What did the frustrated feeling say to the brain – I just need a little time to think. Many of the teachers I work with allow the pace of the classroom to affect the response time they afford their students. You may have heard of the time between the teacher’s question or directive and the child’s response as the “Response Window.” When kids are upset, really when anyone is upset they process a little slower. Now how about the kids who have processing challenges, what does being in a state of emotional dysregulation do to their processing time. Do not assume the child’s failure to respond as quickly as you think they should as a sign of inattention or disrespect. Give them a little extra time to process – to think. Keep the Response Window open.
Consider
- Intentionally refraining from issuing one question or directive, one after another in rapid fire fashion. If you think this is not you, think again. Most of us do it at least sometime.
- Think of how you might be disrespecting your student.
- Think of how you might be setting your student up to fail.
- Think of ways to allow greater response time while managing the pace of the classroom.
- Such as, issuing the question or directive telling your student to think about their response and immediately physically dis-engaging. By dis-engaging your body language says, I expect you to comply. If you stand over your student, your body language says, I don’t expect you to comply and I’m ready to go to the next step. Looks like a power struggle is coming.
- Such as, allowing that extra processing time by issuing the directive and then asking or directing your student to take 5 in the Control Center to think about their response. A Control Center is a space designated for kids to separate from the class and to calm down, consider their options and to take control.