RTI Approach to Behavior Intervention

Meet Andy, a hyper little kindergartner.

“This sucks!”

He starts throwing papers off of his desk. His teacher glances at him and says, “Smooth sailing.” Andy freezes! He looks down at his work materials, glances toward the sailboat pictures displayed on his wristband, closes his mouth, and proceeds to trace the letters in his name.

After quashing 80% of referrals for Emotional Behavioral Disorders (EBD) when using these RTI strategies, educators have voiced a desire to learn how to replicate this intervention. The success evidenced in using metaphors through this intervention, gives birth to a whole new approach to behavior modification, or behavior transformation, as it might better be called.

From Professional Learning Board’s online continuing education course for teachers: RTI – Using Metaphors to Change Behavior