Hope you have found Behavior Week helpful! Like I mentioned – you can do endless amounts of prepping and planning before school starts. Your bulletin boards may be perfectly coordinated and chevron. You room is literally overflowing with color coordinated and tabbed binders. But honestly – what’s that all going to matter when one of your kids whacks you upside the head? Behavior management prep is going to be your most essential planning. Refer back to these posts as behavior problems pop in your classroom.
Sometimes we need some special materials to make sure our behavior management interventions work perfectly. Here are some tips and resources to help you along the way!
Check out my Ultimate Packet of Behavior Management Visuals! It’s recently updated with new visuals for asking for a break, requesting help, and time out rules! If you have already downloaded this bestselling resources – please redownload it and get the three new pages of materials!
My must-have behavior management visual is my mini token economy! This is my first suggestion to most behavior problem emails I get. It’s a structured and easy to comprehend way to illustrate to children with low receptive or expressive language what they are working for and what they need to do to get it.
My next favorite (a super close second!) is the necklace of behavior management visuals! I like to refer to it as your most functional piece of jewelry. Now it’s no David Yurman but I promise you – it’s pretty freaken awesome. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of the cafeteria in the middle of a massive melt down cursing the fact that you left all of your visuals up in the classroom. Now you have all visuals – at your fingertips! 🙂
And don’t forget social stories. Although as any autism teacher – I love social stories – but I must admit – I think they are ver often over prescribed. It seems like many people think… autism behavior problem = social story. It’s no magic wand or all curing pill. With that being said, a well placed social story can be incredibly effective. Social stories tell students what to do instead of letting them infer what appropriate behavior is. Here is my little collection:
Tips and Tricks for Behavior Management Resources:
make it easy and accessible
make it simple
note changes in interventions on your data sheets
bookmark these pages 🙂
Monday: Identifying Target Behaviors and Function (you gotta know where to start right?)
Tuesday: Attention Maintained Behaviors (every classroom has some of this… you now who I’m talking about)
Wednesday: Escape Maintained Behaviors (what crafty and clever things are you students doing to get out of work and how can we stop it?)
Thursday: Sensory Behaviors (let’s delve into the whole wonderful world of scripting, stimming, and more)
Friday: Behavior Management Freebies and more!
- Planning for the Fall: Part 4 and 5 – Visually Structured Tasks and Routines - January 30, 2026
- Using TAH Curriculum for Homeschooling from a Homeschooling Parent - September 10, 2022
- Using The Autism Helper Curriculum for Homeschool - August 8, 2022
8 Responses
You have great ideas and resources- Thanks! Do you use any class wide behavior systems – like stop lights, end of day rewards, etc? I used it with higher functioning classes and it worked well, but I have a lower functioning- all autism group this year. I’m just not sold on it being effective for them since most of them will have short more immediate rewards throughout the day- any thoughts or advice?
You are so right Sasha! Keeping visual supports with you at all times is a must and those ring cards are very effective. For even greater success, combine it with your other strategy – keep extra copies. I have found that making extra sets of ring cards and having them on hand can relieve stress for everyone.
My rule of thumb – if you’re making one, make several more. There’s little difference in the amount of time you spend up front for peace of mind when you really need the extra ones!
I like the three strikes your out visuals for the students…and connecting it to the working for visuals. It just makes sense to carry the visuals with you throughout the building. Thank you, Lillian
I use a system very similar to Sasha’s. in addition to “what are you working for?” cards I use smaller rewards. I hv k-2 class all students with autism. I hv an apron with multiple pockets. I hv goodies in there – goldfish, cheese it, Cheerios etc. only healthy things. I will repeatedly find something to praise “I like the way John is sitting. Great job John.” Then offer 1 treat. I also use The Zones of Regulation which has great visuals color coded etc. it was made by an OT. Happy back to school everybody!
Same boat a little bit! I used to use a whole group system (but actually only for most of my class). I tend to think that whole group systems are not as powerful with lower functioning students. I would start with short more immediate rewards and then fade out to a longer wait period before getting the reinforcer. You could shape that into a class wide system if thats’ successful.
Totally agree!! If you are making one you may as well make more 🙂
Thanks for reading, Lillian! 🙂
Thanks for sharing Becky! For shaping those essential behaviors – edibles are often the most powerful reinforcer.