When the Adults Change, Everything Changes by Paul Dix

Author:Paul Dix [Paul Dix]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781352892
Publisher: Crown House Publishing
Published: 2017-07-05T16:00:00+00:00

THE 30 SECOND INTERVENTION

Strip out all the ‘magic’ systems, reward catalogues, hidden bribes and general frippery that now seems to accompany behaviour in many schools and you are left with what really matters – real conversations with angry children at the point of crisis. It is these moments that lie at the heart of good behaviour and relationship management. It is these moments that represent the difference between calm and chaos, confrontation and compliance, inclusion and exclusion. When children dig their heels in and tell you with passion that ‘It’s shit, I won’t do it and you can’t make me,’ it is not just your behaviour management skills that are being tested. It is your values, your emotional resilience and your humanity that is under the microscope. Interrupt and disrupt thought patterns quickly and efficiently and you become expert at diffusing behaviour bombs that others allow to explode.

The longer each negotiation around behaviour takes for the few, the less time you can give to the many. Children who behave badly in class will inevitably need more of your time outside of lessons. Don’t give it to them in class too. Limit your formal one-to-one interventions for poor behaviour in class to 30 seconds each time. Get in, deliver the message, anchor the child’s behaviour with an example of their previous good behaviour and get out, with your dignity and the child’s dignity intact. That is the win-win.

The 30 second intervention demands careful and often scripted language. The idea is simple but the performance takes practice. The 30 second intervention is not designed to force the child to play good puppy, beg for forgiveness and turn their life around before breaktime. It is a carefully planned, utterly predictable and safe way to send a clear message to the child: ‘You own your behaviour. Your poor behaviour does not deserve my time. You are better than the behaviour you are showing today (and I can prove it!).’

The moment you deliver a sanction is the moment that confrontation, complaint or protest will emerge. Counter this defensive response in your 30 second intervention by immediately reminding the child of a previous example of their personal discipline: ‘Do you remember yesterday/ last week when you helped me tidy up/led the group/gave me that excellent homework? Remember mum’s face when she got the note? That is the person I know, that is the Chelsea I need to see today.’ This is the key to the scripted response.

Any fool can intervene with an angry child and leave the situation with the child determined to continue behaving badly. Anyone can whack down a sanction with ferocity. But it takes real skill to maintain calm in the heat of the intervention. You can land a sanction with a hard edge or you can land a sanction with an immediate reminder of the child’s previous good behaviour. Done well, with good timing and perfect tone, there is a little magic here. In the middle of redrawing the boundary the child

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