The "Why" Behind Classroom Behaviors, PreK-5. Jamie Chaves
an inspiration to us for many years. Thank you so much for your guidance, wisdom, and generosity of spirit. Your dedication and passion for bringing people together is amazing, and we are truly so appreciative and full of gratitude for your support throughout this process!
We are grateful for the families and teachers we have worked with over the years who have helped shape us as clinicians. As a general note, all the names and identifying details in the vignettes and scenarios have been fabricated, and edited to protect the privacy of individuals and families.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Corwin gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following reviewers:
Tamara Daugherty
Third Grade Teacher
Zellwood Elementary
Orlando, FL
Hope Edlin
Teacher
Bethel Elementary
Simpsonville, SC
Pérsida Himmele
Associate Professor
Millersville University
Millersville, PA
Marcia LeCompte
Former Teacher
Baton Rouge, LA
Kellee Oliver
Coordinator of Pupil Personnel Services
Hopewell Area School District
Aliquippa, PA
Stephanie L. Turner
4th Grade Teacher
Bradley Academy
Murfreesboro, TN
About the Authors
“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.”
—Albert Einstein
Chapter 1 Searching for the “Why?”
“When we begin to know ourselves in an open and self-supportive way, we take the first steps to encourage our children to know themselves.”
—Dr. Dan Siegel, M.D.
Most teachers and early childhood educators enter the field because they love children and are passionate about providing them with a learning experience that will benefit each child throughout his or her life. Many educators beautifully orchestrate the 25+ students in their classrooms while operating within the curriculum standards provided by each state. Teachers not only instruct children about how to write their name and execute multiplication tables but also are there for students in many different ways. They make a child smile who is having a bad day, put a Band-Aid on a child’s knee after she’s fallen down, give up their snack when a child forgets to pack one, and spend their nights tailoring lesson plans to motivate children to learn. They foster curiosity, empathy, friendships, and help students to learn who they are and who they one day hope to become. Parents entrust their children to a teacher’s care for the majority of each day. Parents “expect” that teachers are “doing their job” to help prepare their children for the next stage of education and the next stage of life. Teachers have an enormous job of preparing the next generation for success; however, many may feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities and experience the frustration of being underpaid and not supported.
Nowadays, teachers are tasked with increasingly more responsibility for fostering development within the school environment. The burden often falls on them to establish foundational skills that children previously had when entering school: things such as postural stability (i.e., the ability to sustain an upright position in a chair), shoulder and hand strength, the ability to identify and express how they are feeling, as well as the ability to enter play with peers appropriately. Moreover, according to the Center for Disease Control, the rates of neurodevelopmental diagnoses, such as autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and sensory processing disorder (SPD), continue to increase, resulting in a more diverse population in every classroom.1 In fact, the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) estimates one in five children have a learning difference.2 With the lack of training and educational opportunities around how best to teach to a wide variety of learning needs and develop a foundation of emotional and relational safety, teachers often feel overwhelmed and underequipped. They may occasionally feel at a loss about how to best support the children they so clearly want to help. Oftentimes the strategies they use to manage challenging behaviors may seem ineffective, short-lived, or perhaps even detrimental to the student’s progress.
At times, children with unique learning needs engage in behaviors that look oppositional, defiant, lazy, or disengaged. In fact, a 2017 NCLD report revealed “that children with learning and attention issues are as smart as their peers and can achieve at high levels but too often are misunderstood as lazy or unintelligent.”2 They are assigned a behavior plan that may have good intentions but does not actually address the underlying cause of the negative behaviors. In order to optimize a learning environment that accommodates all children, it is necessary for teachers to explore “why” a child is displaying certain behaviors. As the “why” begins to be uncovered, better supports and