BEHAVIORAL STRAND UPDATE: Shifting Attitudes from Negative to Positive

"The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude."
-Oprah Winfrey

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Often times, when working with children and adolescents in a school setting, adults tend to form feedback in a negative way. This is often reflected by rules that are posted in the halls that say “No running, No yelling, etc.” When this occurs at schools, often times we see a spike in behaviors due to the negative annotations around the rules and expectations at the school. This is why the power of shifting the attitude from negative to a positive often helps with empowering students and their self-esteem.

What needs to be in place before I can expect these strategies to work? 
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The effectiveness of these classroom strategies are maximized when: (a) the strategies are implemented within a school-wide multi-tiered behavioral framework, such as school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS); (b) classroom and school-wide expectations and systems are directly linked; (c) classroom strategies are merged with effective instructional design, curriculum, and delivery; and (d) classroom-based data are used to guide decision. Additional information on PBIS is available at http://www.pbis.org/
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Often times student have trouble with seeing the negative impact of their words but have trouble with giving and receiving positive compliments. For example, when I ask a student, “give me three things that make you unique,” often times they respond with, “I don’t know" or a shrugged shoulder. This often leads the Seneca staff  to think about the 10 important values of the internal working model:

When we look at these closely, we recognize that students often feel negative about themselves due to the 10 values above and often staff ask how can we change this students viewpoint or outlook on their life.

Below are two examples of how the staff in a school setting can change the mindset of a student’s negative way of thinking into a positive one.

1. Numerous student support assistants are continually amazed at the number of students who have a lot of trouble giving and receiving a compliment. Students seem to have no trouble, however, with the occasional teasing or name-calling on the playground or in the classroom.
 
To remedy this, we often play “Compliment Tag” within the different classrooms. This is a fun activity that requires no materials or supplies, and it is best carried out in small groups of four to six students - although, we have been able to do it with whole classrooms!

Students sit in a circle and decide on one person to be “it” first. This student has to tag another person in the group. However, unlike a typical  game of tag where you run and use your hands, this game requires you to tag a person with your words. The student who is “it” will say another student’s name in the group, give her a compliment, and then say, “Tag you’re it.” The person who gets tagged responds by saying, “Thank you,” and the person who gave the compliment responds with, “You’re welcome.” The person tagged then picks someone else and it continues until everyone has had a chance to give and receive a compliment.

After “Compliment Tag” is over, it is always a good practice to have some discussion questions for the class to consider. Was it easy to give someone a compliment? Do you think it is possible to practice giving compliments on your own? How did it feel inside when you had a compliment given to you? How many compliments do you think you could give each day?
 
2. Here is a link about a teacher from Florida that makes time at the beginning of the day for positive self-talk/compliments for his students in order to shift their mindset from a negative to a positive in order to be ready to learn: Florida teacher positive self-talk

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Blog post written by:
Darrell Burns, Assistant Director of Behavioral Interventon

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