Hello everyone, welcome back to Demystifying
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.
Before we begin, let's start with a quick refresher
on what we covered in the last episode, PBIS
Part 1. So if you'll remember, we think of PBIS
as a triangle. Tier 1 is the base of that triangle,
and it is the foundation for all interventions
and supports. Everyone receives Tier 1 interventions
and supports while at school, regardless of disability
or diagnosis. Tier 1 supports our school -wide
support. All students get it. It's the consistent
rules, expectations, routines, positive reinforcement
systems that are used across the entire school
building. So in this, schools teach expected
behaviors the same way that they teach reading
or math. Acknowledge students when they show
these behaviors. So for example, saying something
like, thank you for walking in the hallway. Thank
you for walking safely in the hallway. You see
you using those walking feet. Schools use consistent
consequences and positive reinforcements. And
they also collect data to see how students are
doing. You can also think of Tier 1 as teaching
everyone the rules of the game before expecting
them to play it. So before, we always want to
teach the behavior that we want to see. So if
that's Tier 1, then what happens when some students
need more support? That's where Tier 2 is going
to start to come in. Tier 2, so the middle portion
of that triangle. where some students are receiving
targeted interventions and supports. That's designed
for students who aren't responding to Tier 1
alone. These students, in some cases, might not
have major behavior issues, but maybe they're
frequently off task, having a hard time with
social skills, struggling with anxiety. missing
a lot of class time, or getting frequent office
referrals with or without a behavioral intervention
plan. Tier 2 is for those kids who are at risk
of needing more help, but with the right support,
they can potentially get back on track. So some
key features of Tier 2 interventions are that
they are going to be targeted, focused on specific
behaviors or specific social -emotional needs.
They're going to be efficient. They're often
delivered in small groups. So think three to
10 students. But again, it's individualized.
So it's whatever the student needs. It's going
to be data driven. More supports or adaptions
to the supports are identified through data.
And that's collected everywhere. Attendance,
teachers, office disciplinary referrals, parental
input. You can also think of it as structured
and systematic. It's going to be using established
evidence -based data -driven protocols. And there's
going to be that progress monitoring, frequent
check -ins, review of data to assess effectiveness.
So now that you know that, what does Tier 2 actually
look like? Here are a few common strategies,
and we'll start by... talking about what they
look like at school, followed up by what you
can replicate as parents at home. If this intervention
is something that your child is already using
at school or something that you see yourself
speaking with the school team about, here are
also some tips and tricks that you can use at
home to help teach the skill, replicate the skill,
generalize the skill. So the first one, is lovingly
referred to as CICO, check in, check out. And
maybe this is just my personal opinion, is one
of the most common tier two supports. This could
look like your child checking in with a trusted
adult each morning, maybe setting a few behavioral
goals for the day, and then checking out again
at the end of the day to review how they did.
And maybe best practice is asking the child how
they think they did before providing that feedback
to them. This helps build positive adult relationships,
increase feedback, motivation, getting that child
to then express themselves, what was hard for
them, what they think they did well, giving them
the tools for emotional language. And it also
allows to set clear goals and routines. Parents
often get this daily report so that they're in
the loop too. And in some cases, it can look
like a form that is sent home or a journal. Or
if you use PowerSchool or ParentSquare or ClassDojo,
a note that comes home that kind of details what
happened. They receive feedback and a point card
throughout the day from teachers in some cases.
Goals are absolutely defined. and tied to school
expectations. And this could be best for students
who externalize behaviors, so disruption or attention.
So if you'll remember those four functions of
behavior, when we look at consequences or support
before a behavior occurs, we're going to try
to figure out this common behavior that's occurring,
what function is it trying to communicate? So
if a student is disrupting, they could be looking
for attention. Or if a student is inattentive,
they could be looking for escape. So how do we
support them? So check in, check out. How could
you use this at home? You could potentially create
a simple morning and evening routine with expectations,
checklists, and rewards. This could be something
as high -tech and fancy as a skylight calendar
or something as low -tech as just a simple form
where the child has the list of things that they
need to get done in the morning. And when they
brush their teeth, they check it off with a pen
or they draw the shape that corresponds with
the activity. So how else could you do it? Review
goals. Throughout the day, maybe you check in,
track behavior. And in the evening, you reflect.
What went well? What's one thing that you are
so proud of today? And it could even be a token
board type system where you say, you earned three
out of four stars today. Do you want to pick
a show or have extra tablet time? Do you want
to stay up five minutes late? Whatever that goal
looks like for your family. Number two, social
skills groups. If a child struggles with peer
interactions like sharing, taking turns, or conflict
resolution, they might be invited to join a small
group, and that could be led by the school counselor,
behavioral interventionist. These groups might
meet once a week to role play, talk, practice
real -life scenarios. I can say that personally,
two of my kids have seen great success using
social skills groups. And the purpose of this
is teaching skills like conflict resolution,
emotional regulation, and even friendship making.
Because again, like we talked about in tier one,
we never just assume that kids came pre -programmed
with these skills. Maybe they need to start from
the very basic and be taught. So what could the
structure look like? Maybe it's weekly, bi -weekly,
and in some instances, I've seen them done monthly.
And sometimes they use curriculum like skill
streaming, second step, or super flex. And this
is best for students with difficulties in social
communication or peer relationships. How could
you adapt this at home? Well, they do make social
skills games. I can tell you that. But you could
also practice turn -taking, empathy, managing
frustration, and communication through play,
organic scenarios. made -up scenarios, and conversation.
If you don't want to go crazy and buy social
skills board games, you could start with something
as simple as games that involve waiting or sharing.
So that could look like musical chairs. That
could look like Simon Says. That could look like
red light, green light. And sometimes that really
isn't about Can the child understand the rules?
It can also be about how does the child manage
their frustration when they are not winning or
when they perceive that another friend or another
child could potentially be cheating or not playing
the rules correctly. So how are we managing frustration
in these types of social situations? You could
read books that talk and then talk about how
characters feel or how characters responded in
the book. They have those little spot books where
it talks about, you know, your little spot of
anxiety, your little spot of calm, your little
spot of anger. There are lots of mindfulness
books. Another one, and this maybe is just a
personal favorite of mine, but I like to use
puppets to role play or rehearse situations.
Sometimes I do it after the fact. Sometimes if
I'm... Just really on it, I'll do it in advance.
So for example, I had a son who was not the most
receptive in soccer. He loved to play, but when
things did not go his way, or maybe he thought
that a perceived slight, someone didn't pass
the ball to him, it might cause certain reactions.
So we would pretend play, or I would, soccer
with the puppets. at a foosball table and i would
say ah you know that was supposed to be my turn
and it was actually really interesting to watch
how much my son even at seven was paying attention
to how i responded as the puppet and then how
the other puppet responded to me and you could
tell you could see the cogs and the wheels turning
and it made me really recognize that sometimes
When I say, oh my gosh, you know what to do in
these situations. Maybe I should take a step
back and remember. Maybe he does need more supports.
Maybe it's not just why are you so angry and
how can I help teach you this skill? And number
three, behavior contracts or targeted support
plans. So this could be something as simple as
saying, if I do this, I earn that. Simple as
saying or putting it in writing if it's in their
plan. This can help a student focus on one or
two behaviors like staying on task or raising
their hand. And the purpose of this is to increase
student motivation and clarity of the expectations
that is put on the student. So the structure
can look like an agreement between the student
and the teacher or something written on paper
that outlines goals, rewards, consequences. So
behavioral intervention plan. This is effective
when students. Understand and buy into rewards
that we've set rewards that are appropriate for
the child. And it's most effective when it's
paired with reinforcement and frequent review.
How could you use this at home? The same kind
of thing, a simple agreement that outlines expectations,
responsibilities, and rewards. If I could give.
Any piece of advice that anyone listening to
this would remember afterwards, it would be to
include your child in creating this agreement.
Just like you don't want to go to an IEP meeting
with everything ironed out and then the school
district tells you exactly, doesn't accept your
input or... doesn't listen to you when you want
to tweak something because you're your child's
expert. The child doesn't want to just be told
what to do. If there's any way to make any kind
of choices, especially when we talk about students
who potentially have a pervasive demand for autonomy
or pathological demand avoidance, the more choices
that we can give kids, the better. Keep it short.
Keep it positive. If I get ready for bed without
yelling, I'll get 15 minutes of reading with
mom. And if you have younger kids or pre -reading
kids, make a visual schedule. Number four, self
-monitoring tools. Students learn to rate their
own behavior throughout the day and then reflect
on it. This is a great way to build self -awareness
and independence. It can look like students tracking
their behavior using a simple checklist, smiley
faces, a Likert -type scale, rating from 1 to
5. And this is often paired, again, with reinforcement
and frequent adult check -ins. This works best
with students who respond to structured routines
or visual supports. How could you use this at
home? Encourage your child to track their own
behavior and feelings. Maybe that's a journal,
a feelings chart, a behavior rating scale. This
is building independence by letting them score
themselves and then discuss what they notice.
Maybe you score and they score and then you get
together and try to figure out why if there are
large discrepancies. Just a little tip, you could
use a dry erase board, like a chore pad, or they
even have tech -friendly options now too. Number
five in terms of supports that could be used
for Tier 2 students is mentoring. The purpose
between that is building a relationship with
a trusted adult to provide encouragement and
guidance. This can look like regular one -to
-one sessions with a staff member, conversations
focused on goals, behavior, academics, personal
concerns. This could be best for students with
trauma, low motivation, or even inconsistent
behavior. How could you use this at home? Building
one -to -one time with your child, that's not
just about correcting behavior. And that can
sometimes be very, very difficult. So we always
want to do connection before correction, which
again, also can be difficult. So that can look
like saying things like, Oh, I noticed that you
put your dishes in the sink, even though you'd
ask them to do five other things in addition
to putting their dishes in the sink. But before
you correct, you want to try to connect. Other
things that you can do is pick a consistent time
daily or weekly for hangout time. And that's
when you're not going to say, oh, I'd like to
talk to you about what happened at school today,
which is definitely something that I do that
I need to work on. As I will approach my child
and say, hey, do you have a few minutes to talk
about this message that I received from the school
principal? And I need to make a better effort
at saying, you know, hey, I'm just going to connect
with you right now. I don't want to teach you
anything. I don't want you to learn anything
from me right now. I just want to be here with
you in this moment. use this time to talk, play,
let them open up without jumping in to fix it.
Again, something that I could work on. So outside
of tips, tricks, strategies, how do schools decide
who needs tier two supports? That looks like
schools using data from teachers, attendance,
classroom behavior, office referrals. Then they
match the student with the appropriate Tier 2
strategy, like those that we used above. And
again, that should include parental input. And
it's okay for you as the parent to ask, hey,
what supports are in place for my child's behavior?
Especially if you notice changes or you're getting
reports of concerns from teachers. How can you
as the parent partner with the school? As parents,
we play a huge role in tier two success. And
here's how. Stay informed. Stay in communication
regularly. Keep the conversation going about
what's working at school, what's working at home.
How can we marry the two? And celebrate the wins.
When your child meets goals, celebrate them.
It helps build confidence and keep that momentum
going. And remember, tier two, is not a punishment.
It's support. The school sees your child's potential
and just like you, wants to help them succeed.
Let's talk a little bit more about choosing the
right tier two support. So schools will use a
decision -making protocol that considers, like
we spoke about before, the functions of behavior.
Sensory, escape, attention, tangible. It's going
to look at students' strengths and preferences.
It's also going to look at what did we try before?
And this is a key piece if a child is moving
up to a different school. So, for example, if
you're moving from elementary school to middle
school or if you're moving from middle school
to high school. These are those things, what
did this other school try, that we don't want
to get lost in translation, especially when students
are going through that big transition. And as
always, when making decisions about our students,
parents and guardians should always be involved
and brought into the conversation. All right,
that's your crash course on tier two, positive
behavioral interventions and supports, the middle
of that triangle. Next episode, we're going to
talk about Tier 3, Part 3 of our three -part
series. When students need those most individualized,
intensive supports. So the very tip of the triangle,
which is just some students, a few students.
And how that can work in connection with behavioral
intervention plans, 504s, and IEPs. I hope that
this helps you better understand your child's
school supports and behavior. Until next time,
remember, all behavior is communication. Thank
you so much, everyone out there for listening
in. If you are in Idaho or planning on moving
to Idaho and have any questions on systems or
services for children with disabilities, please
consider reaching out to us on our website at
iPollIdaho. That's IP. Be sure to tune in next
time. Until then, this has been Unlimited Parenting.
Thanks for listening!