Strategies for Increasing Positive Behaviors in Students with TBI

• Increase competence of people in the student’s life who are working to support the student.
• Use the student’s perspective to select specific behaviors to teach and purposefully teach these skills.
• Practice social skills and behaviors in the places where the student needs to use the skills being learned.
• Provide coaching (using people the student respects and is willing to learn from) to give the student prompts in advance of the situation requiring a particular skill.
• Give the student the opportunity to gain the perspective of others in situations that are difficult.
• Help the student monitor stress in a variety of situations and coach the student through potentially stressful or difficult situations to teach the needed skills.
• Have the student set personal goals. Make every effort to work toward those goals using available situations to practice skills needed for goal attainment.
• Recognize what the student is trying to communicate with the complaint.

Adapted from:

Ylvisaker, M., Turkstra, L.S., & Coelho, C. (2005). Behavioral and social interventions for individuals with traumatic brain injury: A summary of the research with clinical implications. From Evidence-Based Practice for Cognitive Communication Disorders after Traumatic Brain Injury; Editors in Chief, Audrey L. Holland, Ph.D. et al. Seminars in speech and language, v. 26 4, 2005.