Magic Behavior Management

In our school, we have a large population of children with ASD (Austistic Spectrum Disorder) and many of the first graders are mainstreamed into my classroom.  I LOVE those kids!!!!  Their teachers have used this behavior management tool with their kids who have ASD and I modified it to work for some of my general ed. kiddos.  Here's how it works...using a craft stick with velcro dots, attach pattern blocks (green, yellow, red) to the stick.  When a child is acting or doing something inappropriate, you say "that's one" and pull the green sqaure and move it to the back side of the stick.  Sometimes all it takes to get a behavior to stop is to show the child the stick.  When all 3 squares are pulled, the consequence is given.  In most of the situations with our children with ASD, a time out is given.  It is amazing how powerful this tiny idea can be in a classroom!

For my general ed. students I have used this with, I attach a behavior contract to the idea.  I have attached a sample using Google Docs in a Word format so you can change it to meet your needs.  In this exampple, the child had the stick reloaded after lunch if any squares were lost before lunch.  The boxes are for you to mark what colors are still left on the stick.  If the child lost only one, you would leave the 1st square blank, color the 2nd square yellow and the 3rd square red.  I have had cases that I had to break sections of the day down into each subject because the child would have lost all 3 squares in the first hour of the day!  I do give rewards to kids who keep all 3 squares on the stick.  For example, if they keep all 3 on for a whole day they can pick out of my prize basket or get a gumball from our gumball machine.  Click HERE to check out our gumball machine. 

On a more personal note, I use this with my kids at home as well.  If they loose 3 squares, they owe me time in the time out chair in the kitchen.  (I reload it after nap time.)  I took it with me to the grocery store one day and another mom saw me pull it out and tell my child he was going to loose a square if he didn't pull it together.  Instantly, he was behaving.   She wanted to know where she could buy one of those sticks from!