STEVE VITTO ALTERNATIVES TO SUSPENSION

ALTERNATIVE TO PUNISHMENT
TEACHING REPLACEMENT SKILLS

______________________________

Consequences should ultimately minimize the efficiency of a target behavior while establishing
conditions for learning replacement skills. Consequences may fall into the following categories:

 Ownership (i.e., to successfully process, the child needs to assume some ownership)
 Processing the event (i.e., what happened, how could it have avoided, etc.)
 Problem solving (i.e., finding a solution, choosing a better way, resolving conflict with a
peer or staff)
 Restoration (i.e., making things right with the victim, the community, and the
environment)
 Letting go and moving forward (i.e., diffusing, de-escalating and getting back under
control)
 Making a commitment for change (i.e., making a promise to try to choose a different
path)
 Receiving support and forgiveness from the teacher and peers

In addition to these general categories, the focus needs to be on specific behavior difficulties and
alternatives to punishment for treating those offenses. Regardless of the consequence that is
utilized, the effectiveness needs to be assessed.

Traditional Behavior Management Positive Behavior Support

 Views the person as the problem  Views the system, settings or skill
 Attempts to “fix” the person deficiency as the problem
 Emphasizes reducing the problematic  Adjusts systems and setting and improves
behavior skills
 Relies on punishment  Identifies and teaches replacement skills
 “Quick fix” expectations and builds relationships
 Designed by “expert”  Primarily relies on positive approaches and
restoration
 Goal of sustained results over time
 Developed by a collaborative team

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CONSEQUENCES THAT TEACH

When behaviors occur staff will consider the motivation, and provide a consequence which
minimizes the efficiency of the target behavior, and suggest or train a replacement skill.

 Attention Seeking – provide the child with strategies to obtain attention in an appropriate
manner (i.e., raising his/her hand, leading an activity)
 Power and Control – provide the child with opportunities to make choices and indicate
preferences using appropriate strategies
 Escape Avoidance – teach the child ways to take leave appropriately, increase the child’s
tolerance for non-preferred or challenging tasks
 Tangible – teach the child how to obtain desired items and activities using appropriate
strategies (i.e., requesting, waiting his/her turn, “saving up”, delaying gratification)
 Anger/Frustration – teach the child anger management skills such as verbal de-escalation,
conflict resolution, muscle relaxation, reminders, reducers, peaceful imagery, body
language, personal space)
 Status/Acceptance – provide opportunities for the child to gain status through appropriate
or desired behavior
 Sensory – provide the child with the means to integrate or modulate sensory input in a
more acceptable manner (i.e., sensory balls, adaptive seats, weighted items, heavy work
activities, movement, etc.)

CONSEQUENCES THAT RESTORE

When behavioral offenses occur, staff will provide consequences that restore.

 Bullying – meet with the victim and the bully and allow victim to relate how it feels to be
victimized, have bullying student do a report on bullying for the class, or act as a leader
of a bully prevention team
 Teasing/Taunting – meet with the victim and the offender and have the offender describe
how it feels to be teased, role-play with the offender allowing him to play the victim,
provide opportunities for the offender to gain attention and status through community
service
 Vandalism – meet with student and develop restitution plan, if money is a problem
develop a plan to repair the item through community service activities, have the student
apologize to owner
 Disrespect/Defiant Behavior – have student meet with staff person he/she has been
disrespectful to; discuss more appropriate conflict resolution strategies, brain storm on
how to improve relationship and communication, write letter of apology
 Harassment/Put Downs – meet with student and victims; have victims share how it feels
to be teased or put down, have victim and offender provide input into a plan of
restoration, apologize to victims


 Disruptive Behavior – meet with student and school staff; have victim explain how
disruption affected them; have student and victim develop a plan of restoration
 Stealing (witnessed) – have student meet with victim; allow victim to respond to the
offense, have victim and offender agree on restitution plan and/or community service
 Threats – meet with the student and discuss more appropriate conflict resolution
strategies, have victim describe how it feels to be threatened, work on plan to facilitate a
better relationship attempt to resolve conflict rationally
 Fighting – meet with students who were fighting; discuss more appropriate conflict
resolution strategies; develop a plan for future conflicts; develop a peace keeping plan

Restorative Justice in School Communities
Traditional Restorative

 Misconduct defined as breaking the rules  Misconduct defined as behavior affecting
 Focus on establishing blame others
 Conflict represented as impersonal and  Focus on problem solving
abstract  Conflict recognized as interpersonal with
 Attention given to rules broken value for learning
 School represented by member of staff  Attention given to broken relationships
dealing with situation  Total school community involved in
 Accountability defined as receiving facilitation restoration – empowerment
punishment  Accountability

TREATING SPECIFIC BEHAVIORS IN THE CLASSROOM
Consequences that Teach and Restore

AGGRESSION

Fighting with peers may be physical:
 Hitting
 Biting
 Kicking
 Spitting
 Pushing/Shoving
 Throwing objects

Verbal
 Name calling
 Teasing
 Profanity
 Threatening


 Bullying
 Engaging in excessive rough play
 Property destruction

POSSIBLE MOTIVATIONS

 Learned through modeling parents and older siblings
 Has been rewarded for aggressive acts
 The glamorization of violence or novels, mass media, music, videos, movies
 A subculture that espouses such violent oriented norms as “an eye for an eye” and “end
justifies that means”
 An inability to separate fantasy from reality or to distinguish play from fighting
 Homes where the father is missing or the father is battering the mother
 A home where parents are abusing substances
 Children with fetal alcohol syndrome


1. Use De-Escalation and Diffusion Strategies

Verbal Aggression:
 Honor personal space
 Avoid ultimatums
 Provide clear choices
 Remove triggering stimuli, when possible provide cool down area
 Use verbal diffusion strategies (i.e., empathic listening, reflection)
 Set clear limits through clear choices
 Use “I” statements
 Use anger replacement relaxation strategies for yourself and the child
 De-brief with crisis intervention support team

Physical Aggression – Staff need to remain calm and supportive:
 Use inter-positioning, remove weapons of opportunity
 Use only reasonable force only for protection of self, others, and property
 Use only approved restraint techniques
 Provide detailed documentation
 Use a team approach whenever possible

2. Provide Physical and Sensory Calming Outlets

 Encourage more appropriate outlets (walking, running, going to a quiet place)
 Reducing sensory overload (lights, sound, crowding, sensory triggers)
 For the autistic child consider use of weighted blanket


 Consider use of swimming, whirlpool, or Jacuzzi therapy

3. Use Processing and Problem Solving Strategies Instead of Suspension and Exclusion

 If suspension is necessary assure that it is process oriented and that a condition
assessment takes place before the child returns to school
 Processing should entail trying to find out what happened or what triggered the
aggressive response? Why did the student respond the way they did? Who was
involved? Why do they think it happened? An adult should use active and empathic
listening
 Problem solving should entail talking about what other choices or responses that could
have been made. What would have been some other choices? Which better choice does
the child think he/she could make the next time? Is the child willing to change the
present manner of reaction? How hard will it be to do something different that what has
been used to? How can we support the child in making better choices?
 When two students are together for processing, use conflict resolution strategies
o Focus on the problem not each other
o Use “I” messages
o Let each person tell their side without interruption
o Discuss compromises or Win-Win options
o Is there a solution they can agree upon?
o Create an agreement and a commitment to try
o Encourage an activity or game that an adult can supervise to release tension (for
younger children)
 For processing, give student the option about how their input or anger might be more
appropriate expressed
o Talking
o Writing it down
o Drawing a picture

4. Undermine Aggressive Mentors

 Many children learn aggressive behavior from an aggressive mentor at home or in the
community. To undermine this, they have to trust you and know you care for them. Be
willing to listen and watch when you show them a better way
 The child needs to know that you are caring for them goes beyond the school day that
you will be there for them if they need you. Remember the aggressive mentor may be
fulfilling this child’s primary needs for food, clothing, and shelter. Who do we think has
the “impact” advantage?

5. Consider Limiting Exposure to Violent Media

 Talk to the child and parents. Is the child preoccupied with violent media?
 Can the child distinguish fact from fantasy?
 Would the parents agree to support better media choices for the child


 Can we provide a balance of media that promotes caring for others and peaceful
solutions?

6. Reinforce Getting Along in the Classroom Meetings and Community Building Activities

7. Consider Community Therapy or Counseling if Behavior is Becoming Chronic

8. Assure That the Child Knows You Care About Them

 Give the child a hug
 Spend some extra time with the child
 Increase your proximity to them. Try to positively influence their mood
 Find out who the child’s role models are
 Consider the idea of a mentor or a character building activity (i.e., scouts, sports, martial
arts)

9. Take Steps to Help the Child Feel Safe at School

 Reinforce caring and vulnerability
 Try to protect the child from known triggers
 Frame the child as strong and as a leader for being able to talk things out or walk away

10. For Chronic Aggression Consider the Following

 Perform and individualized Functional Assessment
 Consider using a lifestyle assessment
 Perform environment assessment
 Write a Behavioral Support Plan

11. Use Calming Strategies. Do Not Worry About Reinforcing Inappropriate Behavior At This
Time

 Some staff will express a concern that if you show empathy or caring at this time that you
are going to reinforce inappropriate behavior. “You are rewarding him/her.”
 Remember the definition of Positive Reinforcement and ask:
o Is this the only time the child gets this type of attention?
o Is the behavior increasing in frequency when people react with caring and
support?
 Is the child out of control? Is your goal to provide a response that will assist in calming
to the child?

Note: Always take the time to debrief after an episode in which staff has to had use team
management or restraint

NONCOMPLIANCE


The refusal to comply or follow staff directions. There are three basic forms of noncompliance:

1) Failure to follow group or individual instructional directions
2) Failure to follow known procedures, protocols, agreements, or routines
3) Failure to respond to inhibitory directives to stop an unwanted behavior or rule
violation. All forms of noncompliance may be passive or reactive

POSSIBLE MOTIVATIONS:

 Noncompliance may function as an escape or avoidance
o When a child fears failure
o Afraid to try something new
o When a child’s resistance relates to certain tasks/activities or challenging or novel
tasks
o A difficult day or tasks
 Attention seeking – the child waits for the adult to come help
 Oppositional Defiance Disorder – this could be a deeper emotional disorder or may be a
function of emotional problems related to a significant loss or childhood trauma.

Note: “Amounts of noncompliance should be seen as a healthy expression of developing ego
seeking independence and self direction.”


1. Establish a Close Relationship with the Individual that is Based on Mutual Respect – a child
will be much more likely to be responsive if he cares about you and knows you care about them.

2. Provide Time for the Child to Process and Respond – give the child some time to process,
walk away, and allow the child to respond without standing over him

3. Consider Providing the Direction or Task in a Different Manner

 For the Oppositional Child it may be helpful to have cue cards or agenda cards which
signal a transition
 Consider the use of a passport item, a readying song or outline
 Consider allowing the child to choose a task or task material

4. Ignore Oppositional Verbal Behavior and Avoid Arguing

 Restate the directive
 Ask the child for another way that they can show you what they have learned
 Do not try to force the child. The ultimate goal is for them to develop self-control and
enjoy learning; forcing the child will compromise both goals


5. Consider the Use of a Behavioral Contract – developed by the student and yourself, outlining
expectations and agreements, and incentives

6. Consider the Use of Premacking for Short Term Engagement – letting the child, if he makes
the effort, do something they want

7. Avoid Giving Ineffective Demands

 Directives which are vague that proper action for compliance cannot be determined
 Directives that are interrupted by future talk or explanations before the child has had a
chance to respond
 Directives that are too complex or have too many steps
 Directives that fail to allow the child to problem solve and be creative

8. Allow Opportunities for the Child to Make Choices and Have Input into the Daily Agenda

 Provide the child with an agenda card or a copy of daily procedures

9. For Chronic or Atypical Noncompliance or Shut Down, Investigate History, Find Out if
Something Has Happened at Home – it may be helpful to meet with mom and dad, is the child
dealing with depression or loss?

Note: For chronic noncompliance or shut down, perform a Functional Assessment and develop
an individualized Behavioral Support Plan.

PUT DOWNS/TEASING/TAUNTING/BULLYING

 Put Downs – can be any kind of derogatory statement or name calling directed at another
child. Put downs can be initiated by one child or a group of children. A put down can be
in isolation or repeated

 Teasing – is repeatedly targeting a particular child with a name, gesture, or sound, that
tends to make fun of the child (i.e., repeating the word “bald head” or saying another
child’s name over and over incorrectly, making fun of a child who still sucks their thumb
by mocking them). Teasing generally is persistent or repetitive over time

 Bullying and Taunting – occurs when one child or a group of children exert their power
over another child or group of children in a hurtful way. Boys tend to be more aggressive
in their bullying, often taunting, threatening, and physically hurting those who are less
powerful. Girls may bully through talking bad about someone with a group of friends in
the absence or presence of that person, intentionally excluding someone from play,
parties, projects, discrediting or slandering another person.



 Put Downs and Teasing
o Anger/Frustration
o Negative Attention
o Obtain a Reaction
o Misplace Anger
o Status
o Power and Control
o History of Reinforcement
o Learned and Modeled at Home or in Community, Friends, Acquaintances
o Escape Avoidance
o Not Feeling a Part of a Group or Community
o Not Feeling Influential or Successful in a Group or Community
o Not Understanding the Expectations or Unwritten Rules
o A Group or Community Has Not Experienced Caring and Acceptance at Home
o Not Feeling Accepted in the Group
 Bullying and Taunting
o Low Self-Worth
o Insecurity
o Status Seeking Through Power and Control
o Over Inflated Self Image or Ego
o Misplaced Hate and Anger
o Identity Confusion
o Modeled at Home, School and Community
o Escape/Avoidance
o Not Feeling a Part of Group or Community
o Not Feeling Influential or Successful in a Group or Community
o Not Understanding the Expectations or Unwritten Rules or Group or Community
o Has Not Experienced Caring and Acceptance at Home


 Privately remove the student for processing and problem solving. Often the student will
say the other child looked at him or did something first
 Review better choices for responding. If two students are together have the bullied
student use “I” statements to explain how being bullied makes them feel
 Investigate the home environment, siblings, community assets, what need do you think is
being met
 Try to provide a better way for the bully to obtain status leadership roles, helping smaller
children, watching out for a student with a disability
 Involve in philanthropy projects, reading a book on bullying, watching videos about
bullying
 Have classroom meetings about bullying
 Make sure the bully is connected with a positive role model or mentor
 Involve the bully in character building activities


 Connect with the bully
 Provide safe opportunities for the bully to be vulnerable and express feelings

WORDS THAT NO KID WANTS TO HEAR: “I’LL CALL YOUR
MOTHER!”

The phone call home is sometimes necessary. When a child refuses to process or when a child is
hurting others. Always let the home know that your contact is a means of gaining their support.
Make it clear that you are not asking for the child to be punished, but to reinforce the concept of
getting along with others. If a child becomes very frightened or emotional when you call home,
attempt to find out why. If the child says he is getting beatings or forced isolation for trouble at
school, consider reporting only what is absolutely necessary, and not as a consequence for an
incidence or behavior. In general reporting in this type of situation should be at a time when the
incident is considerably behind the child but still problematic. Obviously, report any suspected
abuse.

DISRUPTIVE AND OF TASK BEHAVIOR

Can consist of making rude noises, blurting out, wandering, singing, mocking, or echoing others,
talking off the subject, going into a restricted area, destroying property, repeating questions,
doing messy work, breaking pencils and crayons, touching other peoples things, rushing through
work, doodling, sleeping, opening and closing desk, repeated sharpening pencils and asking for
bathroom passes.


 Escape/Avoidance
 Anxiety
 Challenging Instructions or Tasks
 Attention/Reaction
 Power and Control
 Peer Status
 Peer Attention
 Poor Impulse Control
 Inability to Sustain Attention
 Instruction is Too Challenging or Too Long
 Not Salient Enough To Hold Attention
 Lack of Confidence or Insecurity
 Does not Feel Part of the Group or Community
 Lack of Organizations Skills
 Lack of Motivation
 Lack of Relevance
 Problems with Depression
 Ongoing Trauma at Home


 Poor Fine-Motor abilities
 Sensory Integration Problems
 Visual or Hearing Problems
 Neurological Involvement


 Break down task into more do-able assignment
 Provide intermittent enhance staff support
 Use proximity
 Provide frequent feedback and reinforcement for those who are on task and working
independently
 Avoid busy work, minimize repetitive dittos
 Allow students to create an output mode that demonstrates mastery of learned skills
 Teach to different learning styles and strengths
 Provide “energizers” and opportunities for controlled movement
 Reduce distractions
 Provide sensory calming activities
 Reduce noise levels
 Reduce copying from one medium to another
 Consider agenda books and checklist
 For sloppiness, it may be helpful to provide a model to use as current standard
 It may help to reduce assignment length and assignment field (covering some of the
problems so the assignment does not appear so overwhelming
 Consider use of chunking or doing long assignments in parts, consider the use of
technology to facilitate more acceptable work
 Reduce mental fatigue and compensate for fine motor difficulties
 Use a timer for task duration-use a challenge not as a punishment
 Use peer tutors and peer models

DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR

 Use classroom quieting cues
 Provide frequent opportunities for movement and socialization
 Provide processing in private
 Attempt to find out why the person is being disruptive
 Provide alternatives if the child is saying the ongoing activity is stupid or a waste of time,
use Premacking
 Use contracts (start at levels at which the child can be successful)
 When disruption is persistent set up private meetings
 Consider meeting with the parents and discussing the problem generally
 Consider accommodations that facilitate higher levels of focus and engagement
 If disruptive behavior is clowning, provide appropriate outlets for gaining peer attention


o Plays
o Skits
o Group projects
 Provide hands-on or experimental learning
 Use coded feedback systems or cues to let child know when he is exceeding boundaries
 Use social skills processing activities
 Use stimulus control strategies
o A designated time to socialize
o Exercise and to move around

Note: If either of these behavioral conditions (off task and disruptive behavior) are occurring
and significantly interfering with the child’s learning or the learning of others, an individualized
Functional Assessment should be completed and an individualized Behavioral Support Plan
should be developed.


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