Resources to Support Challenging Child Behavior

Replacement Behavior for Writing on the Wall
Situation: 

My 7 year old son, diagnosed with autism, is constantly writing or scratching on my walls with anything he can find, whether it’s a pen to write or one of his toys to scratch. He draws mostly bridges on my walls, but he does draw other things as well (things that interest him). I was thinking about painting a wall with dry erase paint and making it clear that it’s his wall to draw on to try to contain the drawling to one area. My questions are:  Could my idea work and if not how do I get him to stop drawing on my walls?

Response Cards
Situation: 

I am a Learning Support Teacher, and when I observe my kids in the general education class, they don’t seem to participate at all. While other kids raise their hands often, my students tend to just sit there doodling or daydreaming. How can I get the regular education teachers to engage them more?

Shoe Snapshot
Situation: 

I have a student in my special education classroom who continually wants to take off his shoes. I allow this in my room but I can’t have him walking through the school without his shoes. When it is time for an outside class, I try to explain this to him and start putting on his shoes. He will then throw them and cry or scream. What can I do?

Strategies for Family Gatherings and Community Settings
Situation: 

My children have difficulty behaving in restaurants and during family events.  What can I do to help them?

Strategies for Receptive Language Challenges
Situation: 

My son has issues with receptive language. When I tell him something, like this morning I was trying to tell him we would have cheerios for breakfast and eggs for lunch, all he could hear was he wasn’t getting cheerios right now. I kept repeating “we will have cheerios and then eggs after” but he still was not hearing me and continued to cry and scream. I then put him on the table at eye-level and validated him by saying “I will get you cheerios” but I couldn’t explain to him that we would have eggs after. My son will be 4 in May and this is probably the most frustrating thing we deal with on a daily basis…

Talk About It Later Journal to Reduce Class Interruptions
Situation: 

I have a student with high functioning autism in my class and he often gets stuck on something that happened and wants to tell me about it in the middle of a lesson or when I am talking with somebody else. He doesn’t seem to “let it go” unless I address it immediately, and if I don’t, he starts to whine and sometimes yell. Sometimes I just can’t take the time to discuss the matter when he wants to…any ideas?

Acknowledging Student Difficulties
Situation: 

When I give my student any challenging or new work, he gets very anxious and starts saying, “it’s too hard.” When I try to tell him it’s not that hard and that he can do it, he only gets more anxious and insistent that it is impossible and sometimes starts having behavior problems.

Brain Breaks
Situation: 

We have many double periods of math throughout the week. It makes it very difficult for some of my students to continue attending. What can I do to help them (and me) get through these times?

Consequence Flow Chart
Situation: 

I have a student in my class who becomes upset over the smallest problem at recess. He’ll cry or throw things when something doesn’t go his way on the playground. The other kids have obviously noticed this and are starting to stay away from him. How do I help him understand that what he says and does directly affects his relationship with others?

Reinforcement Tower
Situation: 

One of my 4th grade students has high functioning autism and is included in regular education most of his day. His teachers are complaining that his “talk outs” during class are becoming much too disruptive. We are looking for a positive reinforcement procedure that might work better than his current system, which is a basic star chart that he doesn’t like.