How Child Behavior Consulting Began

It’s hard to explain to anyone how did you write three children’s books and music within just a few years while creating learning tools to be used at home and in the classroom which are supported by teacher and parent workshops and working with children in the classroom with author visits as well as seeing parents and clients privately. Living in my purpose has led me to the decisions that have allowed me to disseminate the information and resources necessary to address childrens’ needs. Their heart and mind just want to be like everyone else.

Children seem so busy comparing themselves to others they forget how special that they are.

So let me take you on part of my journey of how Child Behavior Consulting was started and how Henry the main character in my books was created.

Fresh out of college, I told the district that I was student teaching at that I wanted to be a teacher of what was then called Emotionally Disturbed children . I was a very active and eager college student who made sure she was seen by administration as someone who would soon be a viable candidate for one of their teaching positions. I graduated mid-year, taught in a leave replacement assignment until the end of the school year and then my wish came true. Come September, I was assigned to be the teacher of Emotional Disturbed children. Back in 1997 there were three grades in one so one of students was four-years old and another was eight years old. I thought this was my dream come true! My own classroom, teaching children how to make positive choices and not to act out. It proved to be a dream all right. It was more like a nightmare to be honest. I literally did not know how to help these children. I had one student banging his head so hard on the cement floor that before he even entered kindergarten his forehead was cone shaped. Another student was a foster child who ended up in Newsday because of abuse from the family. I was faced with heartbreak and challenge both theirs and mine and from September through December that year, I cried every single day. Yes, there were times I wasn’t sure how to I was even going to get to work and put on my game face. College had not prepared me for this ugly reality. But this ugly reality was a reflection of how these children suffered. What college also didn’t prepare me for was the stark truth that there was not one person who was able to help a new teacher help her students. It was “1997“ why don’t other professionals know how to address these behaviors? It was truly unbelievable to me but it was a sad reality. I looked at my students and stepped back and decided that I had a moral obligation to serve them and to be the very best I can be for them. After the winter holidays like most young children they seem to re-enter school with a little bit more maturity and I was able to breathe. I was dedicated to helping them make positive choices and be happy with themselves as they learned to read, write and do math. That’s when my research began. At 23 years old in 1997 The Internet was not robust certainly as it is today nor was getting information as easy as it is. But I did research and studied Lee Canter and other authorities during that time. I continued to learn about positive climates and communication. Learning more made me feel empowered.

It must’ve been about three years into my career that the physical therapist of one of my students approached me. She saw how I taught children who experience great difficulty self-regulating and asked me if I would go to her friend’s house to help her daughter.

Unknowingly, this was the beginning of Child Behavior Consulting. I would find myself going to other parents’ houses to help them in similar ways that I needed to help myself. This grew into opening up my own office and incorporating Child Behavior Consulting, LLC in 2012.

2012 it was another big year in my career. After my maternity leave, I returned back to the school district in 2008 after leaving for one full academic school year. My new position was teacher on special assignment and my title was Behavior Specialist. I loved this! I had the opportunity to help other teachers who were similar to me when I had no one to help me. I consulted, I conducted FBA’s and wrote behavior intervention plans (BIP’s). Until my career took another big hit. Well, that’s what I thought at the time. The behavior specialist position was excessed and I was put back into the classroom. Just like that. I had been out of the classroom as a teacher for 10 1/2 years. I was assigned second grade special education in a building I had not taught in and was not trained in teaching the curriculum. Everything was different. The students who were assigned to me should never have been placed together. Their needs were too severe and demanding for one teacher. However, one administrator told another that Lisa will be fine, she was the district’s behavior specialist! I was also given the teacher assistant that no one wanted to work with because he undermined what teachers were trying to do such as provide consistency and routine in the classroom. Clearly, essential for kids in high need of being able to learn how to self-regulate. If you recall, 2012 was within the No Child Left Behind Act ( NCLB). When I expressed my concern that these “second graders“ were on the kindergarten and first grade levels and that I needed materials that were functionally appropriate for them. I was told I can only use the second grade curriculum. At this time, I again within my career I had to step back and look at these children who are literally falling out of their seats, losing hundreds of pencils by December, unable to recognize vowels, sit in their seat or raise their hand for help or if they had a question. I found myself micromanaging and trying to make things work and they just weren’t. I felt as though it was unfair for them to hear me say the same thing over and over such as point to the word while you are reading, look at the pictures to get information and re-read the sentence for understanding. I also thought it was unfair for me because I wanted to love teaching. There was a very big disconnect here and I needed to figure out yet another solution to reach my students. So, I went back to research. I researched neuroscience, self-regulation, executive functioning, ADHD and the list goes on. All the while, I allowed the children to teach me what they needed and as I learned I taught others through conferences and workshops. I feel very passionate that if we know something that works for kids we need to share it.

The children taught me so much every single day. I would question, how could it be that they don’t know their vowels? They’re in second grade. I knew in my heart they were many teachers who have tried to teach them the vowels it’s not as though there was a lack of teaching. I also new that it wasn’t from lack of effort from these children not to learn the sounds of each vowel. So, I did what every teacher does. I made a big chart and I hung it on the wall. It was the vowel chart.

( I actually have the original in my office today.) To my dismay they were forgetting to look at the vowel chart on the wall. So. instead of getting frustrated I said I’m not doing enough for them. I’m not giving them what they need. That’s when I shrunk the chart and that was the beginning of the Tools Inspiring Action! Tool kit. Through my research on paper and my never ending desire to teach these children so they remember I combined research with visual and verbal prompts. The system became a big part of our classroom. It even lent itself to classroom management while supporting children’s ability to manage their thoughts, feelings and actions as well as being able to remember was taught to them so they can apply the information. I learned it all lies within their ability to focus. If kids can’t focus they cannot learn. It’s that simple. I explicitly taught children how to use positive self talk because let’s face it how many times do we hear children saying, “ I can’t”or “It’s too hard.” Way too many times if you ask me! So back to neuroscience I went and I learned a lot and I mean a lot about self talk and its implications to learning and the way children think. I thought, I was finished creating my learning tools. Everything was going great. Until I realized the true foundation of learning and of education. It lies within perception. Back to research. I researched perception as a cognitive skill so I can explicitly teach it to children. I found this helpful when they perceived something was too hard they wouldn’t think or act as though it was. They would have the skills and strategies to persevere through these challenges and they were all supported by this framework that I eventually developed as Tools Inspiring Action!

As I continued to learn and see students and my clients thrive in ways that I have never seen before, I continued to apply to speak at conferences, develop workshops, turn my books into author visits and co-produce music as well as other resources. Now remember, these resources and approach to learning were originally developed to help students who were classified for special education. To my dismay, I bring you into the next phase of my career. Nearly 25 years after the onset of my career I have been made behavior specialist for the second time. This time is different, it’s post Covid. The pandemic that crippled the world for a snapshot of time. Children endured trauma, interrupted learning, developed poor self- concepts and many suffered large achievement gap’s academically, socially-emotionally and/or behaviorally. I have had the privilege of pushing into grades prek- five and using my Author Visits Programs to model and teach children and their teacher how to infuse explicit cognitive skill training into the classroom in a way that doesn’t make them feel like “it’s another thing to do” but it’s “the thing to do.!” When my 4’10” pop up of Henry; the main character in my books who has ADHD children stop and say, “Hi, Henry! as they smile and wave to him. They stop me every day and tell me how they used one of the strategies if not more to help them turn there “I can’t “into “I can!” Regarding teacher training. I could not be more privileged. Both general and special education teachers are so open to learning what is best for their students. I’ve seen teachers with tears in their eyes as they are discussing their students at MTSS meetings. They are simply not sure of what their priority is. Should they be teaching children who are 1 – 2–3 years behind curriculum what do they need to teach them on their functional level? This is where the advocacy and support continues for children who struggle learning. Children will improve their ability to learn when they learn how to focus and how to self-regulate. Teachers feel relieved at knowing they are able to meet the needs of their students while feeling purposeful as an educator.

That is a snapshot of my journey as an educator who incorporated Child Behavior Consulting as a means to turn children’s, “I can’t” into “I can!” When teachers and parents are prepared with training children’s needs are met and they innately take learning to a whole other level. It is up to us educators and parents to set appropriate expectations for ourselves and for children while we work closely together to integrate explicit teaching of cognitive skills while supporting their overall mental health well-being.

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