Look at the activity to see if there is anything that could be changed to make the activity more interesting to the child – adding ways for the children to be more involved in the learning, shortening the activity, adding in teacher praise and rewards for paying attention and giving answers. Also review his schedule with him throughout the day so that he is prepared for the next part of his day.
He appears to be frustrated when he hears he will be going to Head Start. A possible strategy could be to teach him how to identify when he is frustrated and what to do when he is frustrated.
Plan out two things:
(1) How to respond when the child does take part in the large group activity or uses his replacement behavior. Find some ways to reward his appropriate behavior.
(2) How to respond when the running around happens – what each adult in the room will do when he does it. This could be to remind him of what he can earn if he remembers what he can do instead. Another strategy could be to begin giving attention to other children in the room who are behaving to help motivate him to get back on track.
Prevention
Teaching Replacement Behavior
Response