When a student struggles in school, the problem is not always easy to identify. A child may avoid assignments, shut down during class, act out, or appear unmotivated, even when the real issue runs deeper.
Those behaviors can look separate from academic difficulties, but they are often connected. That is something Alyssa Ciarrocchi has seen throughout her career in education and behavioral support.
Ciarrocchi has worked as an inclusion and resource teacher, a teacher supporting students with multiple disabilities, a behavioral classroom teacher, a Learning Consultant, and a Registered Behavior Technician. Across those roles, she has learned that understanding why a student is struggling often requires looking beyond grades alone.
“A behavior can tell you that something else is going on,” Ciarrocchi says. “You have to look at the whole situation instead of only reacting to what you see in that moment.”
Why Academic Struggles Can Show Up as Behavior
Students do not always have the language to explain why school feels difficult. When they cannot clearly describe frustration, confusion, or overwhelm, those feelings may come out through their behavior instead.
A child who struggles with reading may avoid opening a book, while a student who has trouble organizing assignments may appear careless. Another student may become frustrated during math because the work feels overwhelming or because they are afraid of getting the answer wrong.
From the outside, those responses can look like defiance or lack of effort. In reality, the behavior may be connected to an academic challenge that has not yet been fully understood.
Ciarrocchi says educators often need to ask what happens before the behavior, what the student is being asked to do, and what happens afterward. Looking at those details can help reveal patterns that might otherwise be missed.
That does not mean every behavioral issue is caused by an academic problem. It means learning and behavior should not automatically be treated as completely separate concerns.
“When students are frustrated, they find ways to communicate it,” she says. “Sometimes that communication is verbal, and sometimes it comes out through behavior.”
What Teachers Can Learn From Patterns
One difficult day does not always reveal much about a student’s needs. Repeated patterns, however, can offer valuable information.
If a student regularly becomes upset during independent reading but performs well in other subjects, that pattern may be worth exploring. The same is true if a child consistently avoids writing assignments, struggles during certain transitions, or becomes overwhelmed when directions contain several steps.
Ciarrocchi’s experience as both a teacher and a behavioral support professional has made her especially interested in these patterns. She has seen how small details can help explain why a student succeeds in one setting but struggles in another.
Teachers often see students in a group environment, while behavioral professionals may spend more time observing individual responses. Combining those perspectives can create a clearer picture of what a student needs and where support may be most useful.
“You start noticing that certain behaviors happen in certain situations,” Ciarrocchi says. “That is when you can begin asking better questions.”
Why Individualized Support Matters
Schools naturally rely on structure because students have schedules, class periods, assignments, and expectations that apply to large groups. Even with that structure, students do not all respond to the same expectations in the same way.
Some students may need visual reminders, while others benefit from shorter instructions or extra reading support. Others may need help with organization, planned breaks, or reinforcement for completing specific steps.
Ciarrocchi has experience using apps and software that support reading, math, and organization for students with learning disabilities. She believes, however, that tools are only useful when they match the student’s actual needs.
A strategy that helps one student may have little effect on another. That is why observation, adjustment, and individualized planning are so important.
“Individualized support is about figuring out what is actually getting in the student’s way,” she says. “Once you understand that, you have a much better chance of helping.”
How Special Education and Behavior Analysis Connect
Special education and behavior analysis approach student support from different perspectives, but there can be considerable overlap. Both fields require professionals to pay close attention to individual needs, patterns, and the environment surrounding the student.
Special education often focuses on helping students access instruction through accommodations, modifications, and targeted support. Behavioral work looks closely at actions, routines, triggers, and what happens before and after certain behaviors.
For professionals like Ciarrocchi, experience in both areas can offer a wider view of student challenges. Her background includes a degree in education, a master’s degree in Special Education, a Reading certification, Learning Disabilities Teacher Consultant training, and additional study in Applied Behavior Analysis.
That combination has influenced the way she thinks about student difficulties. Instead of asking only how to stop a behavior, she also considers what may be making the task difficult for the student in the first place.
Why Collaboration Can Improve Student Support
No single professional sees every part of a child’s day, which makes communication especially important. Teachers, parents, specialists, and behavioral professionals may each notice different parts of the same problem.
Teachers see classroom performance, while parents see routines at home. Specialists may notice learning patterns, and behavioral professionals may identify environmental factors or triggers that others do not immediately recognize.
When those perspectives are shared, the support plan can become more complete. Ciarrocchi’s work in both schools and homes has shown her how differently a child may respond depending on the environment.
A student who completes work successfully one-on-one may struggle in a busy classroom. Another child may behave well at school but experience significant difficulty with homework or routines at home.
Neither environment tells the entire story, which is why collaboration matters. Sharing observations can help the adults involved understand what the child is experiencing across different parts of the day.
“Everyone has a piece of the puzzle,” Ciarrocchi says. “The more people communicate, the easier it is to understand what the child is experiencing.”
Looking Beyond the Behavior
Student behavior is easy to notice because it is visible, but the reason behind it can be much harder to understand. For educators and behavioral professionals, that creates an important challenge.
Correcting a behavior may address the immediate problem, but it may not resolve what caused it. Ciarrocchi believes better support begins by looking more closely at what the behavior may be communicating.
A student who refuses an assignment may need clearer instructions, while another student may need the task broken into smaller steps. A child who constantly leaves their seat may need a different approach to the activity, more structure, or additional support.
The goal is not to excuse every behavior or lower expectations. It is to understand the situation well enough to respond in a way that helps the student make progress.
For Alyssa Ciarrocchi, years spent across classrooms, special education programs, learning consultation, and behavioral support have reinforced the connection between learning and behavior. Sometimes the most useful question is not simply what a student is doing wrong, but what may be making it difficult for that student to succeed.
