Are you looking for ways to teach students to respond appropriately to redirection? If so, keep reading.
1. To lessen the need for redirection in academic situations, require the student to check all work for errors prior to handing in tasks.
2. Make sure that redirection in academic and social situations is delivered in the most positive manner possible.
3. Get the student to rephrase the instructions to make sure the student understands the task or learning experience.
4. Praise those students in the classroom who respond properly to redirection in academic and social situations.
5. Connect with parents (e.g., notes home, phone calls, etc.) to disseminate information about the student’s progress. The parents may reinforce the student at home for responding properly to redirection in academic and social situations at school.
6. Make sure that the student knows that redirection is designed to help them succeed rather than as a form of punishment (e.g., use statements such as, “This sentence would be much easier to read if it were written with correct capitalization and punctuation. Please write it again, and I’ll check it for you.”).
7. Praise the student for responding properly to redirection in academic and social situations: (a) give the student a concrete reward (e.g., privileges such as leading the line, handing out learning materials, 10 minutes of free time, etc.) or (b) give the student an informal reward (e.g., praise, handshake, smile, etc.).
8. Converse with the student to explain (a) what the student is doing wrong (e.g., not correcting errors on an task, failing to return to seat when told to do so, etc.) and (b) what the student should be doing (e.g., correcting errors on a task, returning to seat when told to do so, etc.).
9. Get the student to question any directions, explanations, instructions not grasped.
10. Take the student away from the learning experience if they fail to respond properly to redirection in academic and social situations.
11. On occasions where redirection is delivered to the student in academic situations, make sure that an explanation for the redirection is also given (e.g., “You need to return to your seat because we are ready to begin a new learning experience.”).
12. Draft an agreement with the student stipulating what behavior is required (e.g., returning to seat when told to do so) and which reinforcement will be implemented when the agreement has been met.
13. Observe the student’s behavior to give redirection before the student’s errors or unacceptable behavior exceeds their capacity and ability to respond appropriately.
14. Give sufficient time for the student to respond properly to redirection in academic and social situations.
15. Consider using a classroom management app. Click here to view a list of apps that we recommend.
16. Consider using an adaptive behavior management app. Click here to view a list of apps that we recommend.
17. Consider using Alexa to help the student learn to behave appropriately. Click here to read an article that we wrote on the subject.
18. Click here to learn about six bonus strategies for challenging problem behaviors and mastering classroom management.
