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Connecting Challenging Behaviors to Early Childhood Development Theories …

- - - - Piaget's theory of cognitive development plays an interesting role in analyzing the behavior of crying. Based on my research, I feel that Piaget's theory of cognitive development does not address the behavior of crying in the most concrete ways, but I do feel that some benchmarks of Piaget's stages hold importance in trying to understand the behavior of crying.
        The two stages of Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development that concern the ECE are the Preoperational and Concrete Operational stages. The Preoperational stage is for ages 2-7 years old, and the Concrete Operational stage is from 7-11 years old.
        If a student who fell within the Preoperational stage had a history of crying quite a bit in class, they might benefit from the use of objects & "pretend-play" to help them understand that there are different ways to express themselves or their feelings in the classroom, or to help them understand that there are other ways to act. By utilizing objects or stuffed animals to tell a story about "other ways to be" besides crying to express emotion, perhaps the student would be able to see alternate routes.
        If a student falls within the Concrete Operational stage, perhaps they might benefit from a teacher offering additional viewpoints to how others might address a situation (besides crying), or, perhaps they might work with the student to make the connections behind the events that made them cry. By working with a student in this manner, it might help the student see that there are other ways to emotionally regulate themselves besides crying.
    - - Vygotsky's sociocultural theory provides yet another interesting and productive way to consider the behavior of crying in the classroom, and how to appropriately respond to it.
        In sociocultural theory, children are seen as learning from others and learning from their social environments. In Vygotsky's theory, these environments are thought of as having the greatest impact on the minds of young learners.
        When a child is repeatedly crying, it may be really important to reach out to the caregivers/adults/parents in their life, to see if this is a behavior is presenting itself at home or in extracurricular activities outside of school. By asking this question, you are considering the other social environments that a student is involved in, and trying to determine if perhaps this behavior was learned in one of those environments.
        Additionally, you might consider the culture that the child is brought up in, and ask if crying is considered an acceptable, normal response to everyday events. If this is the case, then the child might simply believe that their response is normal considering the events, and may not think much of their tears.
        Lastly, one of the most useful ideas in this behavioral context is the value of pairing up the student with a "More Knowledgable Other" (MKO). By pairing up the student with an MKO, you recognize the MKO's strengths in regulating their behavior in other ways than crying, and you think that perhaps the student who has been crying quite a bit might learn from the behaviors of the MKO. This pairing of an MKO is common in schools with buddy programs, pairing younger Kindergarten students with students in the upper elementary.
    - - Analyzing crying from the lens of Pavlov & Classical Conditioning
        
        It's interesting to attempt to analyze crying from the lens of Classical Conditioning. When thinking about crying as a behavior, it is definitely an unconditioned stimulus caused by an unconditioned response. Furthermore, crying is not a behavior that we want to associate with any sort of stimulus in the classroom, because although crying on occasion is important, it is largely an unwanted behavior in the classroom. Based on my research, it does not seem that Pavlov's Classical Conditioning offers routes out of unconditioned responses that are unwelcome, but rather works to offer associated stimuluses with behaviors that are welcome in order to encourage those behaviors.
      - Analyzing crying from the lens of B.F. Skinner & Operant Conditioning
        
        Thorndike's foundational work in Behaviorism helped to set the stage for Operant Conditioning, and the role that it has the potential to play in the classroom. Operant conditioning (whose concept B.F. Skinner is largely responsible for), and overall, the concept of reinforcement (both positive & negative), could potentially serve as useful tools in the ECE classroom.
        When it comes to crying, imagine that an ECE student cries every time they are dropped off for school. If this was the case, both the adult/parent of the ECE student and the teacher could partner together to provide negative reinforcement for the behavior. Additionally, the parent & the teacher could partner together to provide positive reinforcement for the student when they got dropped off to school, and did not cry. In order for operant conditioning to work with a behavior of crying, the stimulus would have to be identified that goes along with the response of crying. The ability to identify the stimuluses that go along with the response of crying in the ECE classroom are what makes this a difficult concept to apply in the classroom. While there are some patterns that teachers can pick up on with regards to a stimulus and a crying response, there are many that are one-off scenarios that lead to tears. In these cases, crying might be a perfectly acceptable behavior for the situation.
- - - - Santiago dropped out of school at the decision of his parents who, for personal reasons had to move to another country.
        
        Academic activities were suspended for 6 months until re-entering KG3 this semester.
        
        Santiago has low academic performance in fine motor skills.
        
        He presents difficulties expressing himself verbally in both Spanish and English.
        
        Santiago has a limited vocabulary repertoire in both Spanish and English.
        
        Attention span is short for his age
  - - - Responses according to
        Behavioral Theories
        
        Ivan Pavlov and Classical Conditioning:
        
        Stimulus-Responce
        
        Instruct the class to sit properly
        
        Count backwards from 5-1
        
        Count backwards from 5-1 whenever a student is out of their sits.
        
        1 more item...
        
        Count backwards from 5-1 whenever Santiago is out of his sit.
        
        Use Attention getters
        
        Whenever Santiago is starting to get distracted and before he moves from his sit, use and attention getter such as ¨1,2,3 eyes on me, 1,2 eyes on you"
        
        Lev Vygotsky: Sociocultural Theory
        
        Group Santiago with students who can stay longer at their seats.
        
        Remind the whole class about the rules before an activity starts
        
        Model how to sit properly
        
        Use body language when they need to pay attention or listen for a long time
        
        example
        
        Our ears are open
        
        Eyes are watching
        
        Mouths are zipped
        
        B.F. Skinner: Operant Conditioning
        
        Positive reinforcement
        
        Social reinforcement
        
        Give praises and attention whenever Santiago sits properly and stays on task
        
        Smile and use an energetic voice tone in order to make students notice your whole body expression.
        
        Give praises and attention to the rest of the students who are sitting properly and stay on task
        
        Use Santiago as a model for the class whenever he sits properly, participates and pays attention during the lesson.
        
        Dojo Points Economy
        
        Give Santiago a Dojo point right away when he sits properly and pays attention.
        
        If he gets to a specific and achievable amount of Dojo Points, send a goodie to his home
        
        1 more item...
        
        Give Santiago's peers a Dojo Point for sitting properly.
        
        Tangible Reinforcement
        
        Give Santiago a certificate when he has a good week in terms of paying attention and reminding on his sits at least for 8 minutes.
        
        Activity reinforcers
        
        Play an online game Santiago likes, if he remains on his sit for at least 8 minutes.
- - - - Using pbisworld.com as a resource, a teacher can do the following: one-on-one discussions with students, teach conflict resolution skills, talk to parent, teach social skills. Another avenue is read books and watch videos that promote gender equality. In addition invite female guest speakers that work in predominately male roles i.e. police officer, doctor, etc.
    - - Reinforcement and positive motivation on open-mindedness is necessary. Students can be praised for interacting with their peers regardless of gender or cultural norms.
        
        Thorndike believed that motivation was an important factor in learning. The law of effect introduced the relation between reinforcers and punishers. However Thorndike's position that that differences in the parental behavior of men and women were due to biological, rather than cultural, reasons