There are four major goals for this module. Upon completion of this module, you should be able to do the following:
This module will address the following critical questions:
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Positive behavioral support is an approach that is meant to facilitate the development of a student's communication and social skills while placing an emphasis on designing an environment that promotes learning and positive social interaction. Positive behavioral support can be an individualized process used to support a particular student, or it can be implemented at the classroom or school-wide level.
This lesson will provide an overview of positive behavioral support. Information provided in this lesson will define positive behavioral support, discuss the outcomes expected from positive behavioral support plans, and provide insight into the evolution of this exciting field. Because positive behavioral support is essentially a value driven approach, this lesson will be describing some of the critical values that drive the choices made while building and implementing positive behavioral support strategies.
At the end of the last lesson, we mentioned that the foundation upon which positive behavioral support has been built is based on research related to the functional relationship between behavior and the environment. The concepts you will learn in this lesson can be applied to many different types of behaviors, in a multitude of settings, and with a variety of students.
The information presented in the lesson is not meant to provide a comprehensive review of all behavioral principles. Instead, the lesson will highlight some of the principles needed to understand and implement positive behavioral support strategies that will be discussed in upcoming Academy modules. The Reading Section of this lesson contains information about additional resources that you can find regarding behavioral principles. If you are not familiar with the information presented in this lesson, you may find it useful to seek out these resources before continuing with the Academy modules related to behavioral support interventions.
In this lesson, you will learn about basic concepts related to the laws of behavior, and gain important insight about why a student engages in problem behavior. We will also discuss the importance of planning ahead to ensure that the interventions you implement will be effective across different settings.
Research in positive behavioral support has identified a number of specific techniques that can be used to reduce problem behavior and support students in community settings (Carr et al., 1998; Durand, & Carr, 1991; Koegel, Koegel, & Dunlap, 1996; Kern, Childs, Dunlap, Clarke, & Falke, 1994; Lalli, Browder, Mace, & Brown, 1993). The information provided in this lesson will describe how important it is to understand why a student is engaging in problem behavior and how to gather assessment information that can be used to directly address the function that a problem behavior serves. The processes summarized in this lesson will enable you to select the most effective behavioral support strategies based on the assessment information that you have collected.
The first part of this lesson will describe important characteristics of positive behavioral support and will provide an overview of upcoming modules. The second part of the lesson will briefly summarize the way in which positive behavioral support plans are developed.
Top of Page | Bottom of PageThis lesson will provide a brief overview of preventative strategies that contribute to effective educational environments. A preventative strategy means that you are acting in advance, before a problem occurs. The first part of the lesson will discuss what it means to create an environment that naturally prevents problem behavior. We will summarize the general features of classroom environments that increase student engagement and decrease problem behavior.
However, you may find that certain students need more individualized support. The second part of this lesson will briefly discuss preventative strategies that can be built for individual student needs. The information discussed in this lesson will be addressed in much greater detail in subsequent modules.
Each of the four lessons will include readings to supplement the lesson topic, an outline and notes on the topic, and a glossary. In each lesson will be links to an Activities section, a Directed Questions section and an Assessment section.
In a 3-page paper describe three outcomes of positive behavioral support and the classroom management strategies that might be used to achieve these outcomes.