In the previous article, I noted that children with learning difficulties are prone to challenging behaviour and that research reveals that there is a link between learning difficulties and social and emotional difficulties.As a result there must be a ‘quest for understanding the behaviour displayed’ because these behaviours may be influenced by personal or environmental factors.
In the article on Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties personal factors were dealt with. These are again listed below.
• Feeling rejected (at home and school)
• Difficulty in adapting to new environment (new and different classes and subjects)
• Increases in responsibilities/expectations (at home and school)
• Learning difficultiesmake it difficult to keep up academically
• Difficulty in creating relationships
• Basic needs not met at home
• Lack of self-confidence and self esteem
• No self-control
• Abuse physical, mental, social/emotional
• Being labelled by teachers/others
• Dysfunctional family
• Divorce of parents/or new step-parents
• Bereavement
However, the main aim of this article is to focus on the environmental factors that can influence behaviour.
What then are some of the environmental factors that can influence children’s behaviour?
In using screening and direct observation in conducting a Functional Behavioural Assessment, one of the questions teachers, parents and the Individual Educational Plan team may asked is, “In what setting did the negative behaviour take place?’’ It is possible that the setting could either be the classroom, the playground, the child’s home or even the supermarket. After identifying the setting the next question to ask is “What is the stimulus or stimuli in this environment that triggered or triggers the negative behaviour?”
The stimuli in the environment may include:
1. Sounds
Normally these are tolerated by “typical” children but they may cause pain, confusion, and/or fear in children with Autism, Asperger’s, Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) and Rett Syndrome. These children have difficulty dealing with anything unexpected. For example, a passing police car or an ambulance with siren blaring, children crying, sudden noises, unidentified noises, loud noises such as horns honking, fire alarms and even noises that others may not hear. These children may place or keep their hands over their ears to block out or reduce the noise.
2. What is seen
• Strobe lights on fire alarms, fire trucks, ambulances and flickering lights. (Fluorescents need to be removed until they can be replaced, and some children may need fluorescents permanently replaced by incandescent lighting.)
• Some objects may appear scary to a child with Autism or (PDD) for no apparent reason – slinkies, video/cassette tapes and objects that look like they might have a “face” on them are a few examples.
• Bright colours like red or orange can overstimulate an autistic child and make him/her agitated.Instead choose light versions of the child’s favourite colour such as light blue and aqua colours to decorate a child’s room or classroom, including the walls, as they are more calming.
3. Temperature
The temperature within and outside of the classroom or any room (especially very warm temperatures) can cause children to display undesirable behaviours such as fidgetiness, aggression and inattention.
4. Touch/taste/smell
Depending on the child, these senses can become overwhelmed as well. It is important for teachers to find out from a child’s parents how he/she reacts to things such as a touch on the shoulder, certain foods and scents.
We can deduce from the preceding that it is necessary to identify the relationship between the behaviour and the environmental conditions where it occurs. Skinner (1971) argues that “behaviour which operates upon the environment to produce consequences can be studied by arranging environments in which specific consequences are contingent upon it.’’On the other hand, Hewett (1998) argues that when persons display behaviours that are challenging one can easily become fixated on trying to change the individual. On this premise Skinner concludes that it is the environment not persons that need to be changed.
Conclusion
The precedinghas implications for schools and parents to control the stimuli in classrooms and at home – in particular for Autistic and Rett Syndromechildren where stimuli such as bright lights, high noise levelsand sudden movements may result in behavioural problems when they attempt to avoid the aversive conditions.
