Essential “Plays” for Bully Prevention:

1. Essential “Plays” for Bully Prevention: Teaching Social Competence and Building Connections for Students with Disabilities at School http://cultureofkindness.wikispaces.com/ Sara Egorin Hooper and Kay Holman Safe Schools Conference June 28th, 2013-Elementary

2. Bully Prevention Playbook: Keep the bullies from scoring!!

3. Score Points for Today’s Workshop • Keep bullies out of play! Join us as we create a culture of kindness and build a school community that respects the differences of ALL students. • We will be focusing on the most important aspect of life--social connections with others! • Symbols to hold on to your learning as you go back into the community… • Together, we will discuss strategies from our “playbook” for : • promoting a culture of kindness and respect • teaching social competence • creating connections between students and everyone in the school community • And how to integrate this knowledge and skills to prevent and respond to bullying in our schools • “Give Us a High Five”—Five doable ideas to take back to your school to prevent bullying and make your school more inclusive

5. Keeping Bullies out of Play Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect • Student with Disabilities • Creating Connections • Teaching Social Competence

6. Bully Prevention • What is Bullying • “Bullying” is repeated aggression, harassment, threats or intimidation by a stronger or more dominant child to a more vulnerable child” • Bullying is intentional, it happens more than once, and there is a marked unbalance of power between the bully and the victim • Many forms of bullying • face to face, by a single student or by a group, take or damage possessions, intimidate or threat,, intentionally exclude others, spread rumors, cyberbullying, etc.

7. Bullying Prevention • Bullying Facts and Figures • Almost one in three children nationwide is involved in bullying, either as a bully or as a victim • 15-20% of all students are victimized by bullies at some point in their school career • 90% of 4th through 8th graders report being victims of bullying • 160, 000 children miss school every day in the USA for fear of being bullied • 71% of teachers or classroom aides either did not know about or ignored bullying incidents in their classes • Bullying will typically stop in less than 10 seconds if another student intervenes • Victims of cyber bullying show more signs of depression than other bullying victims. • Cyber bullying is on the rise in dramatic numbers; it is relentless and more frightening if the bully is anonymous. • About 47 teens are bullied every five minutes. • Every 30 minutes a teenager attempts suicide due to bullying. • Almost half of all students fear harassment or bullying in the bathroom • The leading cause of death among children under the age of 14 is suicide. • “Bullycide” is the new term for suicide as a result of being bullied. • Source: National Institutes of Health, SAFE, Tony Bartoli

8. Bullying-lasting impact • The National Crime Prevention Council states, “Although bullying was once considered a rite of passage, parents, educators and community leaders now see bullying as a devastating form of abuse that can have long-term effects on youthful victims, robbing them of self-esteem, isolating them from their peers, causing them to drop out of school and even prompting health problems and suicide.”

9. Bullying and Disabilities • Characteristic that makes them different from the majority. • Targeted more frequently • The person being bullied does not know how or does not have the power to make it stop. • Kids with autism spectrum disorders are three times as likely as their non-affected siblings to experience bullying, 2012 national survey finds (IAN survey, ianproject.org, KKI)

10. Bully Prevention Strategies • Be proactive • Know the facts • Know your student’s rights under the law • Disability harassment is a civil rights issue • Use IEP as a tool • Bullying can sometimes be an obstacle to FAPE • Bullying based on a student’s disability may be considered harassment • Create a partnership with families • Share your school district’s written policy on bullying and harassment • Make families aware of your school’s written response to bullying reports • Keep and document all correspondence and concerns • Share resources with families (Pacer Center)

11. Bully Prevention Strategies • Raise student, educator, and family awareness • Start planning in advance for ways your school can be actively involved in BCPS’s Annual Anti-bullying Program • Promote Cooperation and Caring-Positive Social Culture • School-Wide Positive Behavioral Support Program • Expect Respect • Remember bullying is a “behavior”, not a trait and it is maintained by social rewards (victims and bystanders) • Teach and Practice “Response Routines” STOP-WALK-TALK • Stop routine • Bystander routine • Stopping routine • Recruit help routine • Don’t use label “bullying” • Teach how to respond if someone is NOT respectful

12. Core Features of an Effective Bully Prevention Effort • Five Student Skills~ • School-wide behavioral expectations (respect) • Explicitly teach and consistently practice “Response Routines” • Stop routine- STOP-WALK-TALK • Bystander routine • Stopping routine • Recruit help routine • Don’t use label “bullying”, use “respect language”, Teach how to respond if someone is NOT respectful • For Faculty/Staff~ • Agreement on logic and bully prevention effort • Strategy for teaching students core skills • Strategy for follow up and consistency in responding • Clear data collection and data use purposes • Advanced support options-SUSTAINMENT

13. STOP ROUTINE STOP WALK TALK

14. “Stop” means stop. The rule is:If someone asks you to stop, you stop. Scott Ross, University of Oregon

15. Bully Prevention Strategies • Peer Advocacy/Network Groups • PACERS’ Peer Advocacy Program • Http://PACER.org/bullying/resources/peer-advocacy.asp • The Importance of Self-Advocacy • Student Action Plan • Unite with like minded individuals in your community • Town Hall meeting • PTA • Local disability support groups

16. Bullying Prevention Strategies • SUMMARY • Bullying is a real problem and is best addressed proactively • The school social culture and stance on bullying should be very transparent • Bullying is a behavior • Bully prevention requires changing how student label and respond to disrespectful behavior from their peers • The key to bully prevention is school-wide agreement about appropriate responses • Teaching bully prevention routines is effective

17. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect Keeping Bullies out of Play • Student with Disabilities Teaching Social Competence • Creating Connections

18. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect • Three Essential “Plays” from our playbook: • Inclusive attitudes Bows AND postcards • The three R’s • Universal Educators • School Culture • Administrators set the tone

19. Creating a Successful Inclusive School Culture

20. The REAL three Rs • Relationship: building connections with students • Respect: fostering mutual trust • Relevance: showing usefulness in what is learned • Fourth R (one for good measure): reframing our picture – seeing the student from a different angle, focusing on students’ gifts, strengths, capabilities, and possibilities rather than on deficits and limitations

21. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect Every human being who touches the student’s life is to be viewed as a “universal educator”, including families who are integral and must be valued for their connection to and understanding of the whole student. Universal educators live and foster the message that we are “all students and teachers to each other”, and learning is about taking in and making sense of experiences wherever we are and with whomever we are in life.

22. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect • The best universal educators don’t see a “disability” as a deficit, but rather as a difference. These educators recognize, honor and celebrate these differences. Attitudinally, they use these differences as tools to motivate, teach, support and actively engage each student in learning. • The best universal educators model sincere, genuine appreciation, and acknowledgment of each individual with whom they work, and then act intentionally, using their intuition and a myriad of opportunities which exist, to put purposeful strategies and supports in place.

23. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect • The best universal educators provide opportunities for students to “give back” or contribute to the total class – rather than always being the ones who are helped. These educators have empathy as human beings to understand that being useful is more often about giving than receiving. • The best universal educators respect, acknowledge and consider ways to make learning accessible to students through choice which empowers students, contributes to their success, and encourages them to take risks.

24. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect • The best universal educators feel comfortable enough in themselves to be flexible and to maintain structure while “reframing their picture” of whom the students are and what they need individually and collectively.

25. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect • “Get out on the Court and Move!” • What are the important elements of a positive school culture and of creating a supportive & nurturing school community? • How does the school help each student feel welcomed & valued?

27. Awareness of Greatest Obstacles for Students with Disabilities • Anxiety!!! • Rigidity • Communication • Lack of self-regulation • Social misreads • Social isolation • Not knowing what happens • Not knowing what to do • Not knowing what to say • Difficulty with self-soothing/self-calming

28. Essentials to Support All Students Preparation/Priming Predictability Familiarity Choices • Routine • Structure • Consistency • Extreme Clarity

29. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect Keeping Bullies out of Play • Student with Disabilities Teaching Social Competence Creating Connections

30. Teaching Social Competence • Two Essential “Plays”~ • What is Social Competence? • Social Skills vs. Social Competence • Thinking about what and how we teach our children • Teaching Social Competence in the classroom • Responsive Classroom • Social opportunities embedded throughout the day

31. What is Social Competence • Acomplex, multidimensional concept consisting of: • Social behavior (pro-social, skills) • Emotion (affect regulation) • Cognitive (executive functioning, perspective taking) • Motivation • which are integrated together to successfully interact with others • Learn from past experiences and apply that learning to change/improve future social interactions • Foundation upon which expectations for future interactions with others is built • AND

32. Social Competence Judgments about the individual’s successful display of social skills by others

33. Social Skills Learned behaviors that enable a person to interact with others Who, What, Where, When, and How???

34. Authentic Social Context • Social Interaction in the Classroom: • Occurs in streams, not in isolation • Highly context dependent • Difficult to identify a clear antecedent to or a clear consequence of behavior • Inconsistent responses to clumsy initiations • Inconsistent positive social behavior by typically developing children • Decreased frequency of occurrence in academic setting • How do we get from social skills to social competence???

35. Teaching Social Competence • Some “Plays” from our Playbook~ • Begin creating connections early—solidly and consistently in place in elementary school • Greater social engagement with peers in elementary school predicts improvements in adaptive behaviors and social skills in later adolescence (McGoven and Sigman, 2005) • In-classroom social competence • Teaching pragmatic language, prosocial behavior, and group interaction skills in context • Pairing • Cooperative groups • Social goals embedded within curriculum • Responsive Classroom

36. The Responsive Classroom • A widely used, research and evidence-based approach that increases academic achievement, decreases problem behaviors, improves social skills, and leads to more high-quality instruction • The social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum • How children learn is as important as what they learn; process and content go hand in hand • The greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction

37. The Responsive Classroom • There is a set of social skills that children need to learn and practice to be successful academically and socially: • cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy, and self-control • Knowing the children we teach (the three Rs)- individually, culturally, and developmentally-is as important as knowing the content we teach • Knowing the families of the children we teach and inviting their participation is essential to children’s education • How adults at school work together is as important as individual competence: lasting change begins with the adult community (school culture)

38. The Responsive Classroom ~For all Students • Children’s development • Self regulation, self control • Helps teachers and school leaders to elevate teaching social skills to equal footing of academic and naturally integrate them • Helps all students develop pro-social skills • Self-control • Responsibility • Respect • Relationships • All the things that help them be productive, engaged members of a school and community

39. The Responsive Classroom ~Including Students with Disabilities • Classroom organization and common routines • Integrates teaching academic and social skills as an aspect of everyday classroom life • Utilize morning meetings to teach social skill and respect and responsibility for everyone in classroom • Teaches social skills in natural contexts, students encouraged to interact with one another during most of the day as they engage in partner work, small group, or large group activities • Creating a Community • Encourage students to get along regardless of ability—scaffolding and guided practice • Giving children the power to care • Use of additional supports • Visuals, social stories, peer guidance • Collaboration among professionals • Vertical team

40. Key Practices: The Responsive Classroom • A Daily Morning Meeting • Rule Creation • Interactive Modeling • Positive Teacher Language • Logical Consequences • Guided Discovery • Academic Choice • Classroom Organization • Working with Families • Collaborative Problem Solving

41. Interactive Modeling • Strategies: • Break social skill into discrete steps • Modeling • Interactive questioning • Guided practice • Identifying roles • Facilitated use of skill, scaffolding • Skill: Talking with Partner • Looked at each other (EC) • Talking about what they should be talking about (topic maintenance) • Asked partner for information (reciprocal question asking and listening)

42. Integrating a Social Skills Goal (working in a group) Handout: Cooperative Groups • Common Core-Collaborative Learning • Staff Members-counselor, social worker, inclusion teacher, etc., • Introduce visually, model, guided practice • Share rules and steps in activity • Provide opportunity to engage in group activity with peers-scaffold, support • Reinforce all students for both positive academic and social behavior • SCORE • Share Ideas • Compliment Others • Offer Help or Encouragement • Recommend Changes Nicely • Exercise Self-control Role Cards Role and What to Visual do and say • SEE • Sound, how our voices sound • Expressions on our faces • Eye contact, where we look

43. Promoting a Culture of Kindness and Respect • Keeping Bullies out of Play • Basketballs • Student with Disabilities Teaching Social Competence Creating Connections

44. The Importance of Creating Opportunities for Connections with Peers

45. Challenge • Students with disabilities often remain isolated or excluded from peer groups • Reduced opportunities to make connections • Reduced opportunities to practice social skills and improve social competence • Reduced self-esteem, self confidence • Reduced initiations/desire to interact with others • “They told me I would have friends but the playground was a nightmare of noise and fighting, lying, and cheating and people going fast, all knowing what to do but me. It was like a flock of birds, wheeling, surging, changing direction at a whim, all knowing what to do, and all in unison except for one at the back. Me. I had to watch and anticipate and follow so I was never quite in harmony. Sometimes I got left behind and there are hawks out there. I didn't know how to tell who was a friend.” ~ Tony Attwood

46. What it means to be Socially Connected • Socially respond AND initiate with others (Successfully) • Use learned social skills (behavior) across settings-independently (generalize) • Shared interest and shared experiences • Group identity (group/team activities) • Peer acceptance • Feeling appreciated for being you-sense of self-meaningful contributions (the 4 Rs)

47. Creating Connections • Five Essential “Plays” (five fingers)~ • Priming for Student with disabilities • Planned and supported opportunities to develop connections with others • Direct guidance for peers to successfully interact with students with disabilities • Acknowledgement and celebration • Shared experiences that are motivating for students with disabilities and peers • Continued growth of peer networks

48. Creating Opportunities-Feel safe, feel competent, trust environment-clarity of understanding the expectations, trust peers, motivating experiences- Seek out interactions with peers in a variety of environments “If you don’t become the ocean You’ll be seasick everyday.” --Leonard Cohen “If we are to achieve a richer culture, we must weave one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.” ~ Margaret Meade

49. Elementary • Integrated Play Groups (Wolfberg and Schuler) • PAW Pals http://www.reallookautism.com/2011/10/neighborhood-play-group-3/ • PALS (Positive Acceptance Leadership and Support) Groups (Holman) • Planned opportunities for social interaction and shared experiences • Acceptance and appreciation of differences activities • Leadership in kindness • Specific pro-social behavior taught through modeling and guided practice • Reinforcement for use of pro-social behavior in motivating activity • Before/After School Clubs • garden club, yoga club, drama, art, chess, science, robotics, puppet, lego, etc. • Lunch bunch • Peer Mediated Interventions (English et al., 1997;Odom et al., 1999; Strain & Odom, 1986) • http://autismpdc.fpg.unc.edu/content/peer-mediated-instruction-and-intervention • http://aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/peer-mediated_instruction

50. Creating Connections-PALS Strategies