What you don't know can hurt your child

For the past few weeks I have been able to work with parent focus groups. Several things stand out to me. The first is that many parents do not expect much from schools. Next, it seems that school are notorious for pointing out problems and offering no reasonable solutions and Lastly, parents that are not able to come to the "table" with interventions have kids who miss the entire problem solving in Student Study Teams (SST). Its like you are sneezing and when you tell your doctor he suggest that you get nostril surgery. That doesn't make sense especially since there are so many reasons why you may be sneezing and many more treatments for the symptoms. In education, schools love to jump to the extreme end of the spectrum. Next thing you know the setting has caused a perfectly normal child to end up in special education or at the negative end of school discipline.

Parents if a teacher or school calls you in and says "Johnny is not sitting in his seat as well as his peers." You should ask what the teacher/school is going to do in addition to your assistance to help Johnny stay in his seat. Besides talking, a lack of focus, and a child getting out of their seat are some of the most common behaviors found in children. This is normal behavior that needs to be used as an opportunity to teach more appropriate and acceptable behaviors for the setting. Having said that, a teacher should have several strategies including adjusting the environment, interacting frequently with the student to prevent unnecessary movement, maintaining visibility, and 1,000 other strategies for a child getting to stay in their seat. Maybe the expectation to sit for such long periods of seatwork is inappropriate.

If Johnny is out of his seat, request that the teacher/administrator allow you to assist them in developing a plan to address the behavior. Think about it. When a child doesn't sit at home does this mean they have a disability or do they get sent to a special place that helps them to sit? Probably not. School is a place for kids and they must be dealt with using developmentally and culturally appropriate practices.

A plan for Johnny should state the undesired behavior "out of seat". No more than two undesired behaviors can really be addressed at once. What you will find is that teachers throw all behaviors together. As a team you need to be very specific. Is the child making unnecessary noises? Are they not on task? Are they not following written directions? These are all separate behaviors and have to be addressed individually. Don't throw them all together. The teacher should narrow down when and where the behavior takes places and if there are certain people around when it happens. There may be no trigger (things that cause a child to act) and the behavior may not have a pattern but it needs to be ruled out first. Start with precise observations.

A plan should detail which interventions, no more than two at a time, will be used to redirect the child's behavior. There needs to be a record by the teacher of the times of the day the behavior occurs and the child's reaction to the consequences (interventions). The teacher should be doing this for at least 6 weeks. The point is to see if the interventions are working to change the behaviors. This means it is important that the interventions are implemented as planned. Unless there is an emergency, the teacher should not be changing the interventions unless the plan has been changed. If after 6 weeks we find the interventions did not work, as documented by the teacher, we try another set of interventions. Remember the plan outlines what the teacher and parents will do to support the child learning new behavior or replacing old behaviors. A common mistake is to have a plan that ONLY tells what the child will do. If the child could change their own behavior they would not need parents or teachers.

Although commonly used, it would not be appropriate to send a child who is out of their seat, to another class. This is a good break for the teacher but has nothing to do with helping the child learn to sit at the appropriate times. There is no research to support helping a child learn to sit in their class by sending them to another class. Another ineffective method is a sticker chart. A sticker chart only tells you what the child did or did not do, it doesn't tell you about what may have set the child off, what the teacher is doing to teach the child or how the child responds to what the teacher is doing. According to No Child Left Behind everything that teachers do should be research-based to be effective for what they are using it for. I highly recommend that parents invest in resources such as the Pre Referral Intervention Manual (PRIM). You can find it at Amazon.com. There are two manuals. Get both if you can. The most important aspect of all of this is to have the interventions applied systematically not randomly. Parents and teachers need to keep record of this process together. Now its called Response to Intervention (RTI) but whether or not your child's school is using RTI or not you have the right to interventions.

So the next time, you are told your child is demonstrating behavioral or academic behaviors that are concerning, ask the school/teacher what they are going to do to address it. It is not the child's responsibility alone to change their behaviors. It is not the parents responsibility alone to change the child's behaviors. It is the teachers and parents duty to support children as they learn. Get a plan and come in with possible interventions. What you don't know could land your child in disciplinary trouble, retention, or an unnecessary referral for special education.

Stay Informed!