Students with disabilities may lack the skills to tell you what they need, but knowing that all behavior is communication reminds parents and schools to figure out what they are trying to tell us.
Your students may be trying to communicate something bigger when they:
- Talk out of turn.
- Make unnecessary noise.
- Show physical aggression.
- Are unable to concentrate.
- Talk back.
- Withdraw at their desk.
The frequency and severity of these behaviors may vary from student to student and between different age groups. For students who have experienced trauma, behavior may be more severe and less predictable.
Learning for Justice uses the acronym EATS, to help educators identify potential reasons for student behavior.
Escape: using behavior to avoid a task, situation, or even a person. Escape behaviors can include inappropriate behavior that results in the student being asked to leave the room or excusing themselves from the room when they are called on for an assignment.
Attention: using behaviors that are intended to gain attention. Attention-seeking behaviors can be things that attempt to get you—the teacher—to pay attention, such as blurting out answers without raising a hand or working ahead on assignments to gain your approval. Behaviors can also include inappropriate actions that attempt to get peers to laugh.
Tangible Gains: using inappropriate behavior to gain access to an activity or object. This tangible behavior may appear in the form of disrespectful tones or physical aggression. Here, the student is expecting you to only pay attention to them and may engage in impulsive behaviors.
Sensory Needs: using behavior to meet a sensory or internal need that is difficult to see from the outside. Students exhibiting these behaviors may over or underreact to sensory input, such as becoming more physical when students when in closer quarters with them (standing in line), or excessive fidgeting during quiet instruction time.
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