Early Childhood: Understanding Challenging Behavior

For teachers and staff working in early childhood environments, managing student behavior is part of the job. While challenging behaviors are to be expected in young children, they can adversely affect a child’s development and well-being if allowed to continue unchecked. Fortunately, the science of applied behavior analysis gives us several useful tools for preventing and eliminating challenging behaviors in early childhood classrooms. This course will define behavior as part of the ABC model, explore the functions of challenging behavior, and explain how teachers and staff can use the pyramid model to implement tiers of interventions that prevent and reduce incidents of challenging behavior in the classroom.