The Role of the Staff in Behavior Guidance

To gain greater confidence in guiding behavior, staff must look at their personal actions and reactions to the behaviors of the children and youth with whom they work. This helps build social-emotional skills in both staff and children and youth.

This module was revised in 2016 to incorporate social-emotional learning and Quality Standards for Expanded Learning in California and revised in 2019 to incorporate language to support mental health and wellness. 

In this training participants will: 

  • Understand their actions and reactions to child/youth behaviors and learn to use this information to respond more effectively when working with children/youth;

  • Learn to use effective behavior guidance strategies

Content Overview:

Training Introduction

Participants will consider how their own behavior and reactions influence and contribute to the behaviors of the children and youth they work with.

What’s My Temperature

Participants react to scenarios to reveal their personal behavior triggers when working with children and youth. Participants will also examine expected behaviors at different developmental stages, which will prepare staff to address appropriate implementation of behavior guidance strategies.

Behavior Guidance Continuum

Using the Behavior Guidance Continuum, participants review or are introduced to the strategies, give examples, and provide instances when they have used this strategy.  Participants use scenarios to think through situations and their response.  This activity gets participants thinking about how they can use these strategies alone or in tandem to help guide a child/youth’s behavior.

Training Length: 2 hours


eLearning Module

Guiding and managing the behavior of children and youth are some of the biggest challenges that out-of-school time program staff face.

In order to effectively work with children and youth, it is important to understand behaviors are personal triggers, and then find ways to respond to those behaviors professionally.

Staff is encouraged to use strategies to guide child and youth behavior as often as possible, and to use managing strategies only when safety is compromised.

By the end of this module, participants will:

  • Understand their reactions to the behaviors of children and youth and learn to use this information to respond more effectively.

  • Learn to use behavior guidance strategies at the appropriate time.

Including Children and Youth with Disruptive Behaviors

During this training, participants will discuss the challenges of children and youth with disruptive behavior and learn strategies for effectively addressing these behaviors. 

This module was revised in 2016 to incorporate social-emotional learning and Quality Standards for Expanded Learning in California and revised in 2019 to incorporate language to support mental health and wellness.

In this training participants will:

  • Examine their current methods of working with children and youth with disruptive behavior;

  • Identify behavior guidance strategies

Content Overview:

“What Do You Think?”

Participants respond to a series of questions intended to help them consider how adults guided their own behavior as children/youth. This will prepare them to understand how to use behavior guidance strategies with children with special needs

Our Experiences

Participants have a chance to share the most challenging behaviors they face, and some successful strategies for dealing with them, in order to move them towards learning some new strategies.

Two Top Behavior Supports

Activity gives participants and opportunity to focus on two top behavior supports – the schedule and managing transitions – in order to assess how well they use these supports to improve behavior.

Direct and Indirect Guidance

Participants review the differences between direct and indirect guidance and learn specific strategies to support positive behaviors in children and youth.

Scenes from A Hat

Participants look at specific scenarios and practice applying some of the strategies that they have learned in this training.

Training Length: 2 hours


eLearning Module

When working with children and youth, we encounter a wide range of behaviors.

When looking at behavior guidance strategies, it is important to pay special attention to ways we can keep disruptive behaviors from happening in the first place. These preventative measures help to create a safe and productive environment for everyone in the program.

By the end of this module, participants will:

  • Examine their current methods of working with children and youth with disruptive behavior.

  • Identify behavior guidance strategies.