Welcome...Guest blogger, Colleague and Friend Stephanie. She is willing to say the hard things when it comes to helping our kids...truly helping our kids!! Its these types of conversations, which may be hard to hear for some, crucial in moving forward to help students become independent mindful, reflective Adults.
I attended yet another IEP meeting today trying to put
together a plan for a student. My little
guy, let’s call him Henry, has ADHD and was having a difficult time learning
successfully in the classroom. The behavior
consultant brought forth her plethora of behavior plans which she had attempted
to use with Henry. She then presented
the graphs (insert beams of light glowing from beneath the graph as she spoke). The first behavior plan didn’t work because Henry
ripped up the self-monitoring check sheet.
The second one didn’t work because Henry said, “I don’t like this, I’m
not doing it” and proceeded to crumple up that version of a self-monitoring
check sheet. The third behavior plan
which included yet another self- monitoring check list which Henry was supposed
to draw happy and sad faces then give it to his mother also failed because he
never showed them to his mother.
Unbelievable, right? I mean the
part where the consultant kept trying to use the plan over and over again saying
it failed because Henry didn’t like it.
He didn’t like it….wait, a child doesn’t want to report on how he had a
hard time at school, highlight those moments, then share them with his
parent….this is all crazy talk!
The consultant finally shared a graph which showed the
target behavior decreasing with the use of her new magic plan. In this plan, the teachers and the other
students were to give Henry a big “X” and say “Waaa Waaa” whenever he engaged
in the target behavior. It didn’t matter
that Henry was not yet able to choose a more appropriate behavior or that he
had an even more elaborate plan to actually teach
him what he should be doing. So now Henry
doesn’t want to record his own downfalls and share them, so we are going to
just point them out for him and publicly humiliate him. The consultant’s graphs showed his behaviors
decreased immensely! It was a miracle
plan and everyone was so excited. So
what behavior was he engaged in that his graphs were so stunning? Oh that’s right….sitting with his head down
on the desk. Not participating. Not feeling good about himself.
Shame on you behavior consulant!!!! Any behaviorist….a true behaviorist could
look at a child’s posture, eye gazes, movements, and listen to their silence
and know nurturing, positive, development is not occurring.
I took data the same
as the districts consultant. She saw a
student not engaged in target behaviors and that was a good thing for her. What she missed was seeing the child engaged
in low self-esteem, low confidence behaviors.
So ashamed that he put his head down on his desk and completely
disengaged from the rest of the class.
Is the graph a positive one? Does
the behavior actually work for the reasons we want it to? Did this consultant have any background in
child development or education? Sadly,
no she did not. She has a degree in
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and a certificate as a BCBA. Was her training helping her to focus on
developing a well-balanced child? Did
she know anything about nurturing a child to help them feel confident in the
skills they do well? How about guiding
and supporting him through difficult things?
Nope. Her only goal was to be
able to show a downward trend.
When I told her I didn’t need to see anymore of her graphs and
we didn’t need to waste anymore time reviewing them, she simply said, “the data
is how I make decisions about his program.”
Really? The data? So pieces of paper that come to you on a
weekly basis are the only way you help to positively impact this child’s
development and education? Hmm…because I
kind of think you need to meet a child, know a child, watch a child and most
importantly, know what you’re looking for!!!!
Everyone around that table looked to the almighty consultant
who had a plan which showed a decrease in behavior. Because you see, a child
with a behavior problem no longer falls under the umbrella of “Child.” They become a plan with black and white data
on a graph which shows how we got them to do what we wanted them to do.
I know all of you behavior analyst out there will say the
plan was unethical and she was a “bad” example.
I have been to hundreds of IEPs and advocated for kids and their
families. I have yet to find another
behavior consultant who wants to work on a child’s skills from the inside
out. They want to work on teaching
words, flashcards, non-functional imitation skills, non-functional receptive
commands…never developing trust and guidance to the point of mastery. Analyzing milestones is never done. Analyzing skills is done all the time. Why is skill development more important than
milestone development? How can we be so
blind to think we are doing a good thing for kids to skip over the most
precious stages of development? Does it
sound like a good plan to teach them to do things because we said so and if
they do, they will get something they want?
Think about it, how many years of that type of therapy and then we turn
and say….well he is still not social. He
only talks if you talk to him. He
doesn’t have his own personal goals and is prompt
dependent. Don’t even get me started
on prompt dependency, that is a blog for another time but I will leave you with
this little diddy….prompt dependency requires two people. The student and the teacher, guess who causes
prompt dependency? So the next time you
want to blame a student for prompt dependency just remember, “it takes two to
tango.”
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we looked at every child who has
autism or any child with a behavior problem and saw them as a child who is
still developing? How about running back
to the pediatricians and child development experts and say, “where do we go
from here?” Behavior consultants are not the answser. Especially the ones who have zero experience
teaching or studying stages of development.
I get it, everyone has worked long and hard on these studies and
assessments and yes, we can show improvement in skills for children.
Dare I ask has anyone ever considered what we are NOT
teaching?
Stephanie Hicks M.S., BCaBA
