Resources to Support Challenging Child Behavior

I lose many of my students during instructional time that is teacher directed and includes longer time spans of discussion and lecture. How can I hold the attention of my students who may have a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or students with a Learning Disability?

My two year old throws everything on the floor and lately picks up a toy, an object, whatever, and throws it at me. How can I help him correct his behavior?

I have a student in my regular 5th grade classroom, who does not have a diagnosis of any kind. However, he often displays oppositional behaviors. He will refuse to open his eyes, pick his head up off the desk, answer questions, and has recently shown an increase in speaking out in a disrespectful manner towards his teachers. He does not lack the ability to do any of these. Often these defiant behaviors occur when he does not want to engage in a particular classroom assignment, either because he feels unsure of his own abilities or because he feels the exercise/activity/assignment is meaningless and irrelevant.

I have several forms of whole-class positive reinforcement systems, but he does not always respond. I have also tried additional individual positive reinforcement tools that he has not responded to either. Can you give some ideas as to how I can help him be more engaged and cooperative in class? Thank you for your insight. I welcome any guidance!

I have a 4-year-old grandson with Autism and he is non-verbal. Recently he has been knocking things over and breaking them, pushing anything he can push (furniture in particular) and climbing on everything. We aren’t sure how to discipline him when he does these things. He will not listen, and he continues to do it even though he knows he shouldn’t. We’ve tried to speak firmly but calmly. We have tried speaking a loud “NO”. We tried putting him in “time out” but he thinks it’s a game. We don’t know what else to do that will make him understand that he can’t do these things. Any suggestions would be helpful.

I work with clients in a residential facility. When any of the boys (ages 8-11) is told to take a timeout (2-3 minutes) an escalation usually occurs (cursing, hitting staff, screaming) increasing the time for their timeout. How can I best use time out and reduce the amount of escalation?

I teach elementary students in a resource room. It seems like I have a few students who repeatedly talk out or need constant prompting to get to work. Do you have any strategies I might use that could help…I am struggling to keep it together.

Every year I have 1 or 2 students in my class who can become very upset about different situations. They may hit, cry, yell, or sometimes run out of the room. What can I do to help them stay in control before resorting to these behaviors?

It seems that “I can’t” or “It’s too hard” is all my student can say when asked to do an assignment. He gets so anxious that he won’t even try.

I have a great team in my classroom but sometimes we are not on the same page when it comes to providing preventative or consequential interventions with students. One person might talk too much to a student, giving attention to behaviors of concern and inadvertently increasing the behavior, while another person may not do enough. Sometimes the basics of student interactions are just not there. What can I do to make us a more cohesive team with our interventions?