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1.

Imagine that you are a special education teacher in a high school setting. You are supporting a new student who has never participated in an inclusive classroom setting. Your student has severe disabilities and a history of engaging in self-injurious behavior in the past. The studentīs parents are worried and have just contacted you. They tell you that in the past their daughter has had some unpleasant experiences with teachers who have used very punitive strategies to deal with problem behavior. They also described how hard it was to find out exactly what behavioral interventions were being used.

Given the concerns that the studentīs parents have, describe to them what positive behavioral support is, and how you will work with them to assure that they play an active role in the positive behavioral support process.

example:
Let me tell you a little about positive behavioral support. Positive behavioral support is an approach for helping students develop social and communication skills, and create a positive environment for learning and social growth. An important part of the positive behavioral support process is to understand why your daughter engages in self-injury. When we know why she engages in self-injury, we can design strategies that will help us to modify the environment in order to make problem behavior irrelevant. Another approach would be to teach your daughter new skills that will replace the self-injurious behavior while still helping her to achieve the same desired outcome.

Positive behavioral support is a value driven process. The important defining features include: an emphasis on designing strategies that respect and empower the student, a focus on outcomes that are socially meaningful, the use of functional assessment strategies that identify the purpose problem behavior serves, and the use of multiple behavioral support strategies.

We are interested in more than simply decreasing problem behavior. Additional outcomes of positive behavioral support should include: participation in community life, gaining and maintaining satisfying relationships, expressing preferences and making choices, having opportunities to be respected and treated in a dignified manner, and developing personal competencies. Strategies for improving quality of life may be more effective in reducing challenging behaviors than focusing on problem behavior alone.

Positive behavioral support is a collaborative problem solving process that is meant to empower teachers, parents and students while drawing from the knowledge, strengths and expertise of each individual involved. We believe it is important for us to work as a team so that the positive behavioral support plan supports your daughter at home, at school, and in the community. We are hoping that both you and your husband will be part of our team problem solving process. That way you will always know exactly what behavioral support strategies are being used and we can benefit from your experience.

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