Favorite Theoretical Approaches
All of these philosophies or approaches have something in common: they're very respectful of children and actively promote ways of teaching them important social-emotional skills. I am rabidly opposed to any approach with the underlying assumption that kids' behaviors are either an effort to get something (attention) or an effort to avoid something (work), or that they are a result of poor parenting. Nothing is ever that simple. If it was, we'd be out of a job pretty quickly because kids' problems would be easy to fix.
Zones of Regulation® (Leah Kuypers)
I use the Zones of Regulation® with almost everybody. The book, by Leah Kuypers, comes with 18 lessons and a CD containing all the printables you'll need. I ordered mine through the Social Thinking® website; it was less expensive than Amazon.
All feelings fall into one of the four "zones," generally depending on how much physical and emotional energy is involved. Zones are not judged as positive or negative; for example both "enraged" and "ecstatic" fall in the red zone because they both are emotionally extreme. A problem arises when a feeling is not expected or proportional under the circumstances.
Zones® lessons teach children how to identify their feelings' intensity, how to recognize personal triggers, how to judge the size of a problem, how their behavior might affect others, and how to develop a repertoire of "tools" for self-regulation. Even my youngest students immediately grasp the concept of the different zones, and enjoy working on their "toolboxes" for self-control.
A bonus about using this curriculum is that it jibes nicely with Michelle Garcia Winner's Social Thinking® concepts (and Social Thinking® pairs well with my favorite approach, Collaborative Problem Solving) (I love it when that happens, don't you?).
http://www.zonesofregulation.com/
Social Thinking® (Michelle Garcia Winner)
If you haven't heard about Social Thinking® yet, get thee to this site immediately! Invaluable resource for working with kids on the Autism Spectrum. Much of it can be used with neuro-typical kids too.
www.socialthinking.com
Collaborative Problem Solving or Collaborative Proactive Solutions (Ross Greene & Stuart Ablon)
Dr. Greene wrote the amazing "The Explosive Child" and "Lost at School," and co-wrote "Treating the Explosive Child" with Dr. Ablon. The basic philosophy is that children do well if they can, and when they don't it's frequently due to a lagging thinking skill in an area like emotional regulation, executive function, frustration tolerance, or social skills. This is my favorite because there's a very clear format for having problem-solving conversations with kids, and if you follow the format you're actually teaching the lagging skills at the same time you're solving the problem at hand. Wow!
www.thinkkids.org
www.livesinthebalance.org
Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS)
This site is brilliant because not only does it have lots of PBIS strategies, it's also interactive. Teachers can enter a problem behavior exhibited by a child, and they'll be given a menu of Tier 1 interventions that they can try. If those don't work they get a list of Tier 2 interventions, and so on.
www.pbisworld.com
Zones of Regulation® (Leah Kuypers)
I use the Zones of Regulation® with almost everybody. The book, by Leah Kuypers, comes with 18 lessons and a CD containing all the printables you'll need. I ordered mine through the Social Thinking® website; it was less expensive than Amazon.
All feelings fall into one of the four "zones," generally depending on how much physical and emotional energy is involved. Zones are not judged as positive or negative; for example both "enraged" and "ecstatic" fall in the red zone because they both are emotionally extreme. A problem arises when a feeling is not expected or proportional under the circumstances.
Zones® lessons teach children how to identify their feelings' intensity, how to recognize personal triggers, how to judge the size of a problem, how their behavior might affect others, and how to develop a repertoire of "tools" for self-regulation. Even my youngest students immediately grasp the concept of the different zones, and enjoy working on their "toolboxes" for self-control.
A bonus about using this curriculum is that it jibes nicely with Michelle Garcia Winner's Social Thinking® concepts (and Social Thinking® pairs well with my favorite approach, Collaborative Problem Solving) (I love it when that happens, don't you?).
http://www.zonesofregulation.com/
Social Thinking® (Michelle Garcia Winner)
If you haven't heard about Social Thinking® yet, get thee to this site immediately! Invaluable resource for working with kids on the Autism Spectrum. Much of it can be used with neuro-typical kids too.
www.socialthinking.com
Collaborative Problem Solving or Collaborative Proactive Solutions (Ross Greene & Stuart Ablon)
Dr. Greene wrote the amazing "The Explosive Child" and "Lost at School," and co-wrote "Treating the Explosive Child" with Dr. Ablon. The basic philosophy is that children do well if they can, and when they don't it's frequently due to a lagging thinking skill in an area like emotional regulation, executive function, frustration tolerance, or social skills. This is my favorite because there's a very clear format for having problem-solving conversations with kids, and if you follow the format you're actually teaching the lagging skills at the same time you're solving the problem at hand. Wow!
www.thinkkids.org
www.livesinthebalance.org
Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS)
This site is brilliant because not only does it have lots of PBIS strategies, it's also interactive. Teachers can enter a problem behavior exhibited by a child, and they'll be given a menu of Tier 1 interventions that they can try. If those don't work they get a list of Tier 2 interventions, and so on.
www.pbisworld.com