Life Space Crisis Intervention
Life Space Crisis Intervention is a program designed to create learning opportunities out of crisis situations. Sometimes, a student will have a conflict that escalates and develops into a crisis situation. LSCI is a non-violent strategy that uses a variety of behavior management techniques to defuse the situation, and then teach new skills for handling similar stressful situations. There are six steps used in LSCI:
- Student Crisis: This is when an adult enters and deescalates the situation by calming down the student. During this time affirm the students feelings of hurt, anger, stress, etc. and use positive language to help drain-off the student's emotions. Ex: "I understand where you're coming from", "You're not wrong for feeling that way", "I'm happy you're talking to me about this."
- Student Time Line: Once the student has calmed down, ask them about the situation. Even if you already know what happened from someone else, it is important to hear the student's perspective on what happened. Ex: The teacher tells you she asked Lucy to read a paragraph to the class. Lucy may feel the teacher was singling her out to embarrass her.
- Student Central Issue: After you have reviewed the situation, determine the root cause of the outburst. It may not always be the actual situation the student is upset with, but rather something happened earlier which upset them and this was the final straw. Ex: A teacher may tell you Bobby became angry when told to go to the back of the lunch line because he cut to the front. They may not know that lunch is the first meal Bobby eats everyday so he became angry because he was very, very hungry.
- Student Insight: This step is when the student identifies what they think the root cause of the issue was. During this step, ask the student questions about his or her day and/or what is going on in their life. Once the student has identified what you feel the issue is, and understands their initial actions were inappropriate, begin to work with them to brainstorm new ways to handle the situation better next time. Ex: Sally identifies that whenever she did not get enough sleep, she becomes extremely grouchy at school. She knows she should try to get more sleep at home.
- Student New Skills: This is when the teacher teaches a new skill that better prepares the student to handle the situation in the future. This could include learning better ways to handle stress or how to manage their homework time so they can go to bed at a reasonable time. Ex: Paul becomes frustrated when asked questions he does not know the answer to. Instead of yelling at the teacher he practices counting to 5 in his head to give himself a few seconds to calm down, and try to remember the answer, before answering.
- Student Transfer of Training: The student now uses the new skill they have just learned in everyday school life. Ex: Now when Kyle gets angry he does not start punching the wall/desk/locker. Instead, he goes to the office and talks to a guidance counsler.