’T DO problem
behaviors require teaching. WON’T DO problem behaviors require creating
motivation.
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