Behavior Management is key to helping a student become successful at school and in the community. Developing consistency for a student within the Middle and High School level is often a struggle in itself! As you know, most teachers and paraprofessionals have different philosophies and teaching approaches which makes for inconsistency and a lack of structure for the student – the behaviors don’t end up changing.

I have found the Behavior Matrix has been the MOST effective way to provide teachers/paraprofessionals and the student with the most consistency structure and support. (I often combine this matrix with the Zones of Regulation to help the student become aware of how they are feeling and provide strategies/guidance to regulate themselves while holding them accountable for their behavior(s)).

The Zones of Regulation written by Leah Kuypers, ©2011Think Social Publishing, Inc. All Right Reserved. www.socialthinking.com

Zones of Regulation Book

Pick 1 to 4 behaviors that are impacting the student and/or others.
*** I categorized the behaviors by the degree of severity:
Category 1: Less Severe Behaviors (annoyances)
Category 2: More Severe Behaviors (Impacts Learning)

I have selected 4 Triggers/Behaviors:

What does each of these behaviors look like (to help the teachers and paraprofessionals identify how to best handle the behaviors consistently.

Create a Consequence Prompting Hierarchy of how teachers and paraprofessionals are to respond and handle to the behaviors. (This provides extreme consistency for handling the behaviors).

** Because I categorize the behaviors into 2 categories, I provided only 2 sets of steps to follow. Otherwise I would have a set of steps of each of the 4 behaviors.

**I have linked the consequences together for Category 1 and Category 2 (Step #2 on the left side) if the student continues to be defiant or engage in the inappropriate behaviors. This still holds the student accountable for their actions and provides a structured plan for how to handle the situation.

A visual list of strategies and Natural Consequences to help the student understand what naturally happens when he/she engages in those behaviors. The natural consequences are behaviors/actions that the student is constantly seeking and wanting.

**Depending on situation or severity of incident office intervention/admin intervention may take place at any time of the target behavior being displayed with possible consequences deemed appropriate.