Establishing Environments In Which Children Can Succeed And Develop Positive Behaviors Phil Strain, University of Colorado at Denver Phil Strain is Professor of Educational Psychology in the Division of Early Childhood, School of Education, University of Colorado at Denver. He has also held teaching positions at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee; American University in Washington, D.C.; Peabody College in Nashville,Tennessee; and the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. The content of courses he has taught include cognitive and social development, early intervention procedures, special education for exceptional children, preschool children, early education for special-needs children, and characteristics of children’s behavior disorders. Strain has published extensively, particularly in the areas of teacher-child interaction and child-child interaction; special-needs children; and early intervention. The University of Colorado-Denver named him 1999 Researcher of the Year. He received the Teacher of the Year Award (1997) from the Council for Exceptional Children and the Research and Creative Artist Award (1996) from the University of Colorado-Denver. "A great deal of what children understand about the world from a cognitive standpoint, a great deal of their language and communicative abilities, are all mediated and enhanced by the quality of their interactions with peers." — Phil Strain Presentation Highlights When staff members are continually exposed to extreme challenging behaviors, it can lead to early burnout, frustration, feelings of inadequacy, exhaustion, stress, anger, embarrassment, and disappointment. This presentation focuses on strategies to elevate the issue of dealing with challenging behaviors to a higher level of importance. Dealing With Challenging Behaviors Four suggestions for success in dealing with challenging behaviors are: 1. Create a climate of open communication, honesty, and trust in your program. 2. Set specific goals and objectives for staff and set in place a system of supportive feedback to reduce feelings of frustration and inadequacy. 3. Empower staff who are dealing with challenging behaviors and make sure they can identify the types of social and emotional support they need as adults to be effective and consistent implementers of intervention. 4. Deal with children exhibiting challenging behaviors, rather than moving them to another program—become a program with a zero reject policy. Recognizing Improvements It is critical to recognize improvements in the way we deal with challenging behaviors by: Eliminating negative verbalizations; Acknowledging upsetting behaviors; Acknowledging pleasing behaviors; Collecting information on when, where, and with who the behaviors occur; Celebrating any change for the better; and Becoming a resource to others. Some Realities of Challenging Behavior Long-standing and persistent behaviors that are disturbing to others almost always get worse before they get better. As much time and as many resources as may be needed should be dedicated to monitoring the efficacy of what you do. Challenging behaviors can be reduced to a manageable level, but eliminating them completely is probably unrealistic and may lead to a sense of failure. Video of Presentation Presentation Highlights No Handout for This Presentation List of Social and Emotional Development presenters/presentations Information on how to view videos and view/download handouts

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