This course will introduce candidates to various disabilities, etiologies and educational implications. Candidates will understand ways to adapt curriculum, materials, teaching and management strategies. The course will explore ways to differentiate.
Positive behavior support (PBS) is a behavior management system used to understand what maintains an individual's challenging behavior. Inappropriate behaviors are difficult to change because they are functional; they serve a purpose. These behaviors are supported by reinforcement in the environment. In the case of students and children, often adults in a child’s environment will reinforce his or her undesired behaviors because the child will receive objects and/or attention because of his behavior. Functional behavior assessments (FBAs) clearly describe behaviors, identify the contexts (events, times, and situation) that predict when behavior will and will not occur, and identify consequences that maintain the behavior. They also summarize and create a hypothesis about the behavior, directly observe the behavior and take data to get a baseline. The positive behavior support process involves goal identification, information gathering, hypothesis development, support plan design, implementation and monitoring.Positive behavior support is a strategy that meets these criteria. By changing stimulus and reinforcement in the environment and teaching the child to strengthen deficit skill areas the student's behavior changes in ways that allow him/her to be included in the general education setting. Positive behavior support is successful in the school setting because it is primarily a teaching method.
- Teacher: Caleb Hampton