Friday, September 21, 2007

INCREASED RESOURCES FOR INCLUSION


Just finished two great seminars in Caloundra and Toowoomba. The one issue that teachers feel very strongly about is the need for collegial support and increased resources for working with challenging children. Recognizing the importance of inclusion with full support and resources needs to be addressed. Can we have full inclusion without the required resources?? Any thoughts??

OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANCE DISORDER AND CONDUCT DISORDER

Oppositional Defiance Disorder and Conduct Disorder are two disorders that are becoming very difficult in the classroom to maintain. Researchers have estimated that 6-16% of the population may be diagnosed with ODD or CD. Some researchers have even stated that 1 in 100 students may have these disorders. Early intervention is the key for these guys. Applying strategies at a very early age can be a decisive factor in how they learn to cope as they go through life. Here is a site that focuses on the perspective of a parent with a son who has ODD. I have also included a case study example for further discussion.
http://disordermd.wordpress.com/
http://www.auseinet.com/journal/vol2iss3/martin.pdf

Thursday, September 6, 2007

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT MAY BACKFIRE!

This post is in response to an inquiry received from one of the teachers that attended a New Zealand seminar. The question was in relation to a couple of students who would become very silly when they received positive feedback from their teacher. One of the areas that I cover in the seminar is centered on positive feedback for students who may react negatively when a teacher or authority figure tries to give them positive verbal reinforcement. Sometimes children may feel uncomfortable when given positive reinforcement and in turn may resort to exhibiting inappropriate behaviour. Refer back to the notes on positive reinforcement and starting to give feedback using the "third person labelling on the fly" where the teacher labels the behaviour but does not indicate whether it is positive or negative. Once the students are comfortable with this type of feedback move on to stopping at their desk and again using third person labelling. Depending on the age of the students you can also use "praise cards" or "check cards" on their desk to let them know they are doing good work. Not giving it too much attention. Work up to providing second person labelling and then positive reinforcement. Phillip Hall in his book "Educating Oppositional and Defiant Students" can also provide some good information for strategies. If anyone else has ideas, feel free to comment.

We have launched our ONLINE SCHOOL

One of the biggest issues that I hear about from teachers and caregivers is the behaviour of the children or youth in their school, program ...