Common Strategies for Managing Misbehavior in the Classroom

There are many ways to cope with common misbehavior problems of children. Some specific nonverbal interventions include planned ignoring, signal interference, proximity interference, and touch interference. There are many proactive intervention techniques that can be practiced to help eradicate negative behaviors. There are both positive and negative sides to these intervention recommendations.

Planned ignoring is based on the fact that ignoring a behavior will cause it to become extinct. When properly executed, planned ignoring will first cause an increase in the unwanted behavior. This procedure can be quite effective, but only when the motivation behind the behavior is attention seeking. For example, if a young student consistently hits the teacher while the teacher is with another student, we can conclude after taking observation data that the child is looking for attention. Once the behavior is ignored and goes into the increased extinction burst, it will then cease to exist. However, it is also relevant to mention the significance of the misbehaving child's peers. If they are reinforcing the behavior by giving the student the attention he or she seeks, planned ignoring will not be effective and the teacher should attempt to stifle the inappropriate behavior with another method. In my own classroom, I first take data on the child's behavior to determine if planned ignoring will be effective. This means I allow the behavior to occur for a few days before attempting to eliminate it, however, it is then gone with only one attempt.

Signal interference can be a very good technique for removing a behavior without disrupting the class. Nonetheless, the teacher must first be sure that the behavior itself is not too disruptive. It would then be much better to use an alternate method so that the rest of the class is not disrupted. The teacher should be quick to determine if this method would be useful before even attempting to use it, so as not to waste time.