Fourth Edition, September 2011

 

Establishing clear and consistent behavioural expectations.
These expectations change as 
students become older and more able to manage their own behaviour. Addressing bullying and 
violence are vital steps in establishing behavioural “norms”.

---

Making a Diff erence: An Educators’ Guide to Child and Youth Mental Health Problems
www.cymhin.ca
L 3
National and Provincial Resources on mental 
health for young people and parents
 

Praising good behaviour.
Noticing good behaviour can be a diffi
cult skill to develop when you feel 
like you are surrounded by poor behaviour. Start by trying to fi nd one good behaviour to acknow-
ledge each day, and soon, you will see good behaviour increase.
 

Behaviour-specifi c praise.
Saying “good job” isn’t nearly as eff ective as saying “Good job sitting 
still, Michael”, or “Excellent work showing how you solved that fraction problem, Julie.”
 

Engaging parents and the community.
Parents and community members can support positive 
classroom and school climate through volunteering, mentoring, and by simply modelling expected 
behaviour. Ensuring committed involvement requires training and support for volunteers – it goes 
beyond making photocopies or fund-raising.
Social and emotional learning
As Robert Fulghum wrote in his essay, “All I Really Needed to Know I learned in Kindergarten”, learning to 
share, to get along with others, and to take turns are important lifelong lessons. 
For some children, their fi rst opportunity to learn these skills comes when they start school; they may not 
have had the chance to interact with other children. Early childhood education, playgroups, and child 
care centres all provide avenues for children to interact and to learn how to get along.
Children learn these skills more easily if they have consistent rules for behaviour, and consistent con-
sequences when they misbehave. Some children do not have this experience, and may arrive at school 
without these skills. 
Some children may simply have more diffi
culty understanding and acquiring social skills and behaviour, 
just as some children struggle more than others when learning to read.
Whatever the cause, young children who arrive at school without the social and behavioural skills to man-
age a brand-new, complex social environment may have diffi
culty adapting; their behaviour may refl ect 
this struggle.
As students grow and mature, their understanding of emotions and social skills may not keep pace with 
their grasp of reading and mathematics. While the behaviours students exhibit may change, problem 
behaviour can still be a good indication that they don’t understand how to behave, or haven’t had the 
practice necessary to develop and integrate those skills.
We provide explicit instruction, practice, and feedback to build literacy and numeracy skills. This same 
approach works for teaching social and emotional skills as well. While instruction in social and emotional 
learning is seldom covered in education programs, there is clear evidence that social and emotional learn-
ing can improve academic outcomes.

---

Making a Diff erence: An Educators’ Guide to Child and Youth Mental Health Problems
www.cymhin.ca
L 4
National and Provincial Resources on mental 
health for young people and parents