The PLOP examines a 4th grader Sarah, who has a clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorder and ADHD. Based on her areas of need, Sarah lacks concentration and focus on a particular topic during the instruction. She also needs to improve her social skills to alleviate the expressions of anger and frustration. The most critical issue implies Sarah’s behavioral changes, which are inherently connected to her mood patterns and affect her social interactions and work habits.
Moreover, social situations keep resulting in anxious response and domineering character. With that said, Sarah should avoid attempting to unexpected behavior during upsetting or frustrating circumstances in the classroom and must adhere to the self-regulation strategy. The strategy involves taking a deep breath, relocating to the quiet space, and focusing on the required learning tasks by taking 8-10 minutes break.
In addition, Sarah should learn to complete the assigned task independently and avoid any distractions for 20 minutes. The unexpected behavioral expressions, including aggression, should be refrained 100% of the day with adults’ help demonstrating an appropriate emotional response to the situation. When given a complicated or restraining task, a girl also has to be provided with clear three-step functional direction from the teacher or the adult that should be adequately followed without distractions with maximum 1 additional prompt.
Thereafter, a girl has to return to completing the task and be focused on it for 10 minutes without adult assistance and distraction. Positive reinforcement and self-monitoring are considered some of the successful evidence-based practices in addressing emotional disorder issues. Self-monitoring skills are proved to be helpful in various settings and can improve academic and socio-behavioral outcomes.
A positive reinforcement, in turn, might promote the student’s ability to focus on tasks and fully engage in classroom activities and discussions. Most importantly, such strategies are considered beneficial for both students and teachers since they might learn about the advantages of behavior-specific praise as a simple approach to classroom management.