CALM Theory

On the 22nd of September, 2011 from 12:45 to 2:30, I attended inservice which covered CALM theory, which examines management of challenging behaviour. 

CALM is all about the key themes, systems that are already in place, in schools to manage challenging behaviour.  CALM training, if implemented properly, minimises the chances of evver having to use the hands on system.  It is about organisational skills and learning from what happens.  When we have systems in place, whether they are fire alarms or otherwise, it is important to know how they work and what they sound like so that we recognise them and know how to respond. 

There are 3 stages to managing challenging behaviour: 

What systems are in place to help you deal with challenging behaviour:

Primary

• Effective communication
• Interacting with child's entire team (parents, professionals, the child, etc.)
• Getting to know the child that you are working with
• Read IEPs, ASPs, CarePlans, Profiles, Positive Behaviour Plans, etc
• Risk assessments of environment, behaviour of individual children, triggers (ABC chart), who is at risk and how they are at risk, physical interventions, staff and their capabilities
• Team work
• Consistency
• Constant Evaluation
• Reinforcement of good/wanted behaviour

Secondary

• De-escalation techniques
• Awareness of child's likes/dislikes, tone of voice, confidence levels
• Knowing what to do
• Training - build confidence and self-esteem
• Practice

(Buzzers, Ensure Environment Safe, Effective Communication, etc)

Tertiary

• Recording
• Update Risk Assessments
• Incident Reports
• Update Profiles/Behaviour Plans
• Debriefing - construtive discussion
• the Who, What, Where, When, & Why
• What modifications/changes might need to be made to avoid a repeat situation
• Looking for triggers
• Debriefing is not optional
• No legislation, but is part of health and wefare
• "Time Out" - may collapse afterwards from stress, so remove self
• Evaluation (in a non-blame culture) to be reflective
• ask everyone present for behaviour, must be present at debrief
• as what you thing and what actually happened may differ; better to get input from all sources
• Accountability - being responsible for your actions

(Tertiary feeds back into the Primary Stage to inform it)

Pick 1 or 2 behaviours, but fo not try to focus on all.  See how often behaviour happens and using the ABC chart, a pattern may emerge.  This is a method of functional assessment.

*Between phases C and E on the Assault Cycle any little thing can raise the anger again and can send you back to the Crisis phase, this is what is referred to as additional assaults.  During this time, it may not be a good thing to write the incident report as your anger/feelings will effect your responses.

Professional persona - each of us has our own tolerance levels and therefore our there may not be consistency over behaviour.  An agreement must be made on a wider level of what behaviour is acceptable and what is not going to be tolerated. 

The purpose of CALM training to be able to move from Unconscious Incompetence to Unconscious Competence when dealing with challenging behaviour.  The key is to practice, practice, practice so that your reaction to challenging behaviour becomes natural and that you learn to recognise indicators that challenging behaviour may be surfacing, and use tactics to avoid it before it begins.

*Sometimes we may not know the trigger of challenging behaviour.  Occassionally, it may be that an individual person sparks a memory or feeling in the child that triggers their challenging behaviour, so do not take it personally.