Teaching staff knowledge, attributions and confidence in relation to working with children with an intellectual disability and challenging behaviour

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Accessible summary We looked at how much teachers knew about helping children with a learning disability who had behaviour that was challenging in school. We found that: Some teachers knew very little about challenging behaviour and all the different ways to help children with this. Some teachers had beliefs about challenging behaviour that can be unhelpful. We need to find ways to help teachers find out more about challenging behaviour and to think about it in different ways. One way to do this could be to give them training about it. Summary The present study examined Scottish teaching staff knowledge about the definition and management of challenging behaviour displayed by children with an intellectual disability. Knowledge levels were relatively low, and participants were most likely to define challenging behaviour by function or topography. Teaching staff were largely unaware of positive programming strategies, suggesting that they may not be properly equipped to manage challenging behaviour effectively in the longer term. The teaching staff were found to hold attributions which research suggests are associated with reduced helping behaviour and increased anger. This indicates a continuing need to identify effective ways of promoting more accurate knowledge and positive attributions in teaching staff.