TCSE Behavior Assistance

The TCSE BITS team will be accepting new behavior referrals. We hope this process assists our member districts with additional training and resources. The team will meet one time monthly to review referrals and then send a TCSE team member to assist if appropriate. The purpose of the referral is to assist you in scaffolding additional Tiered Behavior Supports. We can not assist until districts have provided evidence that they have tried positive interventions.

Staff Members
CPI Disclosure Statement

Please note that during behavior consultation if a student becomes aggressive and poses a risk of harm to self and/or others the team may need to employ Nonviolent Crisis Prevention Intervention strategies, including physical restraints, if necessary.

Behavior Bites Tips & Tricks

Pushing through the push-back with behavior

Extinction bursts:

BEHAVIOR WILL GET WORSE

BEFORE IT WILL GET BETTER

In almost every instance of behavior change, there is what we call an "extinction burst." That is, the challenging behavior that we wish to decrease or stop, will get worse for a period of time before it gets better or decreases. This is not always the case, but more times than not; it is - no matter how much we follow through with consequences and/or rewards. Think about it like this; say you want to get a soda from the vending machine. You put your money in, press the buttons, and the soda is expelled from the machine for your drinking pleasure. One day you put the money in for a soda, pressed the buttons, and nothing happened. What do you do?

Maybe try punching the buttons in again for a second or third time, then if that doesn't work you maybe shake the machine or even punch it with your fist to get the desired item you are wanting right?

We engage in behaviors like this all the time when certain behavior that we have engaged in for a long time no longer gets us the desired response. We then "up the anti" so to speak, to try and see if something else will work for us.

This is exactly the same thing happening when our children engage in more frequent or heightened levels of challenging behavior when we begin to try to decrease a behavior we deem as unacceptable or inappropriate. These behaviors have already been reinforced for long lengths of time (months or even years) and then all of a sudden, they no longer work.

A good example of this in action is when a child grabs his sibling's toy out of their hands when they have it to play and the sibling pulls away from them for the first time. What does the child do then?? Any guesses?? If you guessed hit or any other kind of physical aggression, you are correct.

So what do we do as caregivers?

We TEACH the desired behavior to the child. Show them how to appropriately ask for the toy to achieve the same desired result. Behavior can not be changed unless a new behavior is taught in its place.

" A person is a pattern of behavior, of a larger awareness."

Deepak Chopra