When Staff are Challenged

09/15/2015

There’s the good guy and the bad guy in all of us, but knowing that doesn’t need to overwhelm us. Whatever we can do to help ourselves – and anybody else – discover that’s true, can really make a difference in this life.
Fred Rogers

In her article, "Including Children with Challenging Behavior in Your Child Care Community," in the Beginnings Workshop Book, Behavior, Barbara Kaiser discussed the impact on the staff in her child care center of Andrew, a child with challenging behavior...

"The nine staff had different views about what to do. Susan said she had chosen to work with 'normal' children; she did not want Andrew at the center. Joanne, Liz, and Abby were worried about the safety of the other children and overwhelmed by the responsibility of having a child like Andrew in their group. Carlos had no patience for Andrew; he believed that children should respect adults and do what they are told. And Andrew made Kim, Tanya, and Rosy feel as if they should be considering a different career.

"There were several common threads. They all admitted feeling stressed, frustrated, angry, and overwhelmed at times; and none of them liked the person they became when Andrew challenged them. But when I listened to them and acknowledged what they were saying, they were relieved. Having their feelings out in the open made those feelings easier to deal with.

"The staff also recognized that their degrees and experience hadn't provided them with the skills to respond effectively to Andrew's behavior. I encouraged them to look objectively at what they were doing in the classroom. They soon became aware that they kept repeating responses that didn't work because they had no alternatives. If asking Andrew to sit on a chair for three minutes seemed to offer a short reprieve, they tried it even if he sometimes refused to move or if his objective was to get out of the activity. The sad fact was that the test of success, a change in his behavior, was not visible. He continued to use challenging behavior to solve his problems and communicate his needs, and we continued to respond ineffectively."

Note: Barbara Kaiser and Karen Cairone are teaming up for a 2.5 day train-the-trainer event on Challenging Behavior on October 7-9, 2015 in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Exchange readers can get a 10% discount on the fee by entering the code: Exchange2015. Click here for more information and to register.

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