Nurturing Positive Behavior Supports
Nurturing Positive Behavior Supports (NPBS) is a scientifically reliable method that puts emphasis on the promotion of positive behavior in individuals through encouragement and reinforcement, particularly in educational and therapeutic contexts. The crucial point made is that it is necessary to construct the environment in such a way that supportive factors are provided for students' social-emotional learning, and this, in turn, is likely to improve students' well-being and decrease their problematic behavior.
The Basic elements of Nurturing Positive Behavior Supports are proactive strategies for teaching appropriate behavior, the systematic reinforcement of positive actions, and the participation of caregivers and educators in the process. For example, when students are awarded points for behaving decently, it becomes a method to encourage them to act that way again and staff training to identify and reward positive behavior makes it happen that way.
Dissimilar to the typical disciplinary measures that tend to concentrate on the punitive and repair of the negative acts, NPBS marks its beginning with the prevention and support. The fundamental purpose is to identify the problems of behavior and introduce the students to more appropriate alternatives instead of the students' behavioral negative acts. Take, for example, a situation of a child who is being disruptive by talking in class. Instead of punishing the child, NPBS would suggest finding the drawing triggers and then teaching the child self-regulation techniques for impulse control.
Nurturing Positive Behavior Supports framework recognizes that families have a very important role to play and they can help with the reinforcement of positive behavior both at home and in school by teaming up with educators to form a common approach. One such approach is the teacher-parent meeting which helps to find ways to approach specific behaviors that should be encouraged and define those strategies which could be used, for instance, establishing a consistent routine that is made use of in both the school and home.
NPBS can be implemented is a classroom with the help of clear behavior expectations, and the use of visual aids like charts to remind students of those expectations. Following this step, the teacher can use positive reinforcements such as commendation or point systems to offer a reward to the students who follow the rules. For example, a teacher may hand out 'caught being good' tickets to the students who are paying attention during the lesson, which they can use to buy privileges or small rewards. It will contribute to the promotion of a positive learning environment.