Another Cute Behavior Chart!

Wendy-one of the great teachers I work with.  Put this cute behavior chart together.  This one is a little different then the ones I have shown in the past.  For this particular student she needed to illiminate some explosive mal-adaptive behaviors.  The student starts the day with 5 rockets.  If the student has an explosive behavior he looses a rocket. He gets certain rewards for keeping at 3-5 rockets intact.  She did a fabulous job individualizing this chart for this student.  Some behaviors need to be quickly illiminated and sometimes that requires taking something away or having a more negative consequence.  I love how Wendy made this very reinforcing and so cute looking even though it is related to some pretty intense behavior.  Way to go Wendy!  I love it!

Utility Apron- So NEAT!

Ok so another mention of the amazing people that I work with: So I was consulting on a student who was having some difficult behaviors, after observing and doing all the analyzing I do I made some recommendations.  The recommendations involved a bunch of pieces but they needed to be done.  Well as always one of the amazing teachers and her staff decided to come up with a creative way to have all the items they needed readily available yet still allowing both hands to be free to escort the student from place to place.  I LOVE IT!

This apron holds all the velcro charts and items that we have.  In the upper left you can see the "motivaider" its a timer that vibrates on an interval schedule (part of my recommendation for the token board at the bottom of the apron).  You can also see the students schedule, an "I am working for..." strip and the extra tokens.  Whoa baby, all on one piece of material!

Plus look at these pockets at the bottom- perfect for holding all those extra icons and any other items you might need at any given moment...including the edible reinforcers the student is working for!

Way to go team... I love it! I call this serious dedication to the students these ladies work with.  Putting the little ones first as always!!!

This seems like a very simple thing to create for your classroom right?

Get on it!

Trouble Staying on Topic?

So I recently created this topic meter for a student who is often distracted by the many millions of things he is thinking about...he often tries to bring his teachers or other students along for the ride by talking about all of his wonderful thoughts and ideas.  I made this topic meter to minimize the verbal reminders to stay on topic and almost act as a self (with help) monitor of where he stands in reference to his work.  I have used and seen others use similar meters for other things like the volume of your voice or the energy output of your body (calm vs. wiggly) I think they are a fantastic visual reminder.  All of the students have responded very well to them!  Plus they are just so cute!  Lets be honest there are many adults we wouldn't mind using one of these for right????  Wouldn't it make meetings so much shorter?  Think about it?

Another behavior chart medium!

I did a little presentation last night and it was great!  Thanks any of you who are checking in here for the first time!  Welcome!  We had a great discussion and I will be sharing some tidbits in days to come. 
Also the new series I was talking about will be starting up soon so stay tuned!

This was one of the first behavior charts I made as a teacher!  It was nice because it is very concrete, sometimes even pictures as seen here are difficult for a student to understand what is going on.  This allowed for the child to see that as soon as all 3 "cups" were filled up he or she could get their reward.  This works well for younger children or children who function at a lower cognitive level.  Its made with a simple egg carton (reduce, reuse, recycle) and works great. 

For those who are new: Go here to see the basics of this type of behavior chart!  I know some of you last night asked about how to use them and here is some more detailed and important information to use!  Enjoy!

Not Just for the Little Ones behavior!!!

 So you, your spouse, roommate, child, sibling, parent etc might actually need to get yourself on of these bad boys!  Its a what I think what I say mediator!  I used this for a student on the autism spectrum initially and have since reccommended it multiple times for students (and adults) of all different ages and backgrounds.  Its very simple and very useful.

Lots of us have trouble with filtering what we are thinking for what we actually say.  Some of the following might have been included on this chart. Some might have actually been used by myself with some of my students!!

Think.......................................................................Say

Oh that lunch                                                                   Cold fish-head is not my favorite
looks so disgusting

I really wish you would                                                     Nothing
stop talking to me

NO!!YOU'RE WRONG                                                  Hmmm, are you sure about that?

She looks so big, I wonder                                                Whats up?
if shes pregnant

I hate this substitute                                                         Thats a nice shirt.


Anyway you get the idea.  There were a lot of things I could have thrown on here but you can fill in your own.  It worked very well for helping the students find other ways of saying things and learning a little bit more about the word "polite."

Power Cards

So in college we learned about power cards and every school I have worked in has never heard of them, so I took the opportunity to introduce them.  I think they are great!  They are kindof like social stories which most of you may have heard of (I will post some of those later) but they are smaller (on 4x6 or 3x5 cards) and shorter (word wise). 

A powercard basically just bullet points important behaviors to remember for specific situations.  This particular power card was created for a student who had trouble with competition.  I bulleted some of the important things he needed to remember when playing competitive games.  As you can probably gather this student was very motivated by characters from Mario Video Games.  We took his favorite characters and used them to our advantage.  They work best for students who can read.  But you can also use pictures to create sentences for students who have less of a reading vocabulary.

This is a character powercard.  You can also use a basic powercard for students who need rules to refer to themselves and need pro-nouns like I and me to be used. Some students need the rules to say, I WILL...... but others work better when they can relate to someone else (Mario and Luigi) following the same rules.

I really like putting all of the powercards for a specific student on a little ring and pulling up the one that refers to the specific situation we are in.  Its a great way to quickly review the rules and use priming to help a child anticipate a situation before it occurs. 

Some other things I have made powercards for:

Taking Turns
How to behave on the bus
Buying Lunch at School
Calming Down

Thats enough for now...I might decide to post some more so I don't want to spoil that for you!!  Enjoy!

One of My All Time Favorites!

So when I was teaching I had a few students who you might say had "Hot Hands" aka had a hard time keeping their hands to themselves. Some of the difficulty was due to sensory needs and some was due to behavior.  I would see a lot of the incidents while in line going from here to there and in places like music class or assemblies where there weren't as many defined "personal space zones" like there were in my classroom (desks).  So I decided that something needed to be done.  I wanted to keep their hands busy so they were less likely to hit or pinch or what not but I also wanted there to be a visual reminder to keep their hands to themselves.  And I came up with (in my mind) the most brilliant idea!!  Thanks to the help of my staff at the time we were able to very quickly create a nice hands box!!!   (These images and materials are not the actual items I created when I taught...as I did not take pictures at the time and could not bring them with me because they were used for specific students-But these images are from Kimber, who created them after I made the recommendation and explained to her what it looked like and how it was used in my classroom.) In addition my surpervisor has since created these for some other classrooms in the district....so there.  I am not the only one who likes the idea!  Here they are.
 The Nice Hands!

 So here is the nicely labeled box.  Telling the students what goes inside. 

 Inside there are a bunch of medical gloves filled with different textured objects.  Between myself and Kimber we used clay, playdough, beads, string, sand, moon-sand, rice, beans and much more.

Whenever it was time to line up, or sit in music or an assembly or the student seemed like they were having a little trouble I would ask them to choose a "Nice Hand".  They LOVED them.  They were enough to physically remind them to keep their hands to themselves while keeping their hands busy, making them less likely to touch another student.  For students who had sensory difficulties I would use these very proactively sometimes along with different accomodations.  For students who were having "Hot Hands" for other behavioral reasons I would often give them a "Nice Hand" before the difficult time but if they hit or poked I would take it away and remind them to have nice hands and when they showed me their hands could be nice I would give it back as reinforcement.  (That of course only worked with students who were motivated enough by them.) Plus whats more reinforcing than holding a hand right?  All of us have those sensory difficulties and need to squeeze or hold something every once in a while.  Maybe you need to go make yourself one!

More Simple Behavior Charts

Here are a few more charts made from different items or with different focuses. I did not personally create any of these particular charts but I did make some of them as recommendations and like I mentioned before I work with the most on the ball and creative teachers. Boy does that make my job easier!

This gem was created using milk carton caps!  Perfect huh?  Great thinking Kimber! A great way to reuse something you have plenty of.

You may notice the reward is not posted either in written or picture format, this is because this particular chart is paired with the reinforcer box see in this post. 

As you can easily tell from this chart it is similar to some I created and used while teaching-which you can see here or here.  But you might notice that the child this was created for has a little trouble listening and needs extra reinforcement and reminders when she does.  Its a nice specific chart. You may also notice she is working to be the teachers helper!  Nice!  No I don't recommend making one of these for your husband....I know some of you were thinking that.  Nice Work Kimber!

On the back there are a few other options for reinforcement.  Its all packaged together for easy use!

Chart By Wendy! This chart is made using little colored plastic ships and a piece of cardboard-it could also be done with a binder or other item.  The reinforcer icon is nicely placed on the board.  This student had 3 chips to earn before receiving the reinforcer.  He has since moved up to 5.  Woo Woo! 

For reminders on how to use a simple behavior chart click here!

More Behavior Charts in the future!  Share Your if you'd like!

Reinforcer Reminder

Recently while consulting on students and their behavior programs I recommended that the teachers create this box.  It works really well if the student doesn't yet understand that an object can be represented by a picture.  It also works well if you don't have a picture of the item that the child wants to work for.  Its great for a classroom because you can't always just whip up a picture on the spot but in this case you don't have to.  We use these mostly during the students 1:1 work time or Discrete Trial Intervention Sessions.

I like this because the box is clear so the student or child can see what they are working for and in case they are distracted or not working like they should be you can carefully remind them what they are working for by pointing to the box.

For Moms:  It would work well to create a ziplock bag with the words I am working for on it and put whatever object your child is going to earn inside.  Since as Moms we can't possibly have pictures of every single object that our child might want and some children don't need to communicate with pictures but they can use their words. 

*Thanks Kimber for letting me take a picture of yours and for always being so on the ball with my recommendations.  I work with the best teachers!!!

More simple behavior charts!

As promised here are a few of my other simple behavior charts.  I love these ones.  They are great for the purse!  All you need is the chart and a dry erase marker and you are good to go!

 This was a very simple chart I had lying around and would use if I found a student becoming restless during work time.  They were very motivated to work when there was a reminder of what they were working for. 5 stars or smileys or sometimes crazy faces (whatever they wanted)= a short play break. It worked for me and it worked for them!

 Occasionally when I was feeling like a really nice teacher I would surprise my students by handing them one of these computer points cards.  Everyone got one and when they were working hard or did something nice throughout the day they would get a star.  As soon as their card was filled they could head over to the computer to play an educational game.  It was very effective.  They all loved the computer and it was a nice way to reward them for the simple things. 

 There are a few things that I love about this chart.  First its simple, just the dry erase marker and the chart (like the others), second there are reinforcer choices at the top so the child could choose something different every time, next there is a visual reminder of the expected behavior (in this case keeping your hands to yourself).  Clearly this was used with a student who needed a little extra reminder and motivation to keep their hands to themselves.  The best bonus about this chart was it kept those little hands busy, as the student would carry it around with them, thus making it a little more difficult to give someone a little push or poke.

This chart is a simpler version of the one above.  It still contains the reminder of the expected behavior but in this case has one choice of what the student is working hard for.  The other choices weren't really needed for this student as he/she would do anything to have a "teacher job" ie. passing out papers, stacking chairs, erasing the board, etc. 

These charts help you avoid having all of the individual icons lying around or in your pocket.....or worse no where to be found. 

Basic Behavior Chart

In my current job I do a lot of consulting on behaviors throughout the school district in which I work.  I help teachers figure out how to manage challenging behaviors.  I thought I would share a basic behavior chart with you and outline some Behavior Chart Basics.  These can be great for home or school so go ahead and make your own!  Then as time goes on I hope to build apon it with more complex behavior charts (some little ones just need a little more) that I have created and have been used for many students.

About this chart:  This chart was made using Boardmaker software (oh I wish I was rich enough to own it!) it has great pictures of pretty much anything.  You can use anything from original photos, clip art or laminated stickers to create a chart! 

Using this chart:  This chart was for a student who was working for a walk in the school hallway.  Each time he filled his chart he would go on a walk.  When the walk was over we would clear the chart and he would start again, he could work for the same thing or choose something different.   

Why I love this type of chart: I love that this chart is so positive.  It is a "glass half full" chart in my mind.  There are no gaping holes of items that have been missed -no reminders of errors or problematic moments ( see my personal experience below) only good deeds/ behaviors done.  Each time is a fresh start.  It is very easy to use and cart around.  I always found extra icons in my pockets after work.  MAKE EXTRAS!

Here are some Dos and Don'ts of a Basic Behavior Chart!

Do's:

Do allow the child to understand the chart by earning quickly and successfully the first few times

Do have a variety of choices of items for kids to work for, especially older children

Do let the child choose- this allows them to feel more in control and be more motivated and invested

Don'ts: 

Don't take away already earned stars, smileys, stickers etc.  This has a very negative effect. Once its there keep it there

Don't abandon the whole chart half way through just because the child might be being "a turkey"   

Some commonly asked questions about behavior charts:

Q: Whats so wrong with taking away the smiley or star that was earned?

A: This tells the child that their good behavior can be undone.  If they have earned it and it is there it is theirs, it also serves as a reminder of a success that can be duplicated when it remains in place.

Q:What can I do if the child is misbehaving since I can't take away already earned items?

A: You can flip the chart over or take it away and put it on time out.  Then you can say, "you cannot earn ____ right now.  I will wait until you are ready" or something along those lines.

Q: Is there a time frame for each sticker?

A: No some days the student might need to earn one sticker or item for each positive behavior, or every minute or every time they answer a question.  It is all individualized.  This will be discussed in greater detail in subsequent posts.

Personal Experience: In first grade I had to have a behavior chart-pu into place by my teacher, believe me when I say that it was all due to a little misunderstanding.  Each day I had the opportunity to earn`1 sticker. My chart encompassed a whole week.  If I didn't earn on Wednesday there was a gaping hole there all week.  There was no fresh start -just a constant reminder that I had fallen short.  As you can see it has scarred me for life- none of us are expected to perform 100% all the time- we all fall short.  I recently came across one of these actual charts of mine while goin through the attic- it gave me the heebie jeebies.  Don't do that to your students or kids. :)

Calling All Examples

  If you have an example of a basic behavior chart I would love to post it. 

In addition if you have any questions you can email them

highheelstosneakers at gmail dot com