Why Students Exhibit Challenging Behaviors and How These Behaviors Impact Academic Engagement

Chapter 1

Why Students Exhibit Challenging Behaviors and How These Behaviors Impact Academic Engagement

Myra is a fourth grader who enjoys reading tween comedic books and playing with her friends. She is kind and calm. She is in the gifted program at school. Her brother, George, is a third grader at the same school who enjoys anything related to sports and mathematics. He is vivacious, assertive, and hysterical. He is currently in special education for specific learning disabilities in reading and challenging behaviors. Myra has many friends at school. George struggles with interpersonal skills, so he is unable to sustain friendships. He often tags along with Myra to social events at school. The two siblings are inseparable. Even though they are being raised in the same home environment by two supportive and consistent parental figures—(1) their single mom and (2) their maternal grandmother—they respond to authority very differently. George often displays challenging behaviors, yelling at his peers and teachers and clenching his fists when he is given directives that he doesn’t like.