6 Tips from Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Consultant, Jessica Minahan:
- Review the curriculum. Encourage colleagues to review their curriculum before assigning reading and other work. For example, if a character in a book becomes seriously ill or dies, you may want to wait until later to assign that one. You may want to reshuffle the timing of it or be very thoughtful how you introduce it. If two-thirds of the students in your class are from an apartment complex that was heavily hit by COVID-19, that should influence your decision to use that text.
- Validate, reframe student feelings. If a student begins to panic in the classroom about herself or someone else getting sick, use or encourage your colleague to use the tone and volume you would use to tell a bedtime story, validate the student’s feelings by saying something such as, “I’m sorry you’re worried about your health,” and then express that she is safe.
- Reframe the student’s thinking to focus on what she has control over, such as washing her hands, taking her vitamins, and standing six feet away from others. The student might keep a journal so she can feel some control over documenting the situation. Pointing out to the student how many helpers exist in the world and encouraging her to research someone doing good for society may be helpful. Also suggest the student watch positive coverage of inspiring people rather than focus nonstop on negative news.
- Rethink breaks. Asking a student to take a walk or engage in drawing to calm down if he is feeling anxious may allow the student’s negative thoughts to fester rather than help him calm down. We assume the student needs to move, but now they’re alone with their thoughts. The brain is like a remote control. You have to change the channel to calm down. Instead, a teacher may want to ask the student to engage in brain teasers such as sudoku, trivia, Mad Libs, and other exercises when he is feeling anxious. Or ask the student to listen to an audiobook for two minutes or think of the second verse of his favorite song. “Doing that is incompatible with worrying.”
- Prevent misunderstandings because of face coverings. Students may show heightened anxiety because of everyone wearing masks. They may not be able to understand others’ intentions well because they can’t read their facial expressions or body language. Avoid using sarcasm or spell out when something is funny to help students navigate interactions.
- Offer predictable positive attention. Don’t wait for an anxious student who wants attention—or, more accurately, connection—to start to exhibit attention-seeking behavior, such as banging her knee on her desk. Preempt the behavior by positively greeting the student at the beginning of class and saying something like, “I can’t wait to see what you think of this assignment.” Then tell the student you’re going to check on her in five minutes and set a timer. When time is up, ask the student a question, then say you’re going to check on her again in 15 minutes and set the timer. The student won’t act out all the time because they know you’re coming. It’s important for teachers to always think about attention-seeking behavior as attachment-seeking or connection-seeking behavior.
From Jessica Minahan’s post at SpecialEdConnection.com
About the Author
Jessica Minahan is a licensed and board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA), author, special educator, and consultant to schools internationally. She specializes in training staff and creating behavior intervention plans for students who demonstrate explosive and unsafe behavior. She also works with students who have emotional and behavioral disabilities, anxiety disorders, or high-functioning Autism. She is a blogger on The Huffington Post, the author of The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students, with Nancy Rappaport (Harvard Education Press, 2012), and author of The Behavior Code Companion: Strategies, Tools, and Interventions for Supporting Students with Anxiety-Related or Oppositional Behaviors (Harvard Education Press, 2014).
