Anisa Sulaiman (Group B)

Case 1

Intervention: The intervention would be helping Annie to overcome with her behavioural and social difficulties that she faces in the school with her peers and teachers.


(i) the intervention
• Hemmeter and Fox (2006) have focused on the importance of friendships for young children in preventing problem behaviors.


• Apply the positive behavior support (PBS) framework to early childhood environments where educators can act early to teach pro-social behaviors and prevent histories of problem behaviors from developing (Hemmeter, 1999).


• Providing young children who display problem behavior with opportunities to make choices contingent on the display of appropriate behavior or as a means to appropriately manipulate their environment is a strategy that has been proven to decrease problematic behavior (Peck et al., 1996)

(ii) its effectiveness (as reported in the journal article)

• It is noted that it is effective when friendship skills such as giving suggestions in play, sharing toys and other materials, taking turns, being helpful, giving compliments, and understanding how and when to give apologies are important skills that must be taught to young children. It is essential to address and embed these friendship skills into language- and social-based interventions for these children to overcome such problems.

• The Positive Behaviour Support framework has been broken into four tiers to target challenging behaviour and focus on developing the child’s social competence. Firstly, “positive relating with children, families, and colleagues. Secondly, classroom preventative practices. Thirdly, social and emotional teaching strategies, and fourthly intensive individualized interventions” (p. 49). This framework really benefit children has it helps the children to create positive behavior with their fellow peers which in turns helps to increase her social competence.

• Lingo (2004) suggested that choice-making opportunities to be provided to young children with problem behavior by embedding choices into daily routines with a focus on improving their social competency. Besides that, Fox, Dunlap, and Cushing (2002) identified four common elements in the research literature that may contribute to the effectiveness of interventions used with young children who displayed problem behaviors. The elements include a family focus, working relationships between family members and adults who work with their children, positive behavior support, and the child being in an inclusive classroom.

Thus the above mentioned point greatly exhibits its effectiveness for the interventions mentioned.

(iii) your personal evaluation how the child will benefit from this intervention

As mentioned in the article that if research-based interventions are not applied, it is likely such problem behaviour will continue and will result in further negative academic and social failure for the child (Webster-Stratton, 1977). As such it is evident that early intervention is required so as to prevent from children to affect their later social life.
Moreover when a child undergoes this intervention she will be able to relate better with her fellow peers and family members. Furthermore it is also vital to provide early intervention, where the child will learn appropriate pro-social behaviour. When they are taught appropriate pro-social behaviour, the child will model and reinforce what they have learnt in school and to their peers.

I also feel that if the child does not get early intervention it would definitely affects the social, emotional and cognitive aspect of the child. They will be rejected and in turn this would lead to a poor social competence in the child. This is further evident when, “when young children engage in such behaviors without intervention, they are at-risk for peer rejection (Hyter, 2003), academic and social failure (Tremblay, 2000), and fewer opportunities to engage in learning activities.” (Jolivette et al., 2002).

As such the intervention planned for Annie would definitely help her to be more open and vocal to her peers and will have a higher sense of self esteem and confidence. Moreover it is also important for her teacher and parents to involve her in decision making and giving her choices to make a decision. When children are involved in such process, children problem behavior tend to decrease as they are involved and they are acknowledged. As such, Annie’s behavior towards her peers will certainly improve when her social competence improve. In addition, Annie also requires a lot of verbal appraisals from her peers and teachers. The teacher has to acknowledge Annie and her presence, by that way with the use of intervention on Annie would benefit her for long term.

(iv) your suggestions how you can make adjustments to cater to the needs of the child and to facilitate integration of the child / the intervention activity into
your classroom.

As Smith (2007) suggested that the following skills are critical to a child’s success in school: getting along with others, following directions, identifying and regulating emotions, thinking of solutions to conflict, persisting on a task, engaging in social conversation, and engaging in cooperative play. These skills would definitely be promoted with the effort to prevent problem behavior from Annie.

Besides that I feel this should be done consistently so as to allow Annie to get used to the routine and she would be familiar with it. Furthermore Annie’s social competence and positive behavior towards her peers and teachers would also increase given the consistency of the routine. Moreover, Annie would also feel comfortable with her peers around her and she would not be seen shy and withdrawn

Furthermore educator should educate other children on Annie’s condition. In addition they should also inform the other children on how they can help or aid Annie when she exhibits such inappropriate behavior. In this way the other children will be aware and they will also try to make friend and prevent from provoking or laughing at Annie. By doing so, Annie can enjoy education in school as much as the other children.




Reference:
Jolivette, K., Gallagher, P., Morrier, M., & Lambert, R. (2008, June). Preventing Problem
Behaviors in Young Children with Disabilities. Exceptionality, 16(2), 78-92. Retrieved September 3, 2009, doi:10.1080/09362830801981195