Georgia PBS Interventions - Florida's Positive Behavior Support ...

ChoicesWe touched on the topic of choices during the green zone; however, they are even more useful in thered zone. Children like control and it is perfectly okay to give away control on our terms. I call it“controlled” control. This is like making a deposit into a little savings account in the child’s head. Thisway, when you must make a withdrawal and say “I need you to__________” the child is more likely tocomply.Here’s how it sounds:• Would you like to brush your teeth with the green toothbrush or the red toothbrush?• Use the blue toothpaste or the red toothpaste?• Drink out of a cup or a glass?• Straw or no straw?Here’s another trick you can play:• If your child’s bedtime is 8:00 and you are still battling them at 8:30 to get in bed you can dothe following:o At 7:45 say to them, “Would you like to go to bed now or wait 15 minutes?”o Fifteen minutes later say, “Now’s the time you picked to go to bed.”Here’s how it sounds in the classroom:• Do you want to sit in the red chair or the blue chair?• Do you want to write on lined paper or unlined paper?• Do you want to write your name on the left side of your paper or the right side of your paper?• Do you want to do Math first or English first?It sounds silly, but if you try this you will be amazed at how well the children start complying withrequests when they feel like they have been making all the decisions up to a certain point.On another note: My husband and I used to live with Jay an adult with autism, intellectual disabilities,obsessive compulsive disorder and bi-polar condition. Prior to our living with him, he would miss 2 or 3days every month because he would be so low he couldn’t get out of bed. I decided this wasn’t going tohappen when we lived with him. After months of researching all his data, I decided that thebarometric pressure might have some bearing on his bi-polar mood swings. I instituted choiceswhenever the barometric pressure fell 15 degrees in one 24 hour period. (I won’t go into all the detailsabout how I came up with that.) The important thing was that when the barometric pressure starteddropping, I started giving Jay more choices. Everything became a choice, “Do you want to set thetable with the blue dishes or the white dishes?” “Do you want to go to bed with the music on or themusic off?”I knew the answer to all these questions. The important thing was Jay felt he was in control. I’mhappy to report that our oldest son now lives with Jay and is using choices when Jay gets low as welland Jay hasn’t missed a day of work for three years due to his bi-polar condition.Positive Interventions and Effective Strategies Riffel -© 2005 - 59 -