Reframe challenging behavior as communication of an underlying need and respond rather than react¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

Under Relate, the brief urges teachers to "Reframe students' challenging behaviors," explaining that "Behavior is communication — it is telling a story or revealing an underlying need." Fight, flight, and freeze reactions may look like defiance, noncompliance, or task avoidance but are "simply symptoms of an underlying brain function." Teachers should also "Seek to respond, rather than to react," learning which behaviors activate them and how to regulate themselves so they can model self-regulation for students.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Educator self-awareness of personal activation triggers and self-regulation capacity

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• K-12 students, particularly those whose behavior reflects trauma-related stress responses

Target Learning Goals¶

• Positive teacher-student relationships
• student self-regulation

Affordances¶

• Perry 3 Rs Regulate Relate Reason

Related Strategies¶

• Functional Behavior Assessment
• Empathic Discipline
• Screen lessons, texts, activities, and videos in advance to ensure they are not activating for students and families

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Pate, C. (2020). Strategies for trauma-informed distance learning. Center to Improve Social and Emotional Learning and School Safety at WestEd. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED606091