Even though you have a behaviourally supportive classroom in place, you may still have a student who exhibits challenging behaviors and needs more individual behavioural support.  

The first step is to try to figure out the function of the behaviour.  While we tend to talk about the behaviour by its form (e.g., biting, hitting), we need to focus on its function (i.e., why it is occurring) to improve it.  

The function of the behaviour is more important than the form of the behaviour because it tells us how to address it.  Many times parents will ask me what to do about biting or spitting, but the question is not about what to do with those specific behaviours, but instead what to do with why these behaviours are happening. 

In taking a proactive approach, we want to determine what is happening in the environment that keeps the behaviour occurring and hopefully what starts it off.  If we know these pieces of information...

One of the most important tasks of parents is to teach their children to be independent adults. The reality is that some children with disabilities may never be able to live on their own. Others may be able to live with assistance, or still, others may learn to manage their obstacles to the point that they can be entirely independent. Regardless of what future seems likely for your child, you must prepare them to be as self-reliant as possible. 

Do not do for him what he could do for himself. 

As you go about your child’s daily care routine, ask yourself, is this something my son/daughter could do? Why am I doing it instead of teaching him how?

Give responsibilities. 

What daily chores could your child manage? Can he hold a broom and push it around? Can she wipe the table with a cloth? Treat your child as though he or she is capable of doing the chores. They should have things to do around the house like everyone else.

Focus on basic life skills, and go from...

Proactive and reactive approaches to classroom management address discipline styles. Every teacher uses one of the two approaches to deal with discipline issues and must find a way to effectively discipline his classroom for it to run smoothly.

Two Approaches

1. A proactive approach is when the teacher tries to eliminate a problem behavior before it becomes a problem.
2. A reactive approach is when the teacher deals with behavior when it becomes a problem in the classroom. Both approaches are used by teachers in addressing misbehavior in their classrooms. Teachers must deal with problem behavior to not interrupt the education process.

Understanding Why Students Misbehave - Four Types

1. The attention seeker strives for attention so his behaviors will allow him to be the focus of the classroom. 
2. The power seeker refuses to follow direction and must have the last word. 
3. The revenge seeker will verbally abuse others. 
4. Some misbehave because they wish to avoid failure....

More often than not when a child is diagnosed with special needs, parents will naturally become “helicopter or lawnmower parents” i.e. hovering over their children all the time or helping their children to overcome any problem all the time without the children getting the benefits of dealing with any problem on their own. They become bodyguards of their children when they are out in the open, catching them before they fall and praising them without any actual effort. 

Understanding their disability and offering help when appropriate is different from overdoing it. Things are harder when the parents only have one child and this can lead to self-pity and the ‘I am not doing enough” mode. The simple rule is you cannot always pave a straight line of success. Children need to draw their own lines and define their own paths with only a little guidance from you.

Allow your child to take safe risks. This does not suggest allowing your child to be harmed. Grant...

Learning disabilities can affect children from time to time and as young as 4-5 years old. While some learning disabilities can be attributed to variations in development,  parents and educators should look-out for consistent patterns of learning difficulties in children.  

Children with persistent learning disabilities have been labelled as slow learners, minimally brain-injured, and whatnot. They are expected to score well in their academics but no matter how hard they try, they struggle with their grades. As a result, these children can be treated crudely and often punished for not achieving the expectations placed upon them in many schools and among parents. As a result, they can develop behavioural or emotional problems. Hence, children with learning difficulties are in a disadvantaged position when compared with children who can cope with the general education system.