1. Deb Marcus, NBCT, CAPE Marley Glen School Glen Burnie, Maryland
Be Prepared, Be Patient, Be Consistent… The Golden Rules of Behavior Management in Physical Education
Deb Marcus, NBCT, CAPE
Marley Glen School
Glen Burnie, Maryland

2. Introductions
Deb Marcus
Marley Glen School
15 years! 

3. Experiment…
Follow directions..

5. Discussion What made the 3rd set of directions so clear?
How does this transfer to our Physical Education classes?

6. Challenges faced by PE teachers
Large group of students with varying degrees of needs
Students with disabilities included in general PE classes
Large space
Unstructured environment
Down time before, during and after activities
Others?

7. Managing Behaviors
Which types of behaviors cause PE teachers the most difficulties?
Following directions
Staying with the group
Staying on task
Sharing equipment
Taking turns appropriately
Appropriate language
Sportsmanship
Accepting NO as an answer

8. BE PREPARED!
Think about the structure of your class, including routines and your teaching style
Assistants that come with students
Skills needed to participate independently (cues, vocabulary, time on tasks, handling down time)
Distractions – classroom /gym environment

9. How information is presented
Verbal instructions
Stop!
Walk and sit in front of me.
Get a ball and find personal space.
Stand next to a partner
Line up
Demonstrations
Skills (part/whole)
Teacher/student

10. Visual supports Communication
Spots on floor to mark personal space (where to sit, stand, line up)
Schedules
Vocabulary
Graphic Organizers

11. Examples of Visual supports

12. Communication

13. “Circle Map” – Graphic Organizer

14. Social Stories Stories are used to teach: Examples
What to expect in new situations
Appropriate behaviors across settings
Examples

15. Distractions / Structure & Routines
Eliminate distractions
Equipment
Staff/students walking through
Reinforcement
Cues - music
Structure/Routines
Know what to expect
Know what comes next

16. Schedules

17. Starting and stopping signals
What cues do you use to start/stop your class?
How would they need to change for student with:
Hearing impairment?
Autism?
Visual impairment?

19. Time / Duration Time of class Duration Morning/afternoon
Before/after medication wears off??
Tired in afternoon?
Duration
PE classes per week
Amount of time participating
Amount of time on each activity

20. Visual Timers Examples

21. Whose Turn?

22. What to do with children with behavioral problems?
Identify behaviors that the teacher wants to correct or redirect.
Must be measurable, have clear beginning and end, and able to be defined in objective terms
What is the student doing? How is he acting? When does the behavior occur? Where does it occur? What is happening in the class when it occurs?

23. Motivation Assessment Scale
Scale used to determine the functions of the behavior – attention, escape /avoidance, tangible or sensory
Filled out by teachers, service providers, parents – anyone who sees the behavior being measured

24. Sensory
Behavior would occur over and over if person left alone for period of time
Person calm and unaware of what is going on around him
Person enjoys performing the behavior
Examples – rocking back and forth, running into padding on walls

25. Escape/Avoidance Occurs following difficult task
When request is made of person
Occurs to upset teacher when you are trying to get him to do what you ask
Stops behavior when you stop working with or placing demands on him

26. Attention seeking
Occurs in response to teacher not paying attention to him
Occurs to get teacher to spend time with him
Occurs to upset teacher in order to get teacher to spend time with him

27. Tangible
Occurs to get a toy, piece of equipment or activity he was told he cannot have
Occurs when teacher takes away toy, piece of equipment or activity
Stops when toy, piece of equipment or activity is given back to student

28. Preference Assessment
Checklist of items that the student and/or family fills out
Lists items that are preferred
Could eventually be used as reinforcers
Helpful when student is non-verbal and not responding to current reinforcement

29. Preference Assessment
Food items (candy, ice cream, chips, fruit, beverages)
Toys/Sports equipment
Electronics (iPod, computer, iPad)
Certificates, awards, stickers
Recess, extra PE time
Time with teacher
Group leader

30. Positive Reinforcement
Intrinsic motivation
Social praise
Physical activity
Sensory stimuli
Tangibles
Group contingencies
Token economies
Contracts
Prompts
Shaping

31. Tangibles Giving a student something to reinforce behavior
Use age appropriate items
Sticker
Stamp
Certificate
Ribbon
Edible

32. Sensory Stimuli
Providing auditory, visual, or kinesthetic stimuli for reinforcement
Music
Swinging
Jumping
Fidgets
Could be effective for students with autism

33. Shaping Reinforcing successive approximations
Target behavior – go in the gym and sit on a shape
Student goes into gym and runs around all the shapes, then sits on shape – teacher rewards student for sitting independently on the shape
Reinforcing small increments of improvement will eventually lead to mastery of skill

34. Token boards

35. Behavior Contract
At the end of each class, teacher rates student on whether he met his behavioral goals
Circle smiley face or frowny face
Point system
Student returns contract to classroom teacher for reward, if earned.
Might work if computer time is very motivating – then he could earn 5 minutes when he returns to class

36. Premack Principle
Recommends making high – frequency behavior contingent on completing a low-frequency behavior
Example – Jake likes to run laps around the gym. Jake does not like to do stretching exercises. If Jake does his stretching exercises, he is allowed to run 5 laps around the gym.

37. First – Then Strip

38. BE PATIENT!!!!! May not work on the first try
Pick one positive intervention, teach it to the student, use it consistently
Try another….
Try another…
 Keep smiling! 

39. Punishment Use only when positive reinforcement is not working
Six types of punishment:
Silent look
Verbal reprimand
Extinction
Time – out
Overcorrection
Response cost

40. Verbal reprimand Address the problem behavior not the student himself.
“Do not bounce the ball while I am talking”
NOT – “You can’t do anything right!”

41. Extinction
Ignoring inappropriate behaviors when seen as attention seeking behaviors
Most effective when combined with positive reinforcement
Very difficult because it takes lots of patience and self control

42. Time out
Removing the student from the activity for a pre-set amount of time
Disadvantage – some students enjoy it because they got out of an activity they did not want to do

43. Overcorrection Restoring the environment
Vandalism – need to clean what you did plus all of the other areas that need it
Positive practice overcorrection
Running in hallway – need to walk 10 times for allotted distance

44. Response Cost Penalty box! Loss of minutes of time to perform activity
Loss of points of grade
Loss of equipment

45. Negative Reinforcement
CAUTION! Use only when necessary – negative reinforcement can increase resistance!
Taking away something to maintain or increase a behavior
Avoidance procedure
Escape procedure

46. BE CONSISTENT!!
First – give it time! Could get worse before it gets better. DO NOT GIVE UP! (or give in!)
Talk to other staff that are having difficulties with the student to brainstorm for more ideas
Look closely at your intervention and see if you are able to put it into play effectively
If not – what do you need to do to make it effective?
HANG IN THERE! 

47. What to do with the rest of the class???
Ideally the student’s reinforcement system can be used with everyone…
Implementing a positive behavior reward system for all students – “Catch ‘em being good”
Class rewards
Individual rewards
Other ideas?

48. Group Contengencies
Class Behavior Chart - When whole class wears tennis shoes, the football moves up 10 yards. When we score a touchdown, whole class is rewarded with student picked favorite activity class.

49. Other examples of Group Contengencies
Class rewards chart for sportsmanship, following directions, etc
Points given based on criteria created by teacher or students (3 pts – great teamwork, 2 pts – average sportsmanship, 1 pt – poor sportsmanship)
Reward given after so many points have been obtained