Magic and sparkles: a creative approach to modifying children’s behaviour
Amanda Wood and Gillian Bird
Sarah Tollast is employed by the Child and
Adolescent Mental Health Team in Portsmouth, UK. We
discovered how she has used ‘magic and sparkles’ to
modify children’s behaviour across the city. This
article introduces a series of techniques developed
by Sarah and her colleagues. She says they are
“nothing new, just traditional behaviour management
principles plus a little imagination”.
Wood A, Bird G. Magic and sparkles: a creative approach to modifying children’s behaviour. Down Syndrome News and Update. 2004;3(4);128-131.
doi:10.3104/practice.321
Sarah's career path
Sarah's background is in paediatric nursing; she has worked as a ward sister and
a school nurse. She went onto develop her interest in mental health when she
completed further training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In November 2000,
she joined the Child and Family Therapy team in Portsmouth, Hants. Her work in
this field inspired her to create a post where she could concentrate her skills
and time to a cause that she feels is vital to child development; capturing and
celebrating children's "goodness". Over the years, Sarah recognised that there
are many children with emotional and behavioural difficulties whose families
have never had access to specialist services. She felt that the existing
referral system and mode of delivery involved a variety of psychological
barriers that restricted some families in accessing the services. She realised
that one way of resolving this is to deliver services at school and at home,
should the parents wish for additional visits. Parents, teachers and assistants,
in fact anyone working with the child, are able to make direct referrals to her
through the city schools.
Sarah works with children who have personal, emotional and behavioural
difficulties. We met Sarah when one of the children that we support in a local
school was referred to her by the Local Education Authority Primary Behavioural
Support Team. Until recently, she has mainly worked with junior schoolchildren,
but she is now working with infant school children. From our experience, we
could see that our secondary school children with Down syndrome could also
benefit from her fresh ideas and creative approach. She is steadily developing a
consultancy-only role, sharing good practice and training others to carry out
her methods, rather than always working directly with the children herself.
Therefore, we hope that we will be able to help spread her good practice into
the secondary schools.
There are many strands to Sarah's approach. Her work centres on increasing
children's sense of worth. She believes that behavioural problems often stem
from unhappiness, feelings of helplessness and lack of control and that these
feelings are perpetuated when other people respond to the child in inappropriate
ways. It is important to underline that behavioural problems arise for many
reasons, but that there are some simple guidelines that, if followed firmly and
consistently by everyone who interacts with child, can change behaviour. One
aspect of her approach is firstly, to train others to respond more effectively
to the child's behaviour and secondly, to develop ways of working that will
empower the child and give them control over their environment without
demonstrating unacceptable behaviour. It is also vital for adults working with
children to objectify or externalize the child's unacceptable behaviours. It is
important to see the behaviours separately from the way in which the child is
perceived 'as a person', e.g. "I like you as a person but I don't like that
particular behaviour". Children develop their self-concept by observing how
others respond towards them. In 1902, Charles Horton Cooley referred to the
self-concept as the 'looking glass self', saying that we see ourselves reflected
in the way other people behave towards us [1]. This suggests that children with
behavioural problems may develop a negative self-concept if other people in
their world fail to behave positively towards them when their behaviour is
acceptable.
We had to chuckle when Sarah told us that she calls her approach "L'Oreal
Therapy". Was L'Oreal a psychiatrist, psychologist or world-renowned therapist
we had never heard of? No, Sarah practices "L'Oreal Therapy" with every child
she meets, because "they're worth it!"
How to work the magic
A good magician never reveals her secrets, but we can! This section explains the
principles that underpin Sarah's techniques. She explained that many of her
ideas have been based on discussion at 'Skill Share' days with her colleagues.
She uses operant conditioning whereby children are rewarded for desirable
behaviours immediately after they have occurred, therefore increasing the
probability that these behaviours will be repeated. Anything that increases the
likelihood of a behaviour being repeated is called a reinforcer. Sometimes
adults unwittingly reinforce undesirable behaviours and this makes them even
more resistant to change. Sarah noted that undesirable behaviours, including
negative talk and self-deprecation, should be "acknowledged but not colluded
with". We think that this is central to managing the behaviour of children with
Down syndrome. If a child shows unacceptable behaviour, adults and other
children should withdraw eye contact and cease verbal interaction with the
child. Social interaction is rewarding, even if the contact of the interaction
is negative, i.e. telling children off and displaying negative emotions actually
reinforces the child's unacceptable behaviour and makes it more likely to recur.
Capturing the moment
Sarah suggested that she has found that "nourishment is better than punishment"
and concentrates her work on "capturing the moment", that is, capturing and
rewarding a child's "goodness". When the child has behaved in a way that is
"good enough, not brilliant, not amazing, but good enough" then that moment
should be captured. The real magic in Sarah's approach is the ways in which she
captures these moments in time. Rewards given after desirable behaviours will
only increase the probability of that behaviour arising again if they are given
immediately, otherwise the association between behaviour and consequence will be
lost. The next section describes three of Sarah's techniques. Sarah and her
colleagues are currently putting together a booklet with step-by-step
descriptions of how to implement her many and varied techniques and we will
promote this in News and Update when it is ready for dispatch.
Magic pots
The magic pot is a receptacle for the child's "goodness" throughout the school
day. It is a special pot designed to 'protect' the goodness and prevent it from
escaping. The child, with help from their assistant or a parent, should make the
pot. It can be decorated in whatever manner the child desires; encrusted with
gold paint and jewels, 'Pompey' blue (the colours of Portsmouth Football Club)
with pictures of the players or even a 'Harry Potter Pot'. Whatever the
decoration, it must be special, and designed by the child. However, the pot does
not belong to the child; it belongs to the assistant or teacher who is most
involved with the child. The child owns his or her positive behaviour.
What's in the magic pot today?
Now that the magic pot has been created it can be used throughout the day.
Whenever the child is "good enough", as described above, the assistant, or
whoever is working with the child, should choose an item that will remind them
of the child's 'good' behaviour. This might be a pencil sharpener, sticker,
small toy or anything else that is lying around at the time and will fit into
the pot. These items are visual and tactile cues to remind the child of the
goodness. The aspect that makes them rewarding is the social interaction, the
praise and attention, that should go with the routine of putting them into the
pot, e.g. "because you worked so hard and you were so good, I'm going to put
this sticker into the magic pot".
Behaviour recovery
At the end of the day, or within a time frame that seems appropriate for the
individual child, there should be 15 minutes built into the child's day for what
Sarah calls "behaviour recovery". This is a chance to revisit the best parts of
the day and will help to end the day in a very positive manner. The behaviour
recovery session involves looking through the magic pot and recording the
"goodness" in a book to take home. The following activities should take place in
secure, warm and peaceful environment, away from the hustle-bustle of the main
classroom. This atmosphere should be one of relaxation and calm, in time the
child will learn to associate good behaviour with feeling good.
The assistant or teacher should ask the child to go and fetch the magic pot.
This should be exaggerated and made as dramatic and ceremonial as the assistant
wishes; there should be special attention paid to the language that goes with
this routine, e.g., "I give you permission to go and get the magic pot", "ooh
you're so careful with the pot". At this point, the adult will take each item
out of the pot one at a time and talk about them individually. It is best to aim
to have about four items in the pot; otherwise, this activity will take a long
time! Again, the language used here should be considered carefully and chosen to
make the event of looking in the pot seem very important and special to the
child, e.g. "oh yes, I remember why I put this sticker in the magic pot, it was
because you so kindly shared your colouring pencils with Daniel". As the items
are discussed, the adult needs to talk to the child about their feelings, e.g.
"It seems to me that maybe you feel happy when you think about that drawing that
you did with Daniel", "I'm wondering if you're happy because it looks like
you're smiling and your eyes look a bit twinkly."
Sarah noted that as the child gets used to the routine of putting items into the
magic pot and discussing them at the end of the day, the adult can move onto the
next stage of the process. She explained that he or she should add an item to
the pot that has not been discussed with the child. During the 'behaviour
recovery' session the adult should say something like "ooh, do you know I can't
remember why I put this Smartie in the magic pot, do you know why I might have
done that?" This question aims to prompt the child to consider their own
behaviour and remember for themselves an example for themselves. This is likely
to be difficult for children with Down syndrome. Nonetheless, there are various
ways in which this could be adapted, e.g. the adult could show the child
pictures of the different activities that they taken part in during the day, for
them to choose from, possibly helping them to remember something they enjoyed.
The Magic Book
Having looked through the contents of the magic pot, it is important to record
this goodness in such a way as it can be taken home and shared with the child's
parents and other member of the family. The magic book should be given a title
of the child's choosing such as "The Golden Book" or "The Smiley Book" and again
the adult and child can spend time decorating the front cover. The adult should
then record simple sentences based on the child's own speech about the items in
the pot and why they were in there, e.g. "Monday: There was a rubber, a sticker
and a tissue in the magic pot today. The rubber was for writing my sentence. The
sticker was for lining up at playtime. The tissue was for washing my hands in
cooking." The child or the adult could draw a quick sketch of the items in the
pot or take a picture if the class has access to a digital camera.
We felt that the 'Magic Book' was ideal for children with Down syndrome, as this
idea can be combined with the 'conversation diary'
[2] that we recommend as an
activity to promote speech and language, reading and sentence construction.
Sarah has found that the magic book gives parents "an immense sense of pride".
It is important to note though, that the magic book is about recording and
sharing examples of the child's positive behaviour and both these activities
should be rewarding for the child. It is important for this reason, that the
speech and language and literacy opportunities that present themselves here do
not become the focus of the activity.
Sending sparkles
'Sparkles' are another way of 'capturing the moment' and responding to desirable
behaviour with an immediate reward. A 'sparkle' is, essentially, a postcard, a
message to the child from the adult, or from another child. Teachers and
assistants should have a supply of sparkles close to hand, at all times. The
sparkles might be on printed or written onto coloured or glittery paper and
should say who it is to and from with a message to capture the moment, e.g. "To
Sam, this sparkle is for being very quiet and grown up in assembly, from Mrs.
Brown". The child should then be encouraged to post the sparkle into a 'sparkle
post box'. As with the magic pot idea, at an appropriate point, either at the
end of the day or the end of the week for older children, the post box can be
opened or the sparkles counted. At the start of each day or each week, the child
and the assistant should decide on a tangible reward (e.g. packet of stickers,
set of colouring pencils) that will be given, if the child manages to receive,
for example, one sparkle, five sparkles or ten sparkles. It is important to be
flexible with regard to how many sparkles the child has to receive in order to
get the tangible reward; for one child it may be extraordinary to receive two
sparkles.
Posting a sparkle in the sparkle box
One idea, that we thought was particularly motivating for children and adults
alike, was to receive a letter to home, as a reward. If the child managed to get
a certain number of sparkles, they would receive a sparkle card or certificate,
through the post, addressed to them. The local assistants at one of our schools
have been sending sparkles cards home with glitter-filled envelopes! The most
important thing to remember is to make the cards and certificate motivating for
the individual child, e.g. with pictures of the Tweenies, football stickers,
hologram card, fake fur, Formula One, pink and frilly and so on. Sparkles can be
used in school and at home, providing a consistent approach of positive support
is maintained in both settings.
The 'sparkle' system would work very well as a whole school policy and Sarah
described to us the enchanting scene she observed in one local school where the
teacher had introduced 'Sparkle Time'. The teacher dressed in a magic cloak and
played the Harry Potter music, surrounded by all things magical and glittery.
She would open the sparkle post box and read out examples of the sparkles
received that week.
Let's see, how many sparkles did I get today?
Another variation on the simple sparkle idea is to introduce the idea of
children being encouraged to send sparkles to each other. The child with Down
syndrome should be encouraged to think of a child they would like to send a
sparkle to, who they think has been good or kind. The assistant can encourage
the child to watch other children during the day, drawing their attention to
good models. As mentioned above, children with Down syndrome are good social
learners and the activity of observing others may well lead to imitation. The
exchange of sparkles from one child to another is also empowering. It lets the
child know that he or she also has the power to make other people feel good.
At home
Although the methods have above have mainly been described in the context of
school, behaviour change is far more likely to occur and be generalized to other
settings if everyone involved with the child uses a consistent approach. It is
important to find ways that cohesion can be created between home and school,
encouraging "school goodness" to tip over into home and vice versa. Parents
could certainly use a version of the magic pot and the sparkle post box at home
and in the same way that the magic book is a method of sharing "school goodness"
with parents at home, "home goodness" could be shared with the child's teachers,
assistants and peers through a similar 'magic home book'.
Another way of creating a bridge between home and school is for the child to be
encouraged to take something 'special' home that belongs to school. This gives
the child the home responsibility to bring the item back again and the
opportunity to receive praise for good behaviour. In addition, the child should
bring things from home to school that can be used to prompt expressive language,
e.g. 'show and tell'.
No such thing as a magic wand?
This expression is used so many times when it comes to behaviour change. The
methods described in this article are certainly not quick fix solutions.
However, we feel that they may be particularly useful for children with Down
syndrome because they are based on sound behavioural principles, they are ideal
for visual learners and they can be adapted in many ways to make them motivating
for individual children. It is vital however, to remember that behaviour
management principles need to be applied rigidly and consistently, and that
partial reinforcement, or 'one off over-reactions', to a child's undesirable
behaviour, can make behaviour even more resistant to change. Although at the
moment there has been no systematic research looking at the effectiveness of
Sarah's specific interventions, psychologists have used similar techniques, such
as token economies, for decades and these have been shown to be effective
methods for people with learning disabilities.[3-4] In Sarah's experience, the
consistent application of these simple techniques has led to successful
behaviour change, has helped assistants and teachers to feel more in control and
has improved their job satisfaction. This article described just two methods
from a large number of ideas that have been employed locally and we look forward
to the publication of Sarah's booklet of interventions for children with
emotional and behavioural difficulties. We look forward to further collaboration
with Sarah and her colleagues in the future.
References
- Cooley, C. H. (1902/1964). Human nature and the social order. New York: Schocken. (First published 1902 by Scribner and Sons, New York).
- Buckley, S. and Bird, G. (2001). Speech and language development for children
with Down syndrome (5-11 years). Portsmouth, UK: The Down Syndrome Educational
Trust, p.30. [Open
Access Full Text
]
- Dalton, A. J., Rubino, C. A. and Hislop, M.W.
(1973). Some effects of token rewards on school achievement of children with
Down's syndrome. Journal of
Applied Behavior Analysis, 6 (2), 251-259.
- Kazdin, A.E. and Bootzin, R.R. (1972). The
token economy; an evaluative review. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 5, 343-372.
Mandy Wood is a psychologist, Gillian Bird is the Director of Consultancy and
Education, both at Down Syndrome Education International. E-mail:
Amanda.Wood@downsed.org or Gillian.Bird@downsed.org