The first meeting took place in March, at North Whittier Andrews School with a second grade teacher. After multiple encounters with a second grade student in the office, I decided to reach out to the teacher to further understand the student’s situation. After contacting the teacher and viewing the student’s records I was able to gather more information. The second grade student was advanced in math, reading, and writing and for the past few weeks the student has had difficulties physically staying in class and completing classwork.
He is a part of the after school program and gets picked up until 6:00 a. m. everyday. He lives with mom and dad, but work during the day, but each takes turns dropping him off in the morning. He cries and runs out of the classroom and stays in the office until he goes back to class or his parent comes. I set up a time with the teacher to establish a working relationship to further assist the teacher with implementing certain strategies to lessen the undesired behavior. It was agreed upon to observe the second grade student, in the morning, at recess, and during the afterschool program.
There was a discussion of expectation and the process, collaborating with individual roles. The first meeting discussed the student that would be the main focus, discussing the behaviors of the child that was occurring. After a few observations the teacher and myself would collaborate with different ways of implementing an effective plan. I would do weekly check-ins to see if the undesired behavior decreased. Exploration The first observation took place during the morning transition. When the mother dropped off the student, the student started to cry once he entered the classroom.
The student was yelling and screaming uncontrollably, the teacher ignored the behavior and continued with gathering the other students. The student continued to cry and then ran out of the classroom. The teacher called the front office to inform them of the student’s actions and the nurse went looking for him. After five minutes, the student was sitting in the nurse’s office, seemingly upset and distraught. The student then took off and went running to the other side of the school. Once the student was brought back to the nurse office, parents were called.
The student’s father arrived within 15 minutes and was comforting the student. The parent consoled the student for 30 minutes and brought the student back to class. The student sat at his desk and did not complete any assignments. At recess, he was playing with a few friends, but still did not complete all his work. The second observation was again to observe the morning transition. Again the student cried uncontrollably and could not self regulate. The teacher, at first, ignored the student’s actions, but then confronted the student.
The teacher pulled him aside to discuss behaviors and to reiterate what his father had talked about the previous morning. The student seemed to have calmed down, but then took off. The teacher called the front office and the principal went looking for the student. The student was unresponsive to the presence of the principal and ignored the principal’s instructions to go to the office. The principal gave the student space and stood in a location in a comfortable distance away without the student seeing the principal. After ten minutes the student started to walk towards the office.
Student stood in the office for 20 minutes until the principal escorted the student back to class. The student sat out during recess because he did not complete reading assignment. The third observation, I observed the student during the afternoon. He remained involved with the class and was volunteering and socializing with other students. He was helping other students finish their work and played soccer with a few friends from class during afternoon recess. The next observation was during the after school program, which he was very distant with all the students in his group.
He seemed to isolate himself and did not try to socialize with anyone in the group. He did not want to join in on the different activities so he was directed to sit away from the group. He was to himself and did not seem to enjoy his time there. He was able to complete some homework with individual guidance from a staff member, but did not interact with the staff member. In regards to the A-B-C model, there are many noticeable trends that I observed. As to (A)ntecedent the transition from parent leaving student at school is when the (B)ehavior occurs.
Once the behavior occurred, I observed different (C)onsequences from the teacher, once she ignored the student another is parents were called which could suggest attention seeking. Outcome Goals and ObjectivesAfter the first few observations, the teacher and I met to discuss a general goal for the student. The teacher’s main concerns were to carry out a plan that would allow her be flexible to be present with the entire class at the same time be present for the student. The teacher was very willing to implement any strategy to monitor the student as well as keep the student and the class safe.
The general goal was to increase on task behavior and to stay in class and not run out of the classroom, as this is a huge cause of concern for the student’s safety. In addition, the goal was to help the student develop the necessary skills for the student to be successful. The teacher and myself came up with multiple strategies, but it did not seem effective. The first goal was using a sticker rewards system for the student. The student was in charge of daily tasks such as being the morning leader. He was the line leader and helped the teacher carry any papers, to distract from the morning transition of missing his parents.
The student was also in charge of taking attendance and lunch count as a means of having a specific duty in order for the student to feel accomplished. If the student did this, he would earn two stickers. A chart was created for the student to visually see his sticker chart. It was agreed upon, with the support and input of his parents, if the student filled up the chart, he would be able to play on his iPad for 10 minutes during class, and an extra 30 minutes at home. After a week of minimal progress, the teacher and I reconvened and came up with another plan.
During a conversation between the teacher and student, the student mentioned he was afraid his parents would not pick him up and he was afraid something was going to happen to them and he would be stuck at school. This directed the obiective of the goal to reflect anxiety and stress of a student. The new plan was designed to teach the student how to self regulate, social skills, executive functioning, negative thought stopping, and flexible thinking. Strategy Development and Implementation As previously mentioned, the first strategy implemented showed no change in the student’s behavior.
The student was still crying and leaving the classroom. The teacher or office personnel would continue to call the parents. After an important conversation between the teacher and student, the strategies were steered to center on helping the student self regulate and stop the negative thought. To avoid overwhelming a student and provoking a behavioral incident, implementing an “Cool Down Box” consistently throughout the day would help the student remain calm, which included a calming box that contained small items placed on the student’s desk such as play dough, silly putty, and noise reducing headphones.
The daily schedule was placed on the student’s desk, which was ideal to help the student visually see what was needed of him to stay focused on school performance. In addition a “My Coping Tool” card was created as a way of self-monitoring to understand different emotions, with the goal of helping the student practice coping skills to self regulate. The student, teacher, and parents discussed the card to guide the student with how to use it. When the student felt a negative emotion, he could then decide what tool/break he needed to use, including the cool down pass.
Once he had 10 minutes of his break, he would mark his new emotions. The student would decide when he needed a break or if the teacher observed a needed break, she would meet individually with the student to help fill out the card. It was important to focus on transition periods, as this seemed to be a difficult time for the student. It was observed that during transition periods, the student would be overwhelmed. The student continued to be the special helper in the morning and continued to help the teacher carry things to the classroom.
In addition, the teacher would find time to praise the student when she saw fit. The student seemed like the schedule on his desk and would view continuously. He was able to visually see what was expected of him and what tasks needed to be done. The coping tool card took some time to understand so the first few times when the student was seemingly worried or started to cry the teacher and him would fill out his card together. The student also loved being the morning helper, as it seemed to distract him from getting anxiety.
In addition, the breaks decreased the number of instances where the student would cry and leave the classroom. Maintenance Through maintenance, the teacher would eventually assign a number of break cards to teach other students in need of staying occupied with work. This would also help the student build on skills to self regulate and use break cards when they felt they really needed it. It would raise self-awareness for the student on how much he could handle. In addition the teacher would provide random acts of encouragements.
Daily notes would be sent to parents to keep them informed and in constant communication. Termination Developing skills to manage anxiety is important to help develop because often times anxiety and stress can affect different areas of a student’s academic success. The strategy was maintained for a while and eventually the student was able to self regulate and did not need to cards to be placed on his desk. When he started to feel overwhelmed he simply took out an object from his box and was able to focus back on his class work.