Planned Ignoring: An Intervention Strategy for Inappropriate Behavior

Planned ignoring is a great strategy to use with students who exhibit attention-seeking behavior, especially temper tantrums or similar problem behavior.

If a student is misbehaving to get your attention and they’re safe, planned ignoring can be the best way to respond to that child.

This attention-seeking behavior is designed to get attention, even negative attention will do. The best way to end this behavior completely might be to ignore it.

I’ve had great success with planned ignoring with temper tantrums in a first-grade class, but it can be used with tattling and goofing off too, depending on the situation.