We hear about "Attitude" all the time. Especially in working with teenagers, everyone wants to talk about their attitude. Adults want to punish or consequent children for their bad attitudes.
We don't use the attitude word. We talk about behavior.
First of all, in our level system we have to use measurable things - what you can see or hear, what you can say you saw some one do or not do. We have listed all the behaviors we are interested in, such as got up, made bed, ate breakfast, and etc on through the day. Each behavior is evaluated through the view of prompt, participate, and appropriate.
So often an adult is frustrated by the child's bad attitude, but there is no winning that battle, for either the child or the adult. However, if we are measuring as stated above, then all the outcomes are measurable and the child can discuss only if they did or didn't measure up to the standard.
Once a child has made enough mistakes to loose a level, they can scream, throw a fit, or whatever, but the fact remains. Now all they have to do is learn how they can fix the mistake.
The process is that, first, they take responsibility for their behavioral choice. Second, they talk about what place in the problem they could have made a different choice. Last, they offer a solution, and when they will begin to use that solution.
Children and adult evaluate every evening, and as often as necessary during the day. I hope you can understand why we use only behavior.
No comments:
Post a Comment