Don’t We Really Just Want Students to “Stop &
Think”? [Part II of III]
Dear Colleagues,
Introduction: Mindfulness (and Part I of this Series) Revisited
In Part I of this three-part
series, we discussed the past and current research, efficacy, and realities of
Mindfulness programs in schools across the country, and the $1.1 billion
industry-fed “bandwagon” that many districts have “jumped on” over the past few
years.
Initially, Part I
described two recent Scientific American articles that were published
just last month:
“Where’s the Proof that Mindfulness Meditation Works?”
_ _ _ _ _
“Mindfulness Training for Teens Fails Important Test”
_ _ _ _ _
The first article reviewed
some of the past research with Mindfulness programs, and cited 15 prominent
psychologists and cognitive scientists who cautioned that “despite its
popularity and supposed benefits, scientific data on mindfulness is woefully
lacking. Many of the studies on mindfulness and meditation are poorly designed-
- compromised by inconsistent definitions of what mindfulness actually is, and
often void of a control group to rule out the placebo effect.”
_ _ _ _ _
The second article
noted that—with most of the Mindfulness research focused on adults with
clinically-significant mental health problems—once again, “the adult literature
on mindfulness identifies a number of weaknesses in the extant research,
including a lack of randomized control groups, small sample sizes, large
attrition rates, and inconsistent definitions of mindfulness.”
This article went
on to describe a large-scale study with 308 middle and high school students who
were randomly assigned to a Mindfulness training or Control group (published in
Behavior Research and Therapy in 2016) where:
“. . . there was
no evidence of any benefit for the mindfulness group at either the immediate
post-test or the follow up. In fact, anxiety was higher at the follow up for
males in the mindfulness group relative to males in the control group. The same
was true for participants with low baseline depression and low baseline weight
concerns; mindfulness training led to an increase in anxiety in these
individuals over time.”
_ _ _ _ _
Toward the end of
Part I, the research supporting the use of social skills training and
cognitive-behavioral approaches in schools was discussed. This section concluded:
Indeed, if the primary goal of a Mindfulness
program is to help students to be more aware and in control of their emotions,
thoughts, and behavior, why would we not focus on the same goals—but use a
research-based approach that has a 30-year track record of success?
_ _ _ _ _
Overall, the
research cited in Part I made the following points:
* Most of the
Mindfulness program research has either not been methodologically sound, or
it has not produced objective and demonstrable success.
* The few studies
that have shown “good evidence” have focused on adults with clinically
significant mental health issues (anxiety, depression, and pain), not on
school-aged students.
* Rather than use
the few studies that have shown “good evidence” to rationalize the use of
Mindfulness in schools (or worse, someone’s subjective, personal
pronouncements), educators need to look at the substantial body of research
that dissuades the use of Mindfulness programs in schools.
* Sound research has
not definitively demonstrated that Mindfulness programs are successful at the
preventative (e.g., Tier 1) level in schools.
In fact, the Behavior Research and Therapy study cited in Part I indicates
the opposite.
* There are a
significant number of large school districts and other schools (covered by the
popular press) that are wasting precious professional development and classroom
time and money on this fad.
* Students who need
evidence-based approaches to address their social, emotional, and behavioral
needs—but are receiving Mindfulness training instead—are potentially being
harmed because more effective services are being delayed.
* Students would be
far better served if their districts and schools were providing multi-tiered
social skills training and cognitive-behavioral therapy approaches—given their
long histories of demonstrated efficacy in hundreds of studies with school-aged
students.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Introducing Part
II of this Series: Defining Student
Self-Management
In this second part
of this three-part series, we will use the evidence-based Stop &
Think Social Skills Program as an exemplar of a social skills approach to
teaching students social, emotional, and behavioral self-management.
In doing this, we
will detail half (Principles 1 through 4) of the scientific foundations of a
sound social skills program—using the Stop & Think Program to
provide examples of how that science is translated into practice. These Principles are important—especially
when used to identify the science-to-practice gaps that might be undermining
the success of other social skills programs.
In Part III, we
will discuss the other half of these Principles, and describe the typical
outcomes of the Stop & Think Social Skills Program in thousands of
schools across the country.
_ _ _ _ _
But before
beginning, it is crucial to first define self-management:
Significantly,
students’ social, emotional, and behavioral competence and self-management skills
mature and become more sophisticated as students get older—largely due to
genetic, biological, cognitive-developmental, environmental, and experiential
factors.
Nonetheless, the
synthesis of competence and self-management are collectively defined as a child
or adolescent’s ability:
* To be socially,
emotionally, and behaviorally aware of themselves and others;
* To effectively
control their emotions, as well as their thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and
attributions; and
* To demonstrate
successful interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and
resolution, and emotional coping skills.
On a social level, children
and adolescents need to progressively learn the self-management skills that
contribute to effective: (a) listening, engagement, and responding; (b)
communication and collaboration; (c) social problem-solving and group interactions;
and (d) (once again) conflict prevention and resolution.
On an emotional
level, they need to learn the self-management skills that result in: (a) the
awareness of their own and others’ feelings; (b) the ability to manage or
control their feelings and emotions; (c) the ability to cope with the emotional
effects of current situations; and (d) the ability to demonstrate appropriate
behavior even under conditions of emotionality.
Finally and
additionally, on a behavioral level, children and adolescents need to learn the
self-management skills that help them to be actively engaged in and responsible
for their own learning (individually, and in small and large groups), and to demonstrate
appropriate behavior in the classroom and across the common areas of the
school.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The Stop &
Think Social Skills Program
As noted throughout
this series, when students are explicitly taught, and they learn, master, and
apply needed interpersonal, social problem-solving, conflict prevention and
resolution, and emotional control and coping skills, they actually accomplish
the intended goals and outcomes expected by those who are attracted to the
unproven Mindfulness approaches.
This instruction,
however, needs to be done in developmentally sensitive ways for all students
from preschool through high school.
While there are a
small number of well-researched and effective social, emotional, and behavioral
skills programs and curricula, there are literally hundreds that are hawked
and marketed—and that have not independently and objectively
demonstrated their sustained efficacy across time, settings, student age
and developmental conditions, and implementation situations.
And so, in order to
evaluate the programs that are “on the market,” educators need to begin with
programs that have been identified as evidence-based, and that are listed on
one or more of the federally-designated behavioral or mental health registries.
Critically. . . by
definition:
Evidenced-based
programs have had their implementation data and results independently
evaluated by national experts in the field who have objectively determined that
the program is responsible for the student outcomes that the programs
respectively proclaim.
One such registry
is the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Human Services’ Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
_ _ _ _ _
Describing the
Stop & Think Program
The Stop
& Think Social Skills Program consists of a series of separate, but
linked, manuals written at the preschool to Grade 1, Grades 2 to 3, Grades 4 to
5, and Grades 6 to 8 levels. The manuals
are organized for the grade levels above to ensure that the program is
taught in age-appropriate and developmentally-sensitive ways. The manuals are also written for classroom
teachers, as students learn these skills best when they are embedded in a
classroom’s behavior management system, and when they are taught, used, and
reinforced—over time, situations, and circumstances—by students’ classroom
teachers.
While most-often
used as a primary prevention (Tier I) curriculum, the Program has been
implemented strategically in pull-out (Tier II) counseling and therapy groups,
in day treatment and residential (Tier III) programs for students with
emotional and behavioral disabilities, and in alternative and juvenile justice
facilities with students who are 18 years old and beyond. There also is a preschool through early
adolescence Stop & Think Program for parents—to help guide them on
how to teach and reinforce prosocial skills at home.
_ _ _ _ _
The Stop & Think Program’s
Evidence-based Status
The Stop
& Think Social Skills Program was designated an evidence-based and
national model prevention program by SAMHSA in 2000, and it was listed at that
time on the NREPP registry. It was also identified
as a “Promising Program” by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in 2003. Finally, among other accolades, it was
designated a “Select” program by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and
Emotional Learning (CASEL) in 2002. The Stop
& Think Program is now an embedded component of Project ACHIEVE, which continues
to be listed on the updated NREPP website by SAMHSA.
_ _ _ _ _
The Stop &
Think Program’s Research Foundations
The Stop & Think Social Skills Program
is based on:
* The ecological
work of Bronfenbrenner (1977)
* The strategic
planning approaches of Cook (1990), Valentine (1991), and Knoff (2007)
* The cognitive and
social learning theory research of Meichenbaum (1977) and Bandura (1977)
* The social skills
research of Goldstein (1988) and Cartledge and Milburn (1995)
Consistent with
Bronfenbrenner and Valentine, the Stop & Think Social Skills Program
is implemented in a systemic way—as part of a comprehensive school discipline,
classroom management, and student self-management approach. In this context, the Program is the
anchor of Project ACHIEVE’s Positive Behavioral Support System, which has been
implemented in thousands of schools nationwide since 1989.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
How Social Skills
Training Facilitates Student Self-Management: Science-to-Practice
From a
science-to-practice perspective, there are eight interdependent Principles that
establish the foundation of social skills instruction, mastery, and
implementation. These Principles
represent the most effective and efficient path to students’ learning and
independent use of the different social skills taught—whether the instruction
is based on a formal, published curriculum, or a “home-grown,” locally-customized
curriculum.
While social skills
instruction may “look” different from skill to skill, teacher to teacher, and
setting to setting, this is not problematic so long as the eight underlying
Principles are embedded and present (even if not immediately apparent).
Said a different
way: Social skills instruction
should be relevant, fun, and practical.
It should be tailored to students’ backgrounds, social settings, and
needs. Teachers are encouraged to use
instructional creative, originality, and flexibility to meet these
criteria. In these contexts, the process
will succeed—so long as the underlying Principles are not ignored or violated.
_ _ _ _ _
Principle 1. Social
skills programs teach sensible and pragmatic classroom-centered skills that
are needed by today's students and that can be applied, on a daily basis, by
preschool through high school students.
These skills are essential to academic engagement, learning, and
academic achievement. They help students
to be successful in a preventative sense, as well as to successfully avoid or
respond to challenging situations.
Commentary: Social skills are behaviors that students
learn—just like they learn academic skills.
While we often focus on what we don't want students to do ("don't
fight," "don't talk back," "don't interrupt,"
"don't tease or taunt other students"), social skills focus on the
desired, prosocial behaviors that we want students to do. Significantly, when students perform desired
behaviors, they rarely do inappropriate behaviors at the same time.
As introduced
above, the Stop & Think Social Skills Program is organized in four
age- and developmentally-sensitive levels:
Preschool through Grade 1, Grades 2 and 3, Grades 4 and 5, and Middle
School/Grades 6 to 8 (which is often adapted upwards to the high school
level). As part of a school-wide
Positive Behavioral Support System (PBSS) approach, Stop & Think social
skills are designed to be taught to all students, in all general education
classrooms, by all general education teachers.
For students with greater need and more challenging behaviors, the
social skills are also taught in more targeted social skills training groups by
special education, related services, and/or mental health support professionals.
The Stop &
Think Social Skills Program teaches specific, observable and measurable behaviors. At each school-aged level, the Stop &
Think process focuses on ten Core and ten Advanced skills.
Examples of the Core
and Advanced Stop & Think social skills (some of these skills are taught at
the different grade levels) include:
Sample Core Skills:
Listening
Waiting for an
Adult’s Attention
Following
Directions
Contributing to
Discussions
Answering Classroom
Questions
How to Interrupt
Asking for Help
Ignoring
Distractions
Responding to
Teasing
Apologizing
Accepting
Consequences
Dealing with Losing
Sample Advanced Skills:
Deciding What to Do
Asking for
Permission
Joining an Activity
Giving/Accepting a
Compliment
Understanding
Your/Others’ Feelings
Dealing with Anger
Dealing with Being
Rejected or Left Out
Dealing with
Accusations
Avoiding Trouble or
Conflict Situations
Dealing with Peer
Pressure
_ _ _ _ _
Principle 2. Social
skills programs also teach sensible and pragmatic routines that help
students to successfully navigate within the classroom, as well as across the
common areas of their school. These
skills increase their self-sufficiency and academic independence within the
classroom, along with their interpersonal success and safety outside of the
classroom. Once again, this instruction
assists them in a preventative sense, while also helping them to successfully
avoid or respond to challenging situations.
Sample Classroom and Building Routine Clusters
Classroom
Routines—Instructional
Working in a
Cooperative Group
Completing Seatwork or Independent Work
Assignments
What to Do When You
Finish a Classroom Paper or Assignment
Taking Timed Tests
Classroom
Routines—Procedural
Entering a
Classroom
Hanging Coats and
Backpacks
Bringing and
Organizing Materials for Class
Classroom
Routines—Situational
When Your Teacher
Gives You Feedback (or a Consequence)
When the Teacher is
Absent, and You have a Substitute
When Visitors Come
into Your Classroom
Building
Routines—Procedural
Walking in Line in
the Building/Hallway Walking
Entering, Getting
Food, Eating, and Exiting the Cafeteria
Keeping the School
Clean
Entering, Waiting,
Using, and Exiting the Bathroom
Entering/Exiting
the Auditorium/Audience Behavior
Entering, Playing,
Using Equipment, and Exiting the Playground
Entering, Riding,
and Exiting the School Bus
Special
Situation Routines
Reporting a Safety
Issue, Accident, or a Dangerous Situation
Walking Away from a
Fight/Conflict
The Fire Drill
School Lock-down
Weather-/Crisis-related Procedures
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Principle 3.
Social skills programs teach their skills in an organized and
progressive, yet flexible, “scope and sequence” of social skills that
recognizes that some prerequisite skills must be mastered before other, more
complex skills are taught. Instruction
utilizes effective, established, and research-based pedagogical practices that
include:
* Cognitive-behavioral
instruction, practice, conditioning, and mastery;
* External prompts
and (eventually) self-prompts that facilitate the transfer of training and application
of specific skills to different times, settings, situations, and circumstances;
* The strategic use
of external feedback with positive reinforcement and correction (when needed),
and the attainment of self-monitoring, self-reinforcement, and self-correction
(when needed); all resulting in
* Social and
emotional self-management, and behavioral “automaticity.”
Commentary: All four levels of the Stop & Think
Social Skills Program have a field-tested, validated, and preferred
sequence for the ten Core Skills and ten Advanced Skills that are included. The sequence was generated by classroom
teachers nationwide—some of whom had used the Stop & Think Program
for almost a decade (from 1990 to 2000—before the curriculum was formally
published.
While the scope and
sequences are preferred, they are not absolute.
Indeed, teachers can re-sequence skills to respond to specific
behavioral goals, challenging classroom problems, or desired curricular units
or themes as long as they (a) do this as a grade-level team, and (b) are
mindful that some social skills have prerequisite social skills that must be
taught first. In addition, teachers are
encouraged to “make up” their own social skills if a needed skill is not
reflected in the curriculum.
Beyond this, the Stop
& Think Social Skills Program teaches all of its skills using the
established, research-based cognitive-behavioral social learning theory
approach that consists of:
* Teaching the
Social Skills Scripts simultaneously with the Associated Behavior;
* Teacher or Adult
Skill Script and Behavioral Modeling;
* Student Roleplay/Practice
with Positive Reinforcement or Corrective Performance Feedback; and
* The Transfer of
the Social Skills Training.
_ _ _ _ _
Relative to the
Transfer of Training, the Stop & Think Social Skills Program
then uses a “Teach-Apply-Infuse” pedagogy of instruction that involves teaching
students each social skill in a (prototypical) “Two-Week Rotation.”
The Program
then addressed the goals of behavioral self-management, automaticity, and independence
(a) by organizing the weekly, year-long Social Skills Calendar to
include opportunities for “massed” and “distributed practice;” and (b) by
revisiting many skills from year-to-year.
Relative to this
latter point, many skills are taught every year from preschool to high school. As this is done, students not only “solidify”
their performance of these specific skills, but they also learn how to execute these
skills at the more sophisticated, socially-demanding, and interpersonally
complex levels needed as they grow and mature.
NOTE: A number of the instructional points above
will be described in greater detail in the remaining Principles below.
_ _ _ _ _
Principle 4.
Social skills programs use a universal language that is easy for students
to learn, guides cognitive scripting and mediation, and facilitates the
conditioning, reconditioning, or motivation of students’ prosocial behaviors
and choices.
Commentary: Social skills in the Stop & Think
Social Skills Program are taught (as noted in Principle 3 above) by
teaching social skills scripts that are simultaneously connected to the
associated or related behaviors. This
occurs through the use of (a) a Universal Language that facilitates the emotional,
cognitive, and motivational facets of a specific behavior; and (b) the Skill
Script that guides the step-by-step execution of the behavior.
Relative to the
first area, the Stop & Think Social Skills Program uses a
universal five-step language whenever a social skill is taught, reinforced, or
implemented. This language becomes
internalized by students, and—just like an academic script or algorithm (e.g.,
for regrouping or doing long division in math)—it implicitly organizes and
activates a student’s prosocial behavior.
The five Stop
& Think Universal steps are:
* Stop and Think!
* Are you going to
make a Good Choice or Bad Choice?
[You Need to
Make a Good Choice.]
* What are your
Choices or Steps?
* Do It!
* Tell Yourself
that You Did a “Good Job!”
The Stop and
Think! step is a self-control, impulse-control, and self-management step
designed to classically condition students (a la Pavlov) to take the time needed
to calm down, focus, and think about how they want to handle a specific situation.
_ _ _ _ _
The Good Choice
or Bad Choice? step is an operant conditioning step (a la Skinner) that
motivates students toward choosing the prosocial skill that they are being
taught.
Here, teachers may prompt
students (so that they eventually self-prompt) to think about the positive
results or incentives for making a “Good Choice,” and the potential negative
outcomes or Consequences if they make a “Bad Choice.”
Students do not
“leave” this step without a teacher (or self-) prompt to “Make a Good Choice.” This statement establishes a prosocial
expectation or cognitive attribution that increases the probability that
students—in the next step of the language—will think about “Good Choices” and
“Good Steps.”
_ _ _ _ _
The What are
your Choices or Steps? step uses cognitive-behavioral psychology and
mediational learning strategies to help organize, prepare, and guide students through
the step-by-step cognitive and behavioral execution of the specific social
skill. This is where teachers teach the
specific “Skills Scripts” for each Stop & Think skill so that
students learn and eventually demonstrate (in the next step of the process)
their prosocial, “Good Choice” skills.
There are two types
of Skill Scripts—those that teach social skills in a step-by-step sequential
fashion (“Step” skills), and those where students additionally need to consider
and select one of a number of possible good choices (“Choice” skills).
For example, the Following
Directions skill script below is an example of Step skill because
there is only one correct sequence that will result in the successful execution
of the behavior:
1. Listen to the Direction.
2. Ask yourself if you Understand the Direction
(if not, Ask a question).
3. Repeat the steps of the Direction silently to
yourself.
4. Get ready to Follow the Direction.
The Dealing with
Teasing skill script below demonstrates the elements of a Choice skill
where students learn to socially evaluate the specific situation they are in so
that they can strategically choose the best choice:
1. Take deep breaths and count to five.
2. Think about your good choices. You can:
a. Ignore the teasing.
b. Ask the person to stop in a nice way.
c. Walk away with an Explanation of why.
d. Find an adult for help.
3. Choose and Act Out
your best choice.
Critically, this
third step is strategically positioned before the fourth step below,
because many students already “act before they think.” By teaching students to consciously use this
third step first, we are neurobehaviorally conditioning them to “think before
they act.”
_ _ _ _ _
Once students are
taught to think about the prosocial social skill steps or choices needed for a
particular situation, they are then prepared to behaviorally demonstrate them.
Thus, in the Do
It! step, students behaviorally carry out their plan, implement the social
skill steps or choices, and evaluate whether or not it has worked.
With younger
elementary school-aged students, teachers often need to repeat or prompt the
skill steps as their students follow them, and they may even need to physically
guide students through some skills. Typically,
older students will repeat the Stop & Think steps silently to
themselves, and perform the prosocial behaviors that they have mastered more
independently and automatically.
At the same time,
some older students will still need adult or peer assistance and prompting for
complex social skills or situations—especially when they involve some level of
emotionality.
If the Do It!
step works, students then are ready to go on to the last step.
If a Step Skill
doesn’t work, students simply go back over the scripts in Step 3 and
practice them more carefully.
If a choice
selected within a Choice Skill doesn’t work, students are prompted to
consider another “good choice option” within that skill, or identify another
possible social skill to move on to.
For example, if
Ignoring does not stop a peer’s teasing, then a student might decide to
directly ask the peer to stop the teasing, telling how the teasing is making
him or her feel. Once successful, it’s
on to the last step.
_ _ _ _ _
The Good Job!
step uses the cognitive-behavioral skill of self-reinforcement. Here, students learn how to reinforce
themselves for successfully using a prosocial skill when responding to a
specific situation or request.
This step is
important because it is unrealistic to think that adults (or even peers) will
always reinforce a student for making a good choice or doing a good job. Thus, students need to learn how to
self-reinforce. But this also involves
self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and self-reflection—important processes that
are embedded in self-management.
Self-reinforcement
is also important so that students will reinforce their prosocial interactions
and choices—counteracting the negative (or worse) feedback from peers who do
not value their “good choices” and appropriate behavior.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Summary
This three-part
Blog series began by presenting the research that calls many of the Mindfulness
approaches into question—later contrasting that research with the many studies
that support social, emotional, and behavioral skill instruction for all
students in all classrooms.
The critical
conclusion was:
If the primary goal
of a Mindfulness program is to help students to be more aware and in control of
their emotions, thoughts, and behavior, why would we not focus on the same
goals—but use a research-based approach that has a 30-year track record of
success?
_ _ _ _ _
In this second part
of the series, we have presented the first four Principles that reflect the
research-to-practice elements of sound and effective social skills
instruction. When discussing each of
these Principles, we have used examples from the evidence-based Stop &
Think Social Skills Program to demonstrate some prototypical ways of
successfully teaching students social, emotional, and behavioral
self-management.
In Part III, we will
discuss the last half of these Principles, and describe the typical outcomes of
the Stop & Think Social Skills Program as seen in thousands of
schools across the country.
_ _ _ _ _
Meanwhile, I hope
that the first two Blog in this series have helped you to evaluate your current
(or missing) approaches in this important area, and to see more clearly the
components and decisions that are most-relevant to your school discipline,
classroom management, and student self-management approaches.
But I also hope
that you will take some time—this week especially—for yourself and your
family.
The
Thanksgiving holiday gives us a truly wonderful opportunity to reflect on the
blessings in our lives, and to share our gratitude with family and friends.
I am thankful
for professionals like you—dedicated to your students, your colleagues, and to the
important work that you do to make every day successful, so that everyone’s tomorrow
will be better in turn.
Happy Thanksgiving,
friends !!!
Best,
Howie
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