There are no cute little printables with this posting. Sorry! I love making materials, and trying them out with children. Most of my days are spent teaching children, and getting them excited about learning and life. I wish everything was rosy and fun, all the time.
Unfortunately, children are sometimes stressed. Whether the anger is internal, or environmental; whether it's caused by a communication barrier or not; whether anger is caused by a misguided adult or confused child --all are variables with the same result. Lashing out by a child (sometimes a strong child) can lead to upset adults, and psychological and physical trauma on both sides.
With some children, this is a frequent, sometimes violent occurrence. I can tell you, that in my undergraduate years, and in my graduate school, there was
no mention of aggression and certainly no tips on how to deal with this. I was unprepared, totally. In my first job at a residential school, I witnessed a parent beating his teenaged deaf child in my classroom, and a few extreme violent acts of students towards teachers (resulting literally in amputation of body parts). My next job was no better, but then, I witnessed the reverse--retaliation of staff towards students (this time resulting in fired teachers.) Of course, this was a while ago, and I hoped that preparation in college education programs would have changed; however, judging from reactions of graduate students that work with me when witnessing aggression, I'm not quite sure that such programs are willing to address this issue adequately. I feel personally responsible, then, to impart my experiential knowledge to young future speech pathologists who choose to have practicum placements with me.
I've developed a few coping mechanisms for dealing with student aggression:
1. For a student who is excessively anxious or stressed, I work with the child exclusively in his everyday classroom. There are more people around, it's his or her natural environment, and it is a more natural setting.
2. I do not restrain children unless the child is harming himself. I physically back off when issues arise. I deflect blows or bites; I don't confront them.
3. I try to "read" children---often the behavior the child is exhibiting is communicative.
4. I teach
alternative means to escape from an activity---it might be as simple as pointing to a toy, touching a 'finished' icon, or saying 'all done'.
5. I use a
picture schedule for all speech therapy sessions--whether it's in the classroom, in a group, or in my speech room. The student can see that there is an end to the time with me.
6. The last item on my picture schedule is a
very preferred activity.
7. For the most anxious children, there may only be
2 activities on the schedule. ("First, Then")
8. With my graduate interns, although I try not to put them in the position where they have to deal with aggression, I do talk about this openly. The tips I presented above, I provide to them. I teach and model; hopefully, they will carry these lessons to their next setting.
It's too bad this was never taught to me prior to teaching. I've seen a few teachers 'let go' due to an inability to deal with students. Were those teachers properly instructed in their college programs? I know that I wasn't!
Do any of you have helpful tips? Please post.
The first thing I learned when reading the recipe was that most Tandoori chicken cooked in the US is red because of food coloring. That doesn't work for me--I don't exactly eat organic all the time, but if I can avoid unnatural substances in my food, that's what I'll do. I made my chicken in its natural color, so it doesn't look like the red Tandoori chicken that we know.
My kids (a group of 5 very language impaired kids) loved it. I made a simple topic board to go with this book, mainly for allowing the children to make logical guesses at what the animal is for each page. I did not use color when selecting icons for the board --my kids are at the point now where they need to listen to the riddle and not merely match color. If you have younger children, then add colors to the animal icons. You can also cut up the board to lend the activity more manipulative in nature, but I didn't need that aspect with these kids. Here is a link to the board with animal icons (pdf).
