What is intervention?

Intervention is doing something to improve the situation. A major reason for any form of intervention for pupils with BESD is to improve relationships, either between teacher and pupil or between a group of pupils and their teachers.

People under pressure, such as teachers dealing with challenging behaviour, can find themselves feeling they must be seen to be doing something. However, sometimes doing nothing can be effective. It has been established that many problems (up to 60%) just go away after a period of time (called spontaneous remission) – intervening too early may disrupt the improvement and create further, more complex problems (Eysenck, 1994). Teachers who observe difficult pupils (as part of the assessment process) often notice an improvement in a pupil’s behaviour simply because the pupil is receiving non-judgemental attention, and is not being told off!

There is a tendency to emphasise the emotional component of intervention. Many interventions are made hastily, in the heat of the moment. Saying nasty things, losing your temper, sending a pupil out of class, etc can create feelings of guilt, embarrassment and unease. Our ‘automatic’ reactions are usually applied to situations where we perceive we are under personal attack. Whilst it is easy to talk of making carefully considered decisions when the pressure has died down, when under pressure we often resort to ‘overlearned’ (usually in childhood and adolescence) strategies to overcome the situation, with little regard to the consequences. Such survival-oriented responses seldom help much, especially in the longer term. This highlights the need to develop skills and proactive strategies which can be planned and practised, away from the ‘real’ situation.

Aims of intervention

It is important to remember the fundamental aims for intervening. Remember that the central concern is that we should strive to empower the pupil to behave responsibly and take control of their actions (the ‘what you do’), irrespective of the procedure adopted (the ‘way that you do it’). Some methods start with an assumption that the pupil will ‘lead’ the process, and reject the notion of instructing the pupil as to what they should do. In contrast, the approaches described in Challenging Behaviour are mainly directive – the teacher begins by taking the lead, challenging the pupil’s thinking or directing them to engage in a particular type of activity, before eventually letting the pupil control the process. Nonetheless, the intended outcome is for the pupil to cope more effectively at a personal and social level, and ultimately to direct their own behaviour.