A key aspect of preventing challenging behavior is designing and implementing schedules, transitions, and routines that promote children’s success.

Divide into groups of four. Ask each student in a group to think of a child who engages in problem behavior in their practicum setting. Have the group work together to identify the purpose of each child’s behavior and to identify strategies for preventing the challenging behavior.

The PDF below contains a table that can be used for this activity. It includes a sample that has been completed.

Environmental Modifications Form


Activity 2: Develop a Behavior Support Plan

Divide students into groups of four. Give each group a description of a child, the functional assessment information for that child, and the hypothesis statements for that child.

Have the group identify prevention strategies, new skills to teach the child to use in place of the problem behavior, and new ways of responding to behavior to encourage the new skills rather than the problem behavior.

Additional materials for this activity can be retrieved from www.csefel.uiuc.edu at no cost. On this website, there is a set of training modules. In modules 3A and 3B, there are case studies and hypotheses for five different children with challenging behavior. In addition, there are instructions for developing a behavior support plan, and answer guides for the instructor.


Activity 3: Planning a Matrix

Divide the class into groups of two–three students. First, ask them to review the section of the chapter on supporting children’s social-emotional outcomes.

Students then should complete the matrix that is included below. Have the students 1) list typical classroom activities and routines down the side of the matrix and 2) write suggestions in each box for how they might teach or promote related skills in each activity.

Have the students share one routine and the teaching strategies they identified for that routine with the entire class.

Collect the completed matrices from each group, copy them, and give each student a copy of all matrices.