The Primary Behaviour Cookbook: Strategies at Your Fingertips is a resource for those working in primary school classrooms who seek guidance on how to respond to a wide range of challenging behaviours. It delivers a reference guide on how to efficiently and effectively respond to a range of difficult behaviours. The author’s skilful use of uncomplicated, jargon-free, and unassuming language makes this text accessible to teachers, teaching assistants, behaviour support consultants, and psychologists. The structure of each intervention can be comfortably assimilated with each ‘recipe’ easy to digest, regardless of the reader’s professional background. Roffey explains how the teacher’s role has evolved and the significant impact this has had on both their skill and knowledge requirements. While learning may be a function of attention and concentration, the author highlights how student’s emotional well-being is an integral part of general school success. This text provides educational staff with an operational handbook that meets the complex demands of a primary school classroom.
Section One, Getting Things Done, concerns behaviours that interfere with task completion including disorganisation, distraction, and disengagement. Section Two, Dealing with Disruption, contains attention-seeking, interruptions and rudeness. Section Three, Social Interactions, examines sharing, fighting, and cheating, while Section four, Emotional Distress, involves tantrums, destructive conduct, and negativity. Section Five, Behaviours of Special Concern, incorporates rituals, unsafe risk-taking, and self-harm.
The methods and informational sources appear sound, well-researched, and reflect evidence-based practice in responding to inappropriate behaviour. Future editions might consider increasing these resources for those needing to identify, implement, and expand upon the interventions presented. The target audience includes those who need immediate behavioural support for their students. In the age of the internet and an abundance of pseudoscientific ‘solutions’ undermining empirical interventions, an expanded reference list would reduce the likelihood of readers using non-evidence-based techniques from questionable sources. Rather than one page of resources at the end of the book, a dedicated page in each section would add a great deal of value to future editions.
Roffey carefully illustrates the close connection between education and psychology and the book is pertinent to educational and developmental psychologists in two key aspects. First, its brevity encourages psychologists to recommend it to teachers who may be overwhelmed with other student issues. It accomplishes what is conveyed on the cover: providing “strategies at your fingertips”. Second, it serves as a quick guide for psychologists with limited classroom experience, but who may need to arbitrate problematic student behaviour. Whether one is an early career psychologist or has limited familiarity with primary classroom matters, this book offers a strong understanding of how to manage challenging student behaviour.
