Challenging behaviour: the perceptions of teachers of children and young people with severe learning disabilities

This paper reports the findings of a study which aimed to elicit teachers’ perceptions of pupils’ challenging behaviour. Teachers were asked to indicate: which aspects of challenging behaviour concerned them; their responses to it; which strategies they found effective; what they believed to be the causes of it; how stressed they felt; and how effective they felt when dealing with it. They were also asked to identify sources of information, advice and help and to rate different types of challenging behaviour in terms of severity of challenge. Results indicate that teachers are concerned about challenging behaviour and find it stressful. Whilst considering themselves to be effective in dealing with it, a proportion report feeling frustrated by it, angry, upset and/or at a loss. The most frequently cited challenging behaviour was aggression, although self‐injury was found to be the most challenging. Whilst recognising the communicative basis of many forms of challenging behaviour teachers nevertheless tended to select strategies which were concerned with diffusion rather than prevention. The most likely source of information, advice and help was other teachers. Some differences in responses were noted according to experience and whether or not additional qualifications were held.