Mistaken/Challenging Behavior

1. Mistaken/Challenging Behavior Chapter 3

2. Misbehavior • Implies willful wrong doing for which a child must be disciplined or punished. • Children can internalize the negative label of the behavior and will start to feel negative about themselves.

3. Mistaken behavior reminds us: • Children are just at the beginning of a lifelong learning process. (in the process of learning we all make mistakes)

4. Misbehavior versus mistaken behavior • Misbehavior makes us think of punishing, • Misbehavior makes us think about moral labeling of the child • Our goal should be to teach the child appropriate ways to behave. • Mistaken behavior makes us think of educating and guiding

5. WE need to remember: • The child is in development, not a finished product • The process of learning and development are complex • Through methods and curriculum, educators need to accommodate the developmental and experimental circumstances of each child • Guiding behavior is a big part of every teacher’s job

6. Avoid “Me Against You” Discipline • We must remember that all children are basically innately good who have much to learn, naïve little people, with a small amount of experience to draw upon, who want to please us, be accepted, and to be approved and loved.

7. Common Sources of Motivation • At the level of encountering and experimentation the motivation is curiosity or involvement. • At the level of adjusting and socially influenced mistaken behavior the motivation is the desire to please and identify with others, • At the level of the survival and strong emotions, the motivation is unmet basic needs (trust, safety, security, love, food, etc)

8. Three Levels of Mistaken Behavior • Level Three Strong-Needs Mistaken Behavior • Level Two: Socially Influenced Mistaken Behavior • Level One: Experimentation Mistaken Behavior

9. Level One: Experimentation • The child is learning through full engagement in the experiment of life • ,much as the name experimentation states, the children are trying out behaviors, words, and responses and then seeing how these play out in the world of the classroom. • This can be very different depending upon the personality of the child

10. Level Two: Socially Influenced Mistaken Behavior • This is actually learned behavior that the child has tried before and got the result the child was looking for! • The child is reacting to the influence of others, repeating behavior that is modeled, suggested, or reined, • Children are reaching to the authority of persons important in their lives • Both intentional and unintentional behaviors result

11. Level Three: Strong Needs Mistaken Behavior • Most difficult to see • Child has experienced their environment as a dangerous and painful place over which they have little control. • The behavior patterns tend to be rigid and exaggerated. Protection is of utmost

12. Comprehensive Guidance Strategies • Obtain more information • Build a relationship with the child • Prevent problem situations • Intervene in non punitive ways • Teach child alternatives

13. Understanding Mistaken Behavior • Intentionality versus accident • Aggression • Level one usually to show power or experimentation • Level Two: socially influenced rewards itself and child learns that it has power! • Level Three learned that it is a “life tool’ in dealing with the world

14. Parent Communication • Need to first understand HOW the parent sees the child