Tag: Behaviour as communication

This activity is designed to get participants thinking about how behaviour can act as communication, and how we can:

• adapt our communication for the learner
• foster understanding between learners and staff
• implement regulation strategies
• consider learners’ social, emotional and mental health needs, and what tools they have for self-regulation.

Note – The term ‘challenging behaviour’ is used here to mean ‘behaviours that others find challenging’. You may choose to use an alternative phrase such as ‘behaviours of concern’.

Guidance

Share the What works diary a week before your planned session and ask participants to complete it. If this hasn’t been possible, you can introduce the diary in the session and ask participants to complete them there and then.

Either as a whole group or in pairs or groups, ask participants to share an example from their What worked diary and discuss the reflection sheets.

Ask the group / subgroups for examples of when the learner was able to settle in this situation. What was the member of staff doing that enabled this? What worked and what didn’t?

Discuss strategies for responding to challenging behaviour. E.g.

• safe spaces within rooms
• small physical breaks, such as walks or trampoline breaks. For example, delivering or gathering items during a walk.
• communication devices, particularly giving learners a sign/symbol for ‘break’, ‘walk’ or similar. Particularly for learners with limited communication, the importance of accepting when learners ask for these.
• social stories.
• sensory breaks, perhaps including sensory toolkits or boxes within the room.
• quiet breakouts.  

The proactive and reactive strategies activity may also be useful alongside this training activity, as it introduces some strategies which may be worth trying.

The activity the document map may also be useful, to highlight any support plans which give strategies for certain behaviours.

The activity the function of challenging behaviour could be a useful precursor, to highlight how behaviour is a form of communication.

Key learning points for debriefing

• LSAs have an important role in supporting learners to understand information. Improved communication will reduce the likelihood of challenging behaviour. For example, using short and simple sentences, thinking about the key words. Giving adequate processing time.
• Effective LSAs can ensure learners understand what is happening or being asked of them as well as feeling listened to and understood and so reduce the likelihood of behaviours that challenge.
• LSAs’ understanding of learner behaviour (and other learners and staff) can help facilitate understanding between others.
• LSAs are often well place to implement proactive and reactive regulation strategies to keep learners on task. Preparing learners for any known unanticipated changes will support them to remain on task. E.g. using a social story to explain staff or timetable changes.
• Preparing to meet learners SEMH needs in different learning contexts will maximise their receptiveness to learning. This could for example include identifying ‘safe places’ or making sure learners have access to self-stimulating tools or behaviours.

You can also draw on the topic learning points in your summing up.

This activity is designed to get participants thinking about how behaviour can act as communication, and how we can…

• interpret challenging behaviour as a means of communication
• aid learners in recognising how and when to request help
• foster understanding between learners and staff
• consider learners’ SEMH needs, and what tools they have for self-regulation
• recognise the impact of your own and other staff’s behaviour

Note – The term ‘challenging behaviour’ is used here to mean ‘behaviours that others find challenging’. You may choose to use an alternative phrase such as ‘behaviours of concern’.

Guidance

This “index card pass” activity gets participants thinking about the function of different challenging behaviours.

Start by presenting participants with the scenario:

A non-verbal learner who usually likes to jump on a trampoline becomes distressed and experiences challenging behaviour when asked to go on the trampoline.

Ask participants to consider why this may have occurred.

Explanations could include:

• The learner is bored of the activity.
• The learner feels too warm or too cold and would like to stop for this reason.
• The learner’s mind is preoccupied with something else, e.g. an event earlier in the day or anticipation of an event later in the day.
• There are some sensory issues.
• The learner feels unable to relax due to something which they can see.
• The learner might feel nauseous or unwell but is unable to communicate this with people. This is particularly important in the case of nausea as it is often invisible.
• The learner may be in pain (e.g. period pains, cramps, tooth ache, a pulled muscle or strain) which isn’t visible.
• The learner may have had a disturbed night of sleep and is feeling too tired.
• The learner feels hungry or thirsty.
• The learner feels overwhelmed and is looking to rest.

Pass out index cards to the group. A template with cut-out cards is available if you don’t have them.

Ask each participant writes their own name on the top of their card and a short description of a specific challenging behaviour they have observed in a learner. They shouldn’t include the learner’s name.

Ask each participant to swap their index card with someone else.

On the index card they have received, ask participants to write one suggestion for why a learner may be demonstrating this behaviour.

You could give the following or a different example to explore one scenario with the whole group before they tackle the task individually.

Rotate the index cards again, so that a second participant gets to add another suggested cause of the behaviour. You can repeat the rotations as many times as you like to gather more suggested causes.

To conclude, let participants have their original index cards back to see what has been written. Ask them to reflect on the ideas suggested to them.

Highlight that all challenging behaviour has some function. Point out that we may not always recognise what the behaviour means but a reason for it will exist. It is the job of staff working with a learner to do their best to recognise what a learner is communicating through their behaviour. Different staff working with a learner need to share their understanding of their behaviours. You could explain how that is done in your setting, e.g. through use of a behaviour plan.

This activity can be combined with the activity Proactive and Reactive Strategies, which shares several methods of communication that may help.

Key learning points for debriefing

• Communication is the exchange of information from one person to another using any means possible. Behaviour that is challenging can be a substitute for direct and open communication. If a learner is unable to communicate how they feel or what they want, then challenging behaviour is more likely.
• LSAs can play an important role in supporting learners to recognise when they need help. For example, by having ‘zones of regulation’ cards on hand.
• LSAs’ understanding of learner behaviour (and other learners and staff) can help facilitate understanding between others.
• Preparing to meet learners’ SEMH needs in different learning contexts will maximise their receptiveness to learning. This could, for example, include identifying ‘safe places’ or making sure learners have access to self-stimulating tools or behaviours.
• LSAs’ understanding of how their own behaviour affects others is key to supporting learning. This is particularly important in how they respond to the learner’s behaviour, and how they understand what is being communicated.

You can also draw on the topic learning points in your summing up.