Individualized Solution to Behavior Problems

Individualized Solutions to Behavior Problems
By: Alpha Sanford

In dealing with students who have gone through from the least restrictive environment (from public school mainstreaming, one-on-one teaching in the classroom to inclusion or resource room) to the most restrictive environment (such as group homes, lock-up facilities and therapeutic schools) for placement program, teachers must understand the most commonly known problems why students are kicked out from one program to another. Generally the underlying causes of problems among these students are either conduct problems or emotional problems. Teachers must know the differences between the two problems so they can better understand why their students act the way they do and also how they can help them change the behaviors these students show.

According to the book, “students who have conduct problems are those who are unwilling to respect the rights of others and conform to the norms of the society.” They do things to benefit themselves without thinking of the other people involved. They also behave differently because they want to do so or they think it is necessary to do so.

On the other hand, students who have emotional problems are students whose emotional responses are either too intense, too weak or in conflict that their behaviors are affected by how they feel. These students may do things that may not even benefit anybody, not even themselves. They may also not behave differently because of the little experiences where their emotions are involved.

In Chapter 12 of the book, it was stated that conduct problems are the result of individuals whose moral development are delayed, unfulfilled or mismanaged. The three stages of Moral development are sequenced according to the ages of individuals.

The first stage, Extrinsic Consequences, usually occur among young children whose physical and emotional needs are dependent on adults most specially their parents. They are not concerned on getting control over themselves, but rather by satisfying their needs. These children learn about self-control early on not by direct and stern commands, but mostly from what they see from their parents; from the communication they hear; and from rewards and punishment system. They focus on learning the new behavior by thinking of outside consequences that could either be positive or negative. They also learn new things not by rational thinking but because of the rewards or punishment they might have as a result of what they do. When young children’s needs are not met or if these children do not learn how to control themselves during this first stage of moral development, they begin to resist conforming to adult expectations. They also learn to exhibit a lot of anger and resentment towards adults.

The second stage of moral development, Natural Consequences happens when individuals who are in upper elementary grades learn to understand why rules are necessary and why they need to be followed. They learn to follow rules not because of thinking that by behaving appropriately certain consequences might happen, but because they know that if they obey the rules, they appreciate the reason behind it. Unlike individuals who are in the first stage of moral development who exercise self-control because of extrinsic consequences, these individuals exercise self-control because they appreciate the natural consequences of their behavior. Unfortunately, individuals might not progress to this second-stage and a few reasons why they do not, include the following reasons: (1) poor modeling (2) lack of explanation (3) lack of group identification and (4) immaturity.

Teachers can help foster moral development of students who are in this stage by deemphasizing the role of authority and the exclusion of extrinsic consequences as management strategies. Teachers can also model appropriate behaviors that students can emulate, explain the uses of rules, exposing students to group work and cooperative learning and deemphasizing individual assignments and competition.

The last stage of moral development happens among adolescents whose concept of behaving appropriately is influenced by their belief that by doing so they would feel proud of themselves and knowing that it is the right thing to do. They are not motivated to do things by extrinsic rewards but rather by the feeling they can get by doing so. Individuals who have not yet learn this stage of moral development might have difficulty feeling remorse or guilty when doing something inappropriate. If they have done something that upset other people, they may not recognize that feeling and rather they appear to be uncaring about the situations. Issues in the classrooms that happen as a result of individuals who have not yet accepted the values and the morality behind some behaviors include cheating during exams, breaking into school, stealing or destroying other people’s belongings or being dishonest.

Teachers can help motivate students to behave appropriately for moral reasons by giving them the love and attention they need, modeling the right behavior that students can copy and explaining to students to behave morally.

These three stages of moral development, if not fulfilled are the causes of most conduct problems in the school. Teachers and parents must comply with the steps involved in satisfying the needs and demands of children in each stage. It is the hope of many adults that children under their care may experience all the best in each stage in order to avoid these conduct problems. However, conduct problems although they are born out of students, whose moral developmental stages are not quite accomplished, can also come from two other factors: biologically and environmentally.

Research indicates that because individuals are born with a certain level of temperament they are predisposed to have difficulty learning. An individual whose attention span is short may struggle sitting on a task and finishing it and may disrupt the class by standing up and down or doing unnecessary movements that are problematic. Other examples are individuals who are born with attention deficit disorder, fetal alcohol syndrome, high levels of male hormones and cognitive deficiencies that make it impossible for them to understand nonverbal gestures and cues and may completely present frustration in the classroom.

The effect of environmental factors among students can also cause conduct problems. Examples of these factors are individuals whose parents or grandparents have also conduct disorders who do not teach them the control themselves or to respect the rights and values of other people; individuals who are brought up by parents who have abused, neglected and rejected them and who failed to provide them the emotional and physical needs they need as persons and individuals whose parents use ineffective disciplinary techniques.

The author of the book believes that although there are researches done that justify that behavioral issues come from biological and environmental factors, he assumes that students with conduct disorders appear to choose to misbehave in many ways. He also believes that it is the role of the teachers to change and expose the individuals who lack self-control and exhibit conduct problems to experience many appropriate situations where the individual can reshape his behavior and therefore correct their misconduct.

Reference: Grossman, H. (2004) Classroom Behavior Management: For Diverse and Inclusive Schools. Lanham, Maryland. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.