PB4L Conference 2019 - PB4L for Students with Chronic Anxiety

Saturday 31 August PB4L Conference Session 2: School leaders PB4L for Students with Chronic Anxiety 

• Rewards can be punishments (coming up for a prize draw)

• Punishments can be rewards (referrals to avoid work, or unfamiliar situations) 

Anxiety - focussing on WHAT IF, rather than WHAT IS

Antecedent What might set them off:  Unfamiliar situations Public speaking Being in trouble Peers Teachers Subjects they don’t feel confident about

Behaviour What does it look like:  Sore tummies Silly behaviour Roaming around the classroom  Self harm

Consequence/Outcome Anxiety is reduced in the moment by:  Sitting outside the classroom Not joining in (ex. Sai) - perfect attendance, never in class - desk outside the office Immediate reduction of anxiety, even if there is a consequence in the end

Predication and Control - 3 Important Details

• Nothing bad that happens to you will be as stressful if you can see it coming

• Nothing bad that happens to you will be as stressful if you believe you have some degree of control over it

• Anxiety reduction is a very powerful reward 

Anything that you can do to make yourself feel better when you are feeling anxious will become a habit

The Reality of the Development of These Habits:

• Self-sabotaging; seems to make no sense

• Understandable when you understand that it generates a greater sense of prediction and control for an anxious student 

• “At least now I know what to expect for the next few minutes, and I made it happen” 

• Students playing the system to get kicked out/sent out because they have made the choice themself - they know what is going to happen and what the consequence is

• Doing repeated behaviour that they know will get them in trouble 

Success can be quite frightening, especially if they aren’t used to it

You can see this in a range of specific behaviours that… 

• Allow me to escape the task/the class

• Will get me punished (a reward for them) 

• Will wind up an adult

• Will wind up a vulnerable peer

• Make people forget about me 

• Give me access to safe places or activities - referral, learning centre, breakout space etc. 

 Knowing that prediction and control are important for managing anxiety, why might children coming to school today be particularly anxious? 

Preventative - Strategies  www.sparklers.co.nz 

• Expectations and routines - predictability of knowing what to do - teach even when we think they should know what to do (teaching them how to be successful) 

• Relationships, calm and consistent - safety - every interaction counts, you always have an audidence

• Errorless learning - for children who are anxious about their learning - reducing the amount of mistakes they can make - set up the task with heavy scaffolding that slowly decreases as they increase confidence and skill set, success can feel out of their control, while failure they can make that one happen

• Legitimate opportunity to have control - sense of belonging, student voice, errorless learning, teaching legitimate control (voluntary time out, communication, small group social skills), some students need to watch first - having the ability to remove self, will actually allow students to try to stay longer, not feeling ‘forced to stay’

• Key sharing of information - anxious kids are often distractible, fatigued and disorganized - state the obvious, repeat it, have it available in hard copy - value of routines 

Reducing Anxiety - St Peters College (Palmerston North) Before Arriving  Send mentors to contributing schools, once a week at lunchtimes Year 6 school visits Pre-interviews for incoming students and whanau  Y7-13 = one less transition between schools for most  When they Arrive Houses Activities - sports, arts etc.  Welcome week, quizzes, competitions to earn house points, encouraging them to interact with peers Vertical house groups (35-45 kids) once a week sessions interacting with people outside their year group  Student leadership opportunities - peer support, house leaders, jr house leaders, student councils - giving students ownership and control within the school relationships Connect to Succeed (C2S) - teachers working with 15 to 20 students working on skills based learning and communication - conferencing (student led), opportunities to engage with home 5 periods down to 3 - 90 minute sessions, encouraging other teaching processes, students having more time for engagement in activities; no loss of time with transitions, transitions are interval and lunch - less skipping of classes (improved attendance)  Moved to MLE Reinforcing routines, behaviours, expectations - rewards  Greetings at the door for all students - a real sense of connection - create this as a routine  Costs nothing, takes nothing, can help reduce stress and anxiety within the classroom  People want to feel they belong and they know what to expect  People want to be acknowledged  Pastoral Dean teams - 5 Deans across all levels - different people with different strengths and weaknesses  Allows students to choose a Dean if they have problems; not forced to be with one year level Dean who they may not get on with Dean teams need to be visible - out and about within the school, popping into lessons, asking questions, engaging with classrooms  Deans job is not to punish; to look at resolving issues in a positive way  Failure Inevitable Looking at assessment practices; how can they be staggered so they don’t all end up on the same day of term? - time for each department on a different day of the week

Self Reflection

3 recalls 

• Anxiety looks, feels is instigated by different triggers in different students; worrying about what if as opposed to what is

• Students will repeat undesirable behaviours to get out of a situation that might cause them to feel anxious and even though that may cause a consequence, they are in control of their decisions

• Need to scaffold positive behaviour and desirable outcomes

2 insights 

• HHS is on the right track with our new Kahui and curriculum changes and structures 

• Wananga leaders can have a HUGE impact on reducing anxieties within the school setting - consistency

1 question 

• For those kids who continue to do things to control the situation and leave class to a ‘safe space’ referral etc. (high flyers) how do we combat this to keep them in class consistently even when they aren’t with you

• When RTLB doesn’t work

• When behaviour CICO cards don’t work