Introduction:
For my second Behavioral Change assignment, I decided to use some of the ideas mentioned under “Tips for Preventing and Defusing Aggressive Behavior” found on the behavioradvisor.com website.  I put some of these ideas in place while observing an afternoon ‘Arts and Crafts’ session, at Project Happy, (an all day Saturday program for kids  with disabilities, held at Hunter College’s Brookdale Campus). I had, fortunately, read this part of Dr. McIntyre’s website a few days before going to Project Happy, for my observation work.  The information came in handy while a fairly loud altercation took place between two eighth grade girls.

During the Arts and Crafts session, colored pencils, crayons, markers, and small jars of paint were placed in the middle of long tables, near the end of the narrow room.  For about an hour, a dozen or so kids, between 11 and 14 years of age, were working reasonably quietly on their pictures, (mainly of clowns, unicorns, birds, and a few Easter Bunnies).  While attempting to move a jar of paint closer to her seat, one girl, a tall eight grader, accidentally knocked over another jar; suddenly, dark blue paint half covered an almost finished painting of a cat.  Standing in the doorway, about 10 or 15 feet away, I   heard some mumbling and then one of the girls shouted, “Just stop lying, Isabella, OK!! You did it on purpose!!  Don’t think I’m cleaning the mess out here!!! You clean it!!!”  Next thing I heard, even a little louder, “Don’t think I’m cleaning that $?*& up…”  That comment was hastily followed by a few vigorous slaps on the table. At any rate, it got rather loud in that room and other kids stood up and moved back ; it looked like some sort of physical confrontation was likely.
 

Goal
At that point, my first goal, obviously, was to prevent a fight between these two angry eighth graders, then to calm the other kids in the room down.   I quickly recalled some of the ideas regarding defusing aggressive behavior, from behavioradvisor.com, and decided to put them into place, immediately. I noticed that one of the girls was considerably more upset, and more likely to begin pushing, (maybe punching?) than the other.  I decided to focus my attention on getting her to calm down as quickly as possible, thereby calming the other students down .
 

Outcome / Result
Following advice from that website, I separated the (potential) combatants and stood close to the more belligerent of the two and peacefully asked her to take a walk with me, into the hallway.. Before leaving the room, I quietly asked other students to sit back down and to continue with their paintings. At that point,  I asked one of the Hunter undergrads to go  into the Arts and Crafts area and to keep an eye on the other fairly upset girl while I was down the hall, near the pool. The other students were quietly resuming their work when I left that room.

As we turned the corner, a few more words were exchanged between the two girls, and then I quietly said the one next to me,  “OK, just keep in mind that it’s much easier for me to listen to you when you keep your voice down low, OK  Monique?  That way I can understand you. When you shout, it’s quite difficult for me.” (Those remarks are a slight variation on what appears on the aforementioned website, in the ‘Preventing and Defusing Aggressive Behavior’ section). I listened calmly and attentively as she ventilated; I used some short acknowledgments such as, “Yes, I see your point, yes.’ Then I added, “Oh, saw that too, not good..” Those comments seem to help lower her voice and anger level, a little bit.

The site also told me to keep a positive outcome in mind while facing a situation involving aggression in the classroom; I did that, too.  As I saw her becoming calmer, I asked a few questions about her interest in drawing and her answers seem to take her mind off of the recent outburst. Then I asked her to not say anything further to Isabella and she told me she would not.  Then we walked back into the room, just in time for clean up.  (I was later told that two other girls had removed the spilled paint from where Monique was seated earlier).  The session ended and everybody left quietly, without incident.
 

What Would I Do In The Future?
I think that separating the two worked well; if Monique had stayed in the room, a bad situation would have gotten worse, I think.  In the future, I’ll keep that in mind, along with allowing an angry, upset youngster to just walk away from a troubling scene. I’ll also remember to just allow him or her to ventilate while I listen calmly, politely, making a few intermittent acknowledgements.  I think that the information I have learned from behavioradvisor.com will be put to very good use in future.
 

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Thanks John!
6/15/05