Are you looking for ways to teach students to peacefully solve conflicts? If so, keep reading.
1. Show the student that it is natural for conflict situations to happen. What is essential is how they react to the situation.
2. Find typical conflict situations for the student and discuss appropriate solutions to specific situations (e.g., peers taking things from him/her, peers hitting or grabbing, peers not following the rules, etc.).
3. If the student has responded improperly to a conflict situation, take time to explore with the student appropriate solutions that could have been used in solving the problem.
4. Provide mobility throughout the classroom to supervise student interactions and intervene in conflict situations in which the student is unable to successfully solve the problems.
5. Intervene early and often when there is a problem to prevent more severe problems from happening.
6. Do not force the student to interact with someone with whom they are not entirely comfortable.
7. Make sure the student does not become involved in overstimulating learning activities that may cause a conflict situation.
8. Always treat the student with the utmost respect. Talk objectively at all times.
9. Teach the student acceptable ways to express displeasure, anger, frustration, etc.
10. Get the student to put themselves in someone else’s place (e.g., “How would you feel if someone called you dumb or stupid?”).
11. Do not assume that the student is being treated nicely by others. Peers may be stimulating the unacceptable behavior of the student.
12. Urge the student to interact with others.
13. Do not force the student to interact with others.
14. Make sure you express your feelings in a socially acceptable way.
15. Teach the student to think before acting (e.g., they should ask themselves, “What is happening?” “What am I doing?” “What should I do?” “What will be best for me?”).
16. Make sure the student is allowed to voice an opinion in a situation to avoid becoming angry or upset.
17. Consider using a classroom management app. Click here to view a list of apps that we recommend.
18. Consider using an adaptive behavior management app. Click here to view a list of apps that we recommend.
19. Consider using Alexa to help the student learn to behave appropriately. Click here to read an article that we wrote on the subject.
20. Click here to learn about six bonus strategies for challenging problem behaviors and mastering classroom management.
