Tag: Autism behavior management. Positive reinforcement. Token Economy. Special Education

Tips on How to Promote Positive Behavior in Preschool and Special Ed Classrooms

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The main aim in my classroom is to create a positive friendly environment to begin teaching, sometimes I find myself going around in circles… but I love it! Running a successful Special Ed class, in my opinion, requires a combination of effective communication and visual supports and I know by incorporating both I can significantly enhance positive behavior in my class. In this blog, I’ll guide you through how I combine critical communication skills with visual supports to promote behavior management in my wonderful class!

Tip 1: Define Clear Expectations

I always start by establishing clear behavioral expectations through visual supports and by engaging students with visuals of my classroom rules.

Then I teaching critical communication skills to ensure that every student’s perspective, abilities and needs are considered.

Tip 2: Collaboratively Create Visual Aids

I always Involve my students in creating visual aids and support systems of their preferences to promote a sense of ownership, decorated with pictures of their interests and motivators. Through discussions and choosing sessions, I guide them in designing posters, charts, or cards that visually represent each behavioral expectation. I find this collaborative approach offers a deeper understanding of the rules and a sense of responsibility for them to follow.

Tip 3: Display Visual Supports Strategically

By strategically placing visual aids in areas where they can be easily seen and accessed. A choice of support cards, critical communication aids such as “Break” and “Help” are always easy for students to find and I discuss with staff how the visual aids will help everyone remember and adhere to the agreed-upon behavioral expectations.

Tip 4: Teach and Model Behavior

Utilize critical communication skills to teach and model positive behavior. I engage my students when behaviors are demonstrated to the supporting visuals, and encourage them to share their thoughts and solutions, promoting critical thinking with self regulation supports.

Tip 5: Implement a Collaborative Reward System

I work with my students to design a reward system that aligns with their preferences. Use critical communication skills I gather their input on incentives and rewards for positive behavior to establish a system where students feel empowered to make decisions about their own motivation. An individualised Visual Schedule, Token Economy Support are particularly valuable for my Classroom Behavior Management. It lets students know what activity they need to do, what motivator they can work for and supports them throughout the school day.

Its been hard work with many an hour planning and preparing but its been worth every second!

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Token Board Ideas

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Token Boards can come in all shapes and sizes but they all should do the same thing… Motivate, Regulate and Reinforce Positive Behavior.

With the Summer term fast approaching I wanted to incorporate some fun and uniqueness into my Boards!

ICE LOLLIE AND BUBBLE GUM TOKEN BOARDS

Funny looking I know! but fresh and engaging for the last term with my little brigade.

Children in my class learn and work at different levels and use token reward systems with motivators they’ve chosen, so I made sure there was a place for the motivator picture and a bunch of others to alternate between if needed. I always adapt the Boards to meet each child’s interests and needs, this in its self makes them unique enough to motivate them to learn in my busy classroom.

Token are used like an IOU and once collected can be exchanged for the actual reinforcer they’ve chosen. Students can start off collecting 3 token before gaining their reinforcer and build up to 10 tokens once the concept is mastered and they’re ready to learn a little longer.

Reinforcers are offered before the task starts and tokens are distributed throughout.

Working with Emotion Visuals & Reinforcement Tools

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Grab a free download of a “How are you feeling” card to try with your classroom!

I was finding it difficult to teach my learners in Special Ed how to recognise their feelings and emotions. Teaching my amazing kinder how to label their emotions was a difficult skill, and being unprepared when these emotions presented was sometimes a tricky process to catch and implement. 

I had to be prepared! and start to teach them how to recognise their feelings by encouraging them to label how they feel with visuals when I saw them displaying negative or happy emotions myself.

I also created opportunities for my students to recognise emotions and facial expressions of others and practice them in lesson. I always try to incorporate a number of social skill activities where my students can have an opportunity to recognise someone happy, sad, angry and practice labelling facial expressions with visual cues.

Some of my students got it straight away but some would need practice, practice, practice. Once I’m happy that my students can recognise how they are feeling and can tell or show me, I will use a quick visual tool “How are you feeling” card to establish if they feel ready to work or what they need to feel better.

I show them a selection of motivators that they can choose from that could help them feel better and ready to try some work.

Being able to choose a motivator to use with a Token economy system becomes a powerful reinforcement tool.

So once the motivator is established, I encourage them to place it next to the “I’m working for” box before starting their task.

Depending on their mood and ability to concentrate will determine how fast they gain their tokens and get rewarded with the motivator they’ve chosen.

I always keep a selection of these handy tools at work stations and calm down areas!

If you want to try out this strategy and begin encouraging your students to label their emotions I’m giving away free trial cards and emoji colouring faces for you to download below.

Click here to download a free “How your feeling chart”

Tips for setting up Visual Schedules in Special ED

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Having a selection of Communication Strategies ready to use is always a good idea in Special Ed! Having a visual schedule is one strategy I find very effective in class. Below I’ve listed my schedule tips and other strategies that have really helped my young leaners settle into a structured learning environment.

Visual Schedules – Set out visuals to reflect the order of the class day. They should be designed to support your student through a smooth transition eg. from activity to activity, room to room or within tasks.  

Here are some quick tips for setting up and getting started!

1. START SIMPLE – Make visuals for just meaningful times of the day eg, morning work, break, lunch etc,  this will help your young students learn to recognise and correspond each picture with each of the activities.

2. BUY A LAMINATOR – Your laminator will become important! If you want all your hard work to last, laminate all mounts and visuals because they are going to go through a tough time!

3. WALL MOUNT  – Mount on a wall, the schedule must be low enough for your student to access and take away finished symbols in the daily routine. 

4. USE A FINISHED BOX – Attach a finished box at the end or side of the schedule to drop the finished visuals in before starting a new activity. 

5. TRY A FILE FOLDER – A portable schedule can be used in a file folder in the same way as a wall mounted one. I find these easier with older children to check into the activities and more efficient in busy classrooms. Pop their name on it and keep all their individual support visuals in one place. 

6. MODLE AND PRACTICE – Always model, practice and remind your busy student at the beginning of each activity to, “check in”.  Make a plan to pull back on all prompting until they begin to use this system independently!

Timers – For giving a break and reminding students how long they need to work and how long left on free time!

Routines – Keep Break, Lunch and free choice the same time each day!

Consistency – All staff should use the same strategies and follow this classroom management structure!

Positive Reinforcers – Use token reward boards, First and Then, Behavior regulation tools and Reward systems tailored to individual interests and likes!

Communication – Critical skills for Functional Communication, a means in which your non verbal student is able to request a “break” “help”  or asked to “wait”

Colour Coordinate – For some of my young learners I’ve introduced portable schedules, that I’ve colour coordinated! 
I’m pleased it offers all the strategies I wanted to incorporated throughout the day.
I keep them in a handy place for my students to access first thing in the morning and follow the schedule by checking into the work areas they need to complete.
There’s a set place in the booklet for the schedule symbols, a token reward system, plus a place for reinforcer visuals and Critical Communication cards so students can ask for a Break or Help, all while reminding and keeping a consistent approach that staff can help students to follow!

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How to use First and Then Visuals

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Children with SPED can sometimes find a classroom a bit confusing and can quickly become distressed with all the changes that are taking place around the room. My job is to help keep them calm and cope with what is happening. Sometimes I use visual supports to prepare and explain what is happening next.

I have found the “First and Then” Strategy a visual way of understanding what is expected throughout the day and a simple start to scheduling. As part of my structured teaching environment I use this simple timetable with individual work and in class activities.

Before starting a task and after a motivator assessment my young learners are offered a selection of visual reinforcers to choose from, this icon is placed in the “Then” side of the board.

And I place the icon of the task to be completed on the “First” side of the board. While teaching this strategy for the first few times I use quick errorless tasks and partially prompt my student if they become distressed.

Once established, my student will learn to follow the first activity independently and transfer to the next activity shown.

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