Strategies for Helping Parents of Young Children Address Challenging Behaviors in the Home

Ms. Kim is an experienced special education teacher in an inclusive preschool classroom. In the fall, Ms. Kim implemented some classroom management strategies and had been successfully handling challenging behaviors as they occurred. In January, a new child, Sara, joined Ms. Kim's classroom. Sara is a 3-year-old girl with significant developmental delays and very limited expressive language to communicate her needs and wants. Sara's family moved to the United States from China 2 years prior. Both parents speak English fluently, but the primary language used at home is Chinese. Sara uses pointing and crying to express her needs most of the time. During her first week of school, the sound of Sara's crying filled the classroom. Ms. Kim knows she needs to do something for this little girl. Sara's parents have told Ms. Kim that Sara's behavior is the same at home, and they do not know what to do. They have asked Ms. Kim for help. The school behavioral specialist has conducted a functional behavior assessment (FBA) for Sara at school, which indicates that Sara does not have the language skills to express her needs and that the functions of her challenging behaviors were mainly to obtain things she wanted and, to a lesser extent, escape from activities. The behavioral specialist has suggested Ms. Kim teach Sara to express her needs using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS; Frost & Bondy, 1994). Along with some other positive behavior support strategies that Ms. Kim had already been using in her class, such as building positive relationships with children, setting up a supportive learning environment, and designing meaningful learning activities, Sara's behavior greatly improves after PECS is introduced. During the teacher-parent conference in mid-February, Ms. Kim talks about Sara's improvements; although Sara's parents are impressed by her progress at school, her crying behavior has not changed much at home. They have asked Ms. Kim what more they can do.