WEBVTT

00:00:03,306 --> 00:00:11,116
In general, we encourage all faculty and staff to learn about the
acting-out cycle. You can think of this as a seven-step cycle that

00:00:11,116 --> 00:00:17,655
begins with a calm stage. And although (laugh) not every student
comes to school calm every day, we think at some point in their

00:00:17,655 --> 00:00:25,475
life they have experienced some type of calm. And then something
sets that student off and that can be thought of as a trigger. And

00:00:25,475 --> 00:00:32,653
sometimes those are school-based things like assemblies or schedule
change, or could it be a difficult assignment or something like

00:00:32,653 --> 00:00:40,355
that. And some of those triggers can also be non-school based. It
could be coming to school tired or hungry, or having not slept well

00:00:40,355 --> 00:00:48,889
the night before, or having had an argument with their parents or
a conflict with a peer. And then if those triggers aren’t noticed

00:00:48,889 --> 00:00:57,542
and responded to, then that behavior can shift from signs of agitation
and then really ramp up to signs of acceleration. And it’s during

00:00:57,542 --> 00:01:04,775
that acceleration phase, the behavior can really ramp up. And that’s
when it’s easy for teachers to begin to notice these concerns when

00:01:04,775 --> 00:01:12,820
those behaviors are escalating. And for some students, this acceleration
phase can last for several minutes, and then left unchecked, it

00:01:12,820 --> 00:01:19,674
can continue to escalate if it’s not nipped in the bud right there.
And eventually it creates these peak behaviors when behavior is

00:01:19,674 --> 00:01:26,710
very, very out of control. And that’s when we start to see things
like verbal and physical aggression in the classroom in a way that

00:01:26,710 --> 00:01:34,292
sometimes results in property destruction or harm to others. And
then following that, there is a de-escalation and then eventually

00:01:34,292 --> 00:01:42,948
a recovery phase. So, you’re going up and then you’re coming back
down. The good news is that it is possible to interrupt this acting-out

00:01:42,948 --> 00:01:50,004
cycle much earlier in the chain, long before the student reaches
peak behavior, which can be frightening for teachers and students

00:01:50,004 --> 00:01:55,209
alike, and not just the student experiencing the challenging behavior,
but others in the classroom.

00:01:55,209 --> 00:02:02,974
In addition, we’ve learned that timing is everything. Meaning that
it’s important for adults to understand when low intensity support,

00:02:02,974 --> 00:02:10,901
such as reminding students of expected behaviors or providing praise
when the student meets desired behaviors and even offering choices

00:02:10,901 --> 00:02:18,902
can be introduced efficiently and effectively, and also knowing
when they should not be used. Because used at the wrong time, it

00:02:18,902 --> 00:02:22,762
could actually have a counterproductive outcome for the student.