Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/getting-to/5026573/
Behavior is a word tossed around a lot these days, in a multitude of settings. We want children to “behave,” and often feel confused when they do not (on a consistent basis). Mostly, this comes from a place of wanting to better understand the child and find strategies that will help support the child. But it also comes from a place of wanting to keep ourselves regulated—to not feel so frustrated or overwhelmed or upset by a particular student’s behavior that we cannot manage our own emotions.
Traditional behavior-based methods, such as time-outs, token economies, or behavior and reward charts, while still very popular, are not exactly supported by brain-based science. Many researchers and child experts, including Tina Bryson and Dan Siegel, Mona Delahooke, Ross Greene, Bruce Perry, and Stephen Porges, are leading a movement that invites us to rethink how we see behavior. And occupational therapists, such as Jean Ayers, Lucy-Jane Miller, and Virginia Spielman are contributing to how sensory processing fits into that reframe. What all of this science points to are strategies to explore behavior as a manifestation of something else happening in the brain and body, rather than using Band-aid behavioral techniques to cover up the symptoms, without ...