I was helping a teacher with a student who was engaging in behaviors that was more annoying for the teacher and her para-educators than anything else. This teacher’s frustration stemmed from the parent’s belief that the behavior was rooted in the child’s disability, specifically a sensory need, and not in the child just being a misbehaving child. Here we have, once again, a disability and/or a sensory need, being used as an excuse for bad behaviors.

If one was to read a description of or the characteristics of a disability… for instance, Down Syndrome, one would read things like floppiness, small nose and flat nasal bridge, small mouth with a tongue that may stick out, problems with the heart and bowel, difficulties with hearing and vision, etc. Angelman Syndrome renders a laundry list of characteristics as well, such as delayed development, intellectual disability, severe speech impairment, recurrent seizures, and more. As with Cerebral Palsy, CHARGE Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and other disabilities, one will find that characteristics often overlap, or are unique to certain disabilities.

Certain disabilities do bring to the forefront behaviors… behaviors that are a part of the characteristics of that disability. Readily comes to mind the description of Autism: challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, and speech and nonverbal communication. Children with Behavioral Disorders, such as ADHD, delivers a description of being easily distracted, squirming, talkative, easily bored, impatient, and constantly moving and touching things. But, outside of some behavioral specific disabilities, nowhere in the description do you find descriptors like…

~ has a tendency to reach out and hit parents, teachers, or students

~ constant screaming or outbursts of squealing or yelling

~ likes to chew, gnaw, suck on fingers

~ does not understand or respond to “no”

~ constantly bats at, swipes, or throws objects

~ bangs head or other parts of the body

~ pulls on a person’s glasses

~ drops to the ground, kicks and bites

~ likes to chew on clothing, belts, buckles, etc.

These descriptors have nothing to do with a child’s disability. These descriptors have nothing to do with sensory needs or a sensory processing disorder (more to come on those two). These descriptors have everything to do with what the child has been allowed to get away with, how the child has learned to adapt, how the child has learned to engage, filler behaviors (boredom), and, believe it or not, just because.

There has been a lot said on dealing with students with disabilities and their behaviors. Every training I have ever attended addresses issues such as communication, behavior intervention plans (BIPs), assessing behaviors, action plans, replacement behaviors, and more. In each and every case, the behavior is tied to the disability whether directly or indirectly, and, therein lies the problem. For once, I would love to go to a training where certain behaviors is addressed as simply a behavior… not tied to the disability, excused away, explained away, or given another label! Where it is ok not to worry about a replacement behavior/activity/outcome, because there is none. Sometimes, the response to behaviors is simply no! We have to change our mindsets if we are going to change behaviors!