behaviour contracts
By
Corinne Abisgold Question: At present I am teaching
a Primary 7 class in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. I have two children in the class
who have serious behavioural problems which make teaching the rest of the class
well nigh impossible. I would like to set up a behaviour contract for these two
children and would appreciate your help as to where I would find some examples
of behaviour contracts that I might adapt to my situation. Answer:
Thank you for your question. Several points come to mind in relation to setting
up successful behaviour contracts. I have listed them below: 1.
The targets set need to be very specific and achievable and described in "doable"
form. That is, in a way that the child can fully understand what is expected of
them. It is also useful to quantify for how long and in what context the behaviour
needs to occur. 2. In addition to the targets set you need
to have a carefully planned way of monitoring progress between different adults
and different contexts. 3. To motivate and engage the child
you need to look at reward systems that are relevant to them. Involving parents
in identifying and delivering rewards can also be very useful. 4.
All staff in the school should be aware of targets and be involved in noting and
rewarding good behaviour. 5. Other children in the class can
be included in discussions about how they can support their classmates and they
can be rewarded for their help and asked to help reward the children for their
efforts. (You may like to look at "Circle of friends" as a way of promoting
peer support in relation to behaviour.) 6. Good resources in
this area can be obtained from Lucky Duck Publishing. 7. A
good reference book that includes behaviour contracts is "Changing Behaviour
- teaching children with emotional and behavioural difficulties" published
by David Fulton ISBN 1-85346-350-7. Corinne Abisgold
is an educational psychologist, writer, lecturer and curriculum developer. | 
