What are some key behavior principles to use in class?
What are a few key behavioral principles that teachers can use in the classroom with students with autism, autism and other intellectual and developmental disabilities? Well, that's a big one, Dorothy. So it's the submarine. Oh, well, maybe a few things. I think are important. I think that one. I think that it's important to understand that people. So students do not choose necessarily to engage in problem behavior. So you're a teacher, you get frustrated. You're like, I knew better. Why is he doing that? I think it's really important that even though we may not be aware of the reinforcing contingencies that are happening, they're there. And so kids engage in problem behavior because of an and appropriate behavior, because of reinforcer. So understanding how reinforcers work and understanding and programming those in our environments or modifying our environment. So that kids can easily contact reinforcers for things that will help them. And maybe they're not as available for things that are harmful to them. I think it's really important for us to understand this kind of principal reinforcement. Another thing that I think is really important that people kind of miss is maybe not one of the most basic guess. It's not one of the big principles. We talk about reinforcement and punishment and those types of things with this thing called a post reinforcement pause. I think we talk about it a little bit. And one the modules. But this idea that many times when an individual engages in a behavior for a long period of time. And it's pretty continually reinforced. Right he gets what he wants. That when we give that individual what they want, there is a brief break in that. And so what happened. Are a brief cessation of that problem of behavior. And what we see oftentimes as people implement strategies that they think are reducing the problem behavior because the behavior starts momentarily, but they really actually strengthen that problem behavior. And you see it continue over time. So a kid melts down, he's upset. He's working, doing some work task, and then you remove him. It's OK. Go over to the Calm Down Corner and it calms down into yourself. You're like, it works great. But you notice, he does it every single day. And so that moment stop a problem behavior does not equate to working long term. I think that's something that we some that we miss oftentimes as educators.
Rob Pennington, Ph.D. highlights some key behavior principals you can use in your class today.