Verbal Communication Skills Combat Crisis
Schools around the country are doing everything they can, including developing emergency plans, to prevent violent incidents. But focusing on low-profile problems such as verbal harassment or hallway fights is just as important. Educators trained in Nonviolent Crisis Intervention®, the standard for the safe management of out-of-control behavior, are at an advantage when behavior management issues arise. Learning to identify behavior that escalates into physical aggression can be a valuable asset in the classroom.
Since 1980, the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), located in Wisconsin, has trained human service professionals, including educators, in ways to manage disruptive and assaultive behavior. CPI’s Nonviolent Crisis Intervention training combines four crucial areas of emphasis: the reinforcement of verbal communication, personal safety techniques, therapeutic physical intervention and an understanding of crisis development behavior levels.
Verbal de-escalation is the preferred route in handling a crisis situation. “If you don’t reinforce verbal communication in training, people tend to forget those skills,” said Linda Steiger, President of CPI. However, personal safety and restraint techniques are taught to be used as a last resort in a crisis situation.
Communication is the first thing to breakdown in a crisis situation. “What our training does for people is it organizes their thinking,” said Steiger. This 12-hour training takes the theories and skills educators have been given throughout their formal education and years of experience, and organizes it into a succinct approach to a crisis, she said.
Common Crises
The following is a list of the crisis development behavior levels and responses to the situation, which when learned, give educators a common language to discuss students’ disruptive behavior and signals for assistance. Although the above behavioral levels seem easy enough to grasp, seldom does a student go through the levels from beginning to end in a smooth fashion. Not every student who needs nonviolent crisis intervention will be discovered at the anxiety level. A student may already be past that stage by the time he or she has entered the school that day. But the common language and method of addressing disruptive behavior gives educators the tools necessary to be effective in a crisis situation. “The training is not a substitute for what [educators] do already. It’s an additional tool. It can help provide safety not only for the students, but for educators as well,” said Steiger.
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