Emergency Relief for Teachers of Children Who Challenge - Emergency Relief Strategies for Teachers of Children Who Challenge

Oct 15, 2026

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Emergency Relief for Teachers of Children Who Challenge addresses the reality of teacher burnout when students show chronic impulsivity, distractibility, hyperactivity, and frequent aggressive behaviors such as biting and hitting. The article frames hope and relief through principles like the “Noah Principle,” emphasizing tools over sympathy. It argues that no single quick fix exists, and proposes three behavior goals: reduce frequency, shorten duration and lower intensity. It then outlines practical relief strategies centered on explicit SEL instruction, behavioral identification, descriptive feedback, visual and auditory prompting, guidance methods, picture-story interventions, and home connections, supported by research references.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages7

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Emergency Relief

Behavior Goals and Expectations

Emergency Relief Strategies

Explicit Direct SEL Instruction

Behavior Identification and Feedback Tools

Prompting and Guidance Methods

Interactive Behavioral Picture Stories

Home Connections and Integrated Activities

Emergency Relief for Teachers of Children Who Challenge | Challenging children can make a teacher’s day difficult. These authors share some strategies that can provide “emergency relief ” to teachers. | René Crow,
Mark Cooper,& Jamie Dallas | | --- | --- | “Iam facing the most difficult year in my 12 years as a teacher. I come home and cry all the time. Iam at a complete loss. Ihave such a passion for my students, but Ijust don’t think Iam good enough for this class. It truly makes me want to give up.” This real-life situation is often shared by teachers of students who show severe signs and symptoms of impulsivity, distractibility, and hyperactivity combined with frequent, aggressive behaviors including biting and hitting. How many teachers can identify with this kind of scenario? Such teachers need hope, the kind described by Jerome Groopman (2004), the author of The Anatomy of Hope. This book emphasizes that to find hope, discouraged teachers need tools specifically designed to combat their chronic hopeless thoughts with those that help them believe that challenging behaviors can be successfully changed. Emergency Relief Teachers of students with chronic challenging behaviors need relief, and they need it quickly. While they may appreciate the sympathy of others, what they really need is some genuine help. The same Noah Principle for students with disabilities described by Dr. Mark Cooper in Bound and Determined to Help Children with Learning Disabilities Succeed (2005) must be applied to teachers challenged by chronic misbehavior. The Noah Principle according to Cooper is that there are no more prizes for predicting rain, just prizes for building arks. Cooper writes,“We can no longer afford to walk in waist-deepwater in the middle of a storm holding umbrellas over our heads thinking that this will protect and insulate us from the challenges”(xii) . Teachers who face huge behavioral obstacles by students need and deserve more. There is no quick fix, no magic pill, or no one-size-fitsall strategy. However, there are some helpful practices designed to achieve three goals. Goal \#1: Reduce the frequency of behavior challenges Goal \#2: Shorten the duration of such challenges, and/or Goal \#3: Lower the intensity of those challenges The elimination of challenges is certainly ideal but we concede that it is probably too idealistic. Still, we have found that the strategies and techniques described in this article have been helpful to many teachers who found themselves in need of emergency relief. Behavioral challenges must be anticipated and expected. Teachers of young children are appropriately encouraged to develop and implement appropriate instructional and guidance strategies. At times, however, they are inappropriately misled into thinking that such strategies will help their students behave appropriately. When good, committed teachers work hard to implement strategies steeped in best early childhood practices and still find themselves struggling with inappropriate behavior from the children they teach, they begin to question themselves as viable teachers (Kohler, Cooper, Crow, & Atkins, 2008) . 4 Vol 43, No 3, 2015 Dimensions of Early Childhood Emergency Relief for Teachers of Children Who Challenge Emergency Relief Strategies for Teachers of Children Who Challenge In this article we share a number of strategies and techniques designed to address the needs of young children who have social skill and self-management challenges. These strategies include the use of: • Explicit, Direct Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Instruction • Behavior Identification • Descriptive Comments • Visual Cueing • Auditory Prompting • Gadget Guidance • Techno-Guidance • Interactive Behavioral Picture Stories • Home Connections • Integrated Content Area Activities (Crow, & Cooper, 2006; Cooper, Crow, Filer, Murphy,& Benson, 2005; Crow, & Cooper, 2004; Cooper, & Filer, 2003; Cooper, Russell, &

FAQs

Why do teachers need “emergency relief” for children with challenging behavior?

Teachers often face overwhelming, repeated behavioral problems such as impulsivity, hyperactivity, and aggression. The article argues they need genuine help quickly, not just sympathy, along with practical tools to manage chronic hopeless thoughts.

Does the article recommend a quick fix or one-size-fits-all strategy?

No. It states there is no magic pill and no one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, it emphasizes helpful practices that work toward three goals for behavior change.

What three goals are proposed for addressing challenging behaviors?

The article sets three goals: reduce the frequency of behavior challenges, shorten the duration of such challenges, and/or lower the intensity of those challenges.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by dhado