As a longtime District 75 teacher, I’ve learned useful behavior-management strategies for supporting the learning of special education students. Many of these techniques can be used to address and de-escalate student behavior in general education classrooms, after-school programs and other settings.

Four behavior-management tools I’ve found useful are proximity control, hurdle help, prompting and directive statements. Each of these techniques is addressed in a training program called Therapeutic Crisis Intervention, which can help in averting major outbursts from students.

Proximity control is your presence near a child to let them know you are close by, which ideally will give them a sense of safety. Sometimes when a student is exhibiting behaviors for attention (calling out, tapping the desk, etc.), an adult simply walking over and standing near them can stop the behavior or prevent it from escalating.

Hurdle help is useful for helping students complete independent or small group work. If a student starts to act out when work is assigned (whether avoiding the task completely or joking with peers, for example), you can support them by working together on a couple of tasks, assigning the next two as independent work and then checking back after a certain amount of time. You can also model the task again, one-on-one, and ask them to complete the next two before you return to check their progress.

Veteran teachers frequently use prompting, or cueing, either verbally or visually. Verbal prompting is guidance provided in a very calm, non-threatening tone that does not have too much inflection. Examples of verbal prompting can be, “What do we need to complete this task?,” or “You have completed step 1, what’s next?” Visual prompts and supports include sentence starters, anchor charts that support the task and word banks.

Finally, when a situation is escalating to aggression or potential harm to students, try directive statements, or clear instructions delivered in simple language and a calm tone. The directives must be something the child is able to do relatively quickly and easily; for example, “stop,” “look at me” or “walk away.” It is critical that the directive use as few words as possible — an emotionally distraught person cannot process a lot of complicated language.

All behavior-management techniques are useful, but what makes them truly effective is a teacher who employs them with sincerity and genuine caring. Children know when adults are being disingenuous, so take time to get to know your students so you can know their triggers and respond to them as individuals. As teachers, it is our connections to the students that allow us to be most successful in behavior management.

Nina Krisel Berke is a high school special education teacher at P94M @ PS 188 in Manhattan.