The document discusses developing a responsive social and learning environment to support communication and reduce unwanted behaviors for students. It covers several key areas: 1) How the environment can support language development and encourage communication through various cues and supports. 2) Looking at a student's relationship with their physical, symbolic, and social environments to understand behaviors. 3) Ways to adapt the environment, such as organizing spaces, using visual supports and schedules, to increase understanding and independence while reducing stress. 4) Analyzing behaviors from an objective standpoint to understand their function and how to teach replacement behaviors through strategies like functional communication training.

1. Developing a responsive social and learning environment to support communication and reduce unwanted behaviours Scot Greathead Speech and Language Therapist

2. Aims How the environment can support learning and encourage communication Look at different levels of environmental cues A Language Processing Model: What happens when it breaks down? Reducing Communicative Behaviours Reducing environmental demands Prioritising which behaviour to work on first Functional Communication Training

3. Introducing an analogy for language development . The way we have made sense of our environment depends on how how our ‘reality’ is explained to us Soil = environment

8. Connecting with your environment Relationship with your physical environment Relationship with your symbolic environment Relationship with your social environment How you respond to environmental prompts Ability to attach meaning to symbols Awareness of how time is represented Understanding of your role within a given setting

11. Model of language processing Understanding and thinking Expressive language Speech Social skills Attention and listening Ongoing filtering of internal and external ‘distracters’ and regulation of internal state Feedback loop Organisation: how we apply the information from the above model to our environment Writing

12. Activity: Snarbles “ Experience the effect of communication breakdown”

14. How Do these Difficulties Manifest? Not trying to communicate Use of non-verbal communication strategies to communicate Learned helplessness: “Everything gets done for me” No control over their decisions Self Harm? Frustration Lack of experience in communicating Confrontation, tantrums, ‘behavioural difficulties’ Loss of independence – reliance on others

15. Describing Behaviour Subjective descriptions: all based on how the make us feel Silly, naughty, attention seeking malicious, doing it to annoy me, hyper, bad, good, sensible, excitable, lazy Objective analysis: Based on where the problem is Describe how a certain behaviour may be as a result of social deficit, language processing or sensory processing difficulties Why? Objective analysis will provide us with an opportunity to generate a hypothesis which describes why a certain behaviour is occuring. This will give us an opportunity to put support mechanims in place / teach a more appropriate behaviour

16. What are students communicating through behaviour? Fear lack of control or control Stress Anxiety boredom poor flexibility, difficulties with problem solving/planning difficulty shifting attention focus etc Confusion Excitement Enjoyment Concentration

17. Philosophy: defining ‘behaviour’ 1. Children have a fundamental need to function within their environment: All behaviours serve a function or purpose . Children may develop coping mechanisms to help them function 2. Behaviours are a result of: Children trying to meet a specific need A response to an environmental demand or stimuli A learned response or coping strategy 3. Behaviours initailly develop to meet a primary need and are maintained by the success encountered within their environment 4. Behaviours are almost always maintained by more than one factor 5. Behaviours that are repeated several times are learned. Behaviours that are used regularly are established. 6. Children can use the same behaviour for many different reasons . Behaviours may look alike but causes may be different Scot Greathead

18. Philosophy: intervention 7. Attitude is critical Believe that the child is capable of changing and overcoming their problems. Children have proven they can overcome anything Believe in your own abilities to change the child’s behaviour. If you believe you can the you can! Be positive, supportive and non judgmental . 8. Intervention must address the whole child: physically, mentally emotionally and sensory If a child views an activity as pleasurable, everything associated with it will be pleasurable You can’t eliminate a behaviour without teaching a replacement behaviour. Focus on what you want the child to be doing, not what he or she is doing wrong. “ Is it sensory or is it behaviour?” Murray-Slutsky and Paris 2007

19. Reducing ‘Communicative Behaviours’

21. A hierarchy for reducing ‘communicative behaviours’

26. 1. Setting up designated learning areas

27. 2. Labelling Learning Areas with Base Boards

28. 3. Differentiating between similar areas

29. 4. Refining Learning Areas to support contextual Understanding

30. 5. Accessible Communication Systems

31. 6. Supporting Time concepts / Transition Schedules

32. 7. Labelling the classroom

33. 8. The sensory Environment

34. Reducing ‘Communicative Behaviours’

37. Reducing ‘Communicative Behaviours’