Books from Amazon
Duct Tape is not a Behavioral Intervention
What started the quest to write this book was a media article about a teacher who was fired for using duct tape on a student. We know that no one started their day thinking, "I'm going to put duct tape on a student's mouth." What we do know is someone did not have enough tools in their tool belt to deal with the behaviors that were showing up in their classroom. This book focuses on some of the strategies we have field tested to be helpful with those behaviors that wear us down in day to day teaching.
This is a book dedicated to young teachers or teachers who are young at heart. This book focuses on ambiance, room structure, room arrangement and colors. It also focuses on interventions that will ameliorate behaviors in the classroom. It is written in conjunction with training from Behavior Doctor Seminars; however, field tests report being useful even without the training. This book includes shopping lists, planning maps, and lists of positive words to help educators bring positive energy into the classroom.
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Flipping the Script on Childhood Meltdowns
Often, we witness adults telling children to "use their words" when the child is in the midst of a meltdown. If we have not taught the child what words to use, how can they use their words? Their meltdown is signaling that they have no words to tell us. This book is a very simple step-by-step process for how to teach students/children a script to convey their emotions after we revise the environment to set them up for success, teach the replacement behaviors for self-regulation, and reframe our response, so we are feeding the replacement behavior and not the target behavior. We will show readers how to move the student/child from the amygdala (limbic system) to the prefrontal cortex, where the synapses are firing in the "thinking part" of the brain. The majority of the book is a resource for readers and comes with a link to downloadable copies of the worksheets for ease of duplication. This strategy has been field-tested over the years in our work at a day clinic, with schools dealing with children born to opioid-addicted mothers, in a state-wide program for behaviors that impeded learning, and even with our children and grandchildren. This book will show you how to build an amygdala recalibration station in your classroom or home, teach you how to instruct children in self-regulation, and help you reframe your own response, so you are feeding the calm rather than feeding the meltdown. There are social narratives and coloring pages for the younger students, and pages of resources you can use with all ages of students.
This book has information from 18 months to 18 years.
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Free or Low-Cost Reinforcers for Appropriate Behaviors
This book focuses on reinforcers (non-tangible) you can use with students within the classroom or a whole school setting. They can be used at the universal, targeted, or tertiary levels. This book is based on research we have conducted since 2004, asking students this question: "What would mean the world to you that an adult could give to you to let you know you had done a good job?" In all the years we have been asking that question, not one student named something tangible except one girl in Wyoming. She said, "Food would be nice." We found out her mother sold the weekend backpack for drugs, and the little girl did not get to eat from Friday afternoon till Monday morning. The school was working on getting social services involved. We have found kids want the following:
Privileges
Attention
Leadership Opportunities
Praise
Assistance
Touch (high five)
Escape
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Having Fun with PBIS: Free or Low-Cost Reinforcers for Appropriate Behaviors
This book is based on twelve years of research. So many schools were focusing on tangible incentives with a PBIS program. Dr. Riffel felt that was not truly what students wanted so she started interviewing students and writing down their responses. As she hypothesized, only one student in twelve years has named anything tangible. This book focuses on the following items described by students: 1) privileges, 2) attention, 3) leadership, 4) praise, 5) assistance, 6) touch, 7) escape and 8) supplies. Although no student named supplies as a choice for reinforcement, the authors felt there were many students who could not afford the normal school supplies. The authors felt the students would feel better if they could "purchase" the school items with "gotcha" tickets rather than have handouts. This has proven to be the case in many schools.
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Non-Medicated Interventions for Learners with ADHD by Laura Riffel, Ph.D.
This book is not meant to indicate that we should not use medication with children with ADHD. For some children, it is needed; however, educators are not allowed to recommend this to family members. This book focuses on what educators can do. It describes techniques classroom teachers can use to do three things to ameliorate behavior for children with ADHD: 1) revise the environment to set the student up for success, 2) replace the behavior by teaching an alternative behavior that is socially acceptable, and 3) reframing the response, so the behavior is not fed by the behavior of the adult. We call this the Three Rs based on the Three Ts. The three Ts are 1) Trigger (what sets the behavior in motion, 2) Target (what behavior do you want to target for change in measurable and observable terms, and 3) impacT (what is the student trying to gain or escape by having this behavior?) So, the three T's (Trigger, Target, impacT) form the basis for the three R's (Revise, Replace, Reframe). It's simple, and Dr. Riffel's presentation that coincides with this book is color coded to help you remember which of the sections you are addressing with each intervention. The book has been useful for people who did not attend the training.
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Positive Behavior Support at the Secondary (Targeted Group) Level
This book is for K-12
by Laura A. Riffel and Melinda Mitchiner
Research on positive behavior support has focused largely on tier one, school-wide disciplinary policies, and tier three interventions tailored to highly problematic students. This leaves a gap in the middle. “Yellow zone”, or tier two, interventions are an extremely effective way to address many challenging behavior and disciplinary issues in small group settings.
Positive Behavior Support at the Secondary “Targeted Group” Level shows teachers how to identify the students who can benefit from tier two interventions and demonstrates how to create an implementation plan that delivers results. Focusing on proactive strategies rather than reactive solutions, Riffel and Mitchiner’s research-based techniques include:
- General strategies that can be applied at the individual student level, such as self-management, proximity control, and the Premack principle and peer mentoring
- Comprehensive action plans that anticipate the full range of disruptions that may occur
- A useful behavior rating sheet proven effective in improving student behavior
- “Funk Sway” For The Classroom: Using Feng Shui principles to create a classroom environment that enhances productivity, learning, and creativity
Apply the techniques in this book to reduce challenging behavior, improve school climate, and improve outcomes for ALL students.
“This book is easy to read, understand, and implement in any classroom or school. Teachers will be drawn to the resources that can be copied and used immediately! I can’t wait to apply some of these practices in my classroom!”
Rachel Spenner, Sixth Grade Teacher
Westridge Elementary School
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Positive Behavior Support at the Tertiary Level
Help students move from the "red zone" to the success zone!
How would you respond to a student who frequently has emotional meltdowns, hits other students, or uses unacceptable language? These and other extremely challenging behaviors are identified as tertiary level or "red zone" by the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) model. Laura A. Riffel describes in teacher-friendly terms how to use this model to create an intervention plan to modify disruptive behavior. Research-based and easy-to-use methods for general and special educators, administrators, and counselors include:
- A data-driven approach to solving problems
- Techniques and strategies for collecting and analyzing data
- Methods for teaching replacement behavior
- Examples that show how to modify consequences
Positive Behavior Support at the Tertiary Level helps teachers develop a better understanding of their impact on students' behavior and empowers them to make positive changes. Included are success stories, analysis forms, charts, and templates that show teachers how to "mine the data for gold," create crisis plans, and steer students toward positive behaviors.
"Dr. Riffel's materials are so practical that even new teachers can conduct a functional behavior assessment and implement a meaningful plan with ease."
—Michelle Doty, Assistant Professor
Lewis-Clark State College, ID
"This book provides teachers with a road map to success."
—Karen Barineau, Autism Specialist
DeKalb County Schools, Stone Mountain, GA
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Positive Interventions and Effective Strategies for School Social Workers
This book is written for school social workers. So often social workers are asked to help with behavioral strategies and this book offers suggestions to help them work with classroom educators and help students be successful. It was written in conjunction with a seminar offered by Behavior Doctor Seminars.
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Positive Interventions and Effective Strategies for Struggling Learners: ADHD, LD, ODD, and ASD by Laura Riffel and Jessica Eggleston
This book can be a stand-alone or used with Dr. Riffel's seminar of the same title. Dr. Riffel begins with ten rules about behavior and how they are tied to learners who struggle. The next topic covered is the Triple T-Triple R Chart This is Dr. Riffel's simplified version of the competing pathway chart for non-ABA personnel). Next, she shows you how to make environmental changes, teach replacement behaviors, and reframe responses into interventions that work for students with ADHD, LD, ODD, and ASD. This is Behavior Doctor Seminars' most requested training for classroom teachers. It is filled with ideas you can take back and use the next day in the classroom.
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Quantum Secrets for Building a Quality Life for Learners with Autism
Quantum Secrets of Creating a Quality Life for Learners with Autism is based on years of teaching students with autism and, most importantly, living with an adult who happened to have autism, bipolar condition, obsessive-compulsive disorder, intellectual disabilities, and mild cerebral palsy. Jay was their most prolific teacher. He lived with the Riffel family for a decade and would still reside with them if he had not passed away. Using the secrets learned from looking at life backward, Dr. Riffel will share what led to his incredible life and help you create that life for your learners with autism. This book is to be used in conjunction with a seminar given by Dr. Riffel. She will share hands-on strategies you can take back and use the next day after attending this one-day conference. Learn how to help a learner with autism achieve a dignified life. This book has been used as a stand-alone resource for people who did not attend the conference.
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Recharge Your Batteries: Classroom Management
This book is designed to help teachers develop three strands of reinforcement in classroom management. Support, Interventions, and Reinforcement will be addressed in ways that help classroom teachers braid behavioral techniques into their strategies. The book will focus on environmental changes, replacement behavior teaching, and impacting our reactions as educators so that we feed the replacement behavior and extinguish the target behavior.
This is another of Dr. Riffel's most requested seminars around the world. The interventions will help seasoned teachers as well as beginning teachers.
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Targeting Behavioral Interventions that Work: Incorporating the Triple T- Triple R Competing Pathway
This is a workbook designed to help educators look at the Triple T of a summary statement (Trigger-Target-impacT) and then build a plan based on the function of the behavior. We use the Triple R to build a multi-modal plan. We need to Revise the environment, Replace the behavior, and Reframe the response.
A typical competing pathway chart is confusing for people who are not trained in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). The words are also confusing:
antecedent- people usually think about what happened right in front of them, and sometimes the trigger is something that happened yesterday or is a setting event, or an oncoming illness, etc.
behavior- frequently gets an adjective attached to it (problem, bad, rude), and then those words tend to get associated with the student. The truth is, we love the student. We just want the behavior to disappear.
consequence- frequently, people think we mean what punishment was given. The truth is many times; the punishment is exactly what the student desires. We are seeking what the student is going for as far as function.
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Three Levels of Strategies in Your School and Classroom: Universal, Targeted, and Intensive
This book is based on the three levels of support in School-wide Positive Behavior Support. However, it is applied toward the classroom and the school in this book. Each school and each classroom should have three level of supports within the class. This book accompanies a presentation on the three levels of support within the classroom and school by Behavior Doctor Seminars.
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Writing a Behavioral Intervention Plan Based on a Functional Behavior Assessment
This is the book used in Dr. Riffel's two-day seminar. It can be used with the course or as a stand-alone product.
Dr. Riffel developed training for Functional Behavior Assessments and Behavioral Intervention Planning after working in a statewide program and assisting schools with Tier Three behavior. She developed a system that is so easy to use a kindergarten teacher with 25 students could still collect the necessary data to make data-based decisions for a student. This book is set up to be a two-day training where participants learn on day one the data that is being sought and how to analyze it by hand. On day two, the participants learn how to enter this data into a free easy-to-use FBA Data Tool that graphs ABC data and makes data-based decision-making even easier.
You can download the free FBA Data Tool on www.teacheropedia.com
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