It is widely reported that when working with students who exhibit challenging behaviour, the first step is the building of a positive relationship. Unfortunately, not everyone believes this to be true.
I would like to promote the importance of positive relationships by sharing my opinion.
I believe that positive relationships form the foundations for future success, particularly with students who exhibit challenging behaviour. In my opinion, without positive relationships between a key adult and their student the opportunity to affect positive changes in behaviour are lost. Students who are exhibiting challenging behaviour are telling us that they need help and our job is to ensure that they receive that help from us.
If, as the key adult, we do not connect with our student then how will we ever affect changes in behaviour?
I am not suggesting that making connections and building positive relationships is an easy task or a quick fix for challenging behaviour. This all involves an enormous investment of time and energy which is where some educators run into problems. Taking the time, and making the effort to make connections and build those positive relationships is key. You need to consider that you might be the only person who takes the time to ask these students how they are feeling, smile and show them students that you care.
Finding time is an issue and here is my solution.
I believe that Behaviour Mentors can help educators to support students who exhibit challenging behaviour. Working together in the mainstream classroom, they can help to relieve the primary educator of their behaviour management responsibility for students exhibiting challenging behaviour. Thus allowing them to concentrate on providing authentic opportunities for learning for the whole group. Working with these students Behaviour Mentors can invest time and effort into the building of positive relationships. They can grow student trust through listening and advocating for them, which will in turn facilitate the establishment of mutual respect. This would allow these students to be included in the mainstream class while receiving targeted support to promote changes in behaviour. Through working with these students Behaviour Mentors would be in a position to observe behaviour and identify possible triggers. This would enable the employment of strategies in an authentic and empathetic way to illustrate and celebrate positive behaviour changes. In this way students would have the opportunity to develop independence and acquire the necessary skills for success in the mainstream classroom. This will enhance their ability to build positive relationships and make connections with others which is key to positive outcomes, without this we will never reach our full potential.
If you would like to read further here is a link to an earlier post where I have discussed the importance of relationships and Relational Management Policy.
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