The first means of dealing with a behaviour, or ‘Plan A’, is the unilateral imposition of will upon the person who has the behaviour maladaptation – i.e., we see a problem and tell someone how to fix it, or we fix the behaviour for them.

This may look like:

· Removing the issue

· Telling someone what to do

· Yelling

· Placating

· Doing the behaviour for the person

The unilateral imposition of will has been – and continues to be – applied in schools to this day. Think of detentions, suspensions, exclusions and expulsions. Holding behaviour expectations without giving explicit support or instruction, such as telling a student to be ‘good’, is another application of the imposition of will.

The imposition of adult will does not teach skills or fix issues in any complete, sustainable or mutually agreeable way. What it does do is fix the issue in the moment, at the time it is needed. There is a space for this kind of intervention in behaviour. When behaviour needs to change in the face of safety or security issues, there is room to ‘just do the behaviour’ or say ‘do it how I show you. However, I want you to consider the long-term implications of solving all challenging behaviours in this manner – what skills or abilities is it developing in the ones exhibiting the behaviour?

The second manner of intervening in behaviour is the ‘wait and see approach', or setting aside expectations. I find this is what people stress about the most, as it can appear like we are not dealing with the issue at hand or are not actively involved in solving the problem immediately. It is not that we don’t deal with the issue at hand, though – what we do is we set aside the expectations…for now. Not forever!

There is, similarly, a place for this kind of behaviour management – it allows the adult to set aside the expectations that are the stimuli for the child’s challenging or maladaptive behaviour to enable them to put a plan in place or wait for a more appropriate time where the child is more regulated or supported.

Consider this example:

A student is taking a test. They can’t deal with it – it is too stressful, or they don’t have the skills to know how to take the test. So, this child exhibits challenging behaviours. They throw things, lash out, cry and tip over desks.

How can we respond to this? Well, we could impose our will and tell them to ‘sit down and just do the test!’ or say ‘do the test or miss out on lunchtime!’, but how well do we think this will work?

How about, instead, we look at the situation, see that the student is lacking the skills right now to be able to do the test, and let them know that they don’t have to do it right now. Typically, the response I get is ‘Really?!’, and I reply with something like ‘Yes. You still have to do the test, just not right now. Let everyone else get started and then we can come back and see what’s up. This is where we can action the final way to respond to challenging or maladaptive behaviour: Collaborative Problem Solving.

The final way to deal with challenging and maladaptive behaviours is to work through the skill deficit with the student or young person as a problem-solving team. There are two types of CPS: emergency CPS and proactive CPS.

Emergency CPS is what you do in the moment. We have all had those curve balls thrown at us where a student has acted out of character or inexplicably to an event or task. Emergency CPS is applying CPS in a responsive manner – identifying challenges, gathering information, and developing solutions in a way that deescalates the situation and allows all participants to remain safe.

Proactive CPS is about Identifying the specific skill a student is lacking, understanding problems where that skill deficit may occur, planning for the development of that skill or developing coping strategies with the student or young person, and planning with the student or young person how they can reach goals, all before the event which triggers the behaviour happens.

As a proficient practitioner of CPS, you will become fluent in applying it in emergencies. This MOOC will focus on using CPS proactively, as these skills can be used effectively in both proactive and emergency CPS.