Friday, March 4, 2011
Focus Behavior of the Social Story
My student stuggles with paying attention especially during group time and story time. She is easily distracted by the smallest things. One day this week, she had hit her head. She spent the entire group time rubbing her head and complaining about it rather than paying attention to what I was teaching. This is her "cop-out." She complains often about scratches and other minor injuries in order to get out of doing her work. If I get on to her about her behavior, she usually stops and begins to pay attention. However, she struggled with focusing on many occasions this week. Due to this behavior, she is falling behind in learning her numbers and some other skills. One of her IEP goals is to answer questions appropriately when asked 80% of the time. She is not able to do this either because of her inability to remain focused on a task. As I work with her one-on-one to monitor her progress on her IEP goals, she has trouble staying on-task then as well. Therefore, I am planning to focus my story on this behavior.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In addition to your social story, perhaps you can provide some other supports as well. I have my unfocused children sit right up in front of me-facing me so they can't see anyone behind them. I also have a paper cut out of big blue eyes (my eye color) typed to my big rocker. When their eyes wander, I tap the eyes to remind them to have their eyes should be on my "eyes." I also will pause and ask them summative questions about our story/discussion to check their comprehension.
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly tough to keep those students focused. I have a student (not my target student) who will get fixated on little things like that, a small "boo boo" or an injustice that another child has imposed on him, such as cutting in line. He will repeat his plea over and over again. I have found that I have to take a moment and acknowledge him (wow, I'm sure that boo boo hurts)and then begin to reward him and others for appropriate behavior, in the form of stamps or a thumbs up.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is a great idea to use a social story to teach about proper behavior. You could incorporate cues you use to help the child focus. You could also give the child some techniques to try herself when she starts to lose focus.
ReplyDeleteIt can be very troublesome when you are teaching and a child continues to disrupt the whole group time. In my room I have a child who will untie his shoes, and while I am reading a story he will start hollaring for me to tie his shoe and put his foot in my lap. I stop the story and remind him that he needs to use his listening ears and thatI will tie his shoe when I am done with the story. I do not stop to tie the shoe because then everyone's shoes will all of a sudden need tying.
ReplyDelete