Michele See (Group B)

(1) Select either Case 1 or Case 2 to work on. State your selection clearly in your report.
Case 1.

(2) Identify an area of intervention for that child. State the area clearly.
Shadowing. Following a child within the classroom during sessions to anticipate the potential occurance of situations and interactions leading to challenging behaviors, and provide communicative support in an effort to reduce challenging behaviors.

Report on

(i) the intervention
Children benefit from having a clearer understanding on the function and normalities of language. Behavior problems stem from the inability to communicate successfully. Interventions were conducted on teaching children the patterns in language to decrease social difficulties. There are relationships between language proficiency and behavioral scores. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Behavior problems in children with language impairment. (p. 1142) http://web.ebscohost.com.libwww3.np.edu.sg/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=2&sid=0e1c852a-cffb-4ab8-ab29-c830f626a8e9%40sessionmgr4
Teacher tend to rate aggressiveness as more disruptive behavior compared to being non participative. I believe that at times, children act up when they are unable to find an outlet for their stress, which may be the case with Annie. From the case study, Annie is extremely shy and withdrawn, but bites her classmates when teased for her facial deformities. I believe that Annie needs to further develop her language so that she is able to communicate her thoughts and feelings to her classmates without feeling the need to bite. It is good that she receives speech and language therapy at the hospital each week.
Method:
A professional may initially intervene by providing direct models of requesting an object (“Can I play with the ball?”) and pointing out appropriate behaviors displayed by other children. (“Your friend asked for the ball; she said “Can I play with the ball?) As intervention progresses, models are replaced by prompting of socially accepted responses (“Can I _____?”). These prompts are also faded as the child learns more appropriate forms of communicating.
(ii) its effectiveness (as reported in the journal article)
Because many preschool classrooms consist of multiple staff members, the ability to incorporate language-enrichment techniques to reduce challenging behaviors during a large portion of the classroom day is quite feasible. Active involvement in the classroom allows the speech language pathologist to provide direct services to children within the classroom while capitalizing on opportunities for carryover of such strategies into the rest of the classroom day, thereby increasing the continuity and effectiveness of intervention.
Preschool Teacher’s Perceptions and Reactions to Challenging Classroom Behavior: Implications for Speech Language Pathologists. http://web.ebscohost.com.libwww3.np.edu.sg/ehost/pdf?vid=2&hid=2&sid=6512f468-b3c3-4e50-8351-9fb92233f713%40sessionmgr11

(iii) your personal evaluation how the child will benefit from this intervention
When Annie is able to have the opportunity for caregivers to give her attention and point out good behavior and model it for her, she will be able to learn the behavior as well. Annie can learn to express her self, understand appropriate social cues and use words to communicate her needs instead of just using her hands and feet.

(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.
In the same way we can modify the intervention method. We can teach Annie to say, “Please do not make fun of my facial deformities, it makes me sad.” Help Annie to help her peers to focus on her strengths, such as being able to build a tall and strong tower in the block centre. Teacher can read a storybook on understanding children who have difficulties communicating. After that can follow up on actions we can do to show understanding and patience.
Teachers can take turns to follow Annie around and provide her with the most attentive care and encouragement. Not just Annie should have the opportunity for receiving such attention, but also other children. Positive reinforcement and modeling is a much better way to manage classroom dynamics compared to scolding and punishment.