Behavior Support

"Behavior Support"

The end of the school year brings a lot of uncertainty for many of our students. For 10 months school has been a place of safety, certainty, warmth, care, and predictability. Danny Steele @steelethoughts tweeted recently about the need for "an awareness of the stress students are dealing with" can help put things into perspective. As we end this school year, having that perspective and a desire to support all students to and through the final bell is paramount. I've heard a school year compared to the 160 game Major League Baseball Season. Others have referred to a school year as a marathon and the finish line now being in sight. However you look at it, it's important that we stay consistent in our expectations, consistent in our routines, consistent in our own behavior, and consistent with our love for kids. This time of year is not easy for many of our students. We must keep that in perspective as we support all students over the next few days and weeks.

Last night's #BOLDSCHOOL Twitter chat led by Weston Kieschnick, Chris Weber, and Tom Loud focused on behavior. It was a really solid discussion and learning opportunity. Last night, I tweeted about the need to understand the communicative function of behavior. Often times the approach to behavior support reminds me of this shape sorter toy. The comparison would be trying to take every shape and fit it them only in the circle. Works great if every shape is a circle, however, we know that this isn't the makeup of students nor should it be how we support behavior. One size truly does not fit all, however, we often respond to behavior support in this fashion. 

Understanding Behavior as Communication

Behavior is one way that students communicate as well as satisfy personal needs. Students repeat an undesirable behavior because it satisfies a need. Therefore, to change a behavior, the teacher must determine what need the student is communicating and provide a more acceptable way to meet that need.

Analyzing Behavior

A crucial part of determining the reason for an undesirable behavior is observing the context within which the behavior occurs, including all antecedents and consequences. The “ABC’s” of behavior analysis are:

A  Antecedent – Every factor that exists in the environment before the behavior occurs. Includes factors in the physical environment, type of instruction, subject or activity, adults and peers present, size of the group, noise level, lighting, location, time of day, and factors internal to the student (level of fatigue, hunger, emotional factors, prior knowledge of the content, etc).

B  Behavior – What the student does, says, and does not do.

C  Consequence – What happens after the behavior occurs. This includes the actions of the teacher and peers, changes in the environment, and things that the student obtains or avoids. Every behavior leads to a response; therefore, behavior is an attempt to attain a response to the situation and to gain a desired consequence.

Determining the Communicative Function

Research-based theory on behavior indicates that there are typically four basic needs, or Communicative Functions, that an individual is seeking to satisfy through undesirable behavior:

Escape: Desire to remove themselves from individuals, activities, or settings that are uncomfortable.

Attention: Desire for attention or support from other people. The desire for attention may be from a particular individual or group of individuals or the specific individual may not be important.

Sensory: Desire to get or get away from a particular sensory experience (auditory, tactile, visual, olfactory, movement, or pressure)

Tactile:  Desire for a particular item

Identifying the Communicative Function of the undesirable behavior is the most important aspect of planning successful behavioral intervention. By accurately identifying what need the student is communicating, the Intervention Progress Team or Professional Learning Community/Grade Level Department Team can determine a more acceptable way for the student to get that need satisfied.

Once the Communicative Function has been accurately identified and a plan has been developed to address that need, a common behavior pattern typically emerges. Initially there appears to be a dramatic decrease in the frequency of the negative behavior, followed by a sharp increase. Over time, there appears a sustained slow reduction in the frequency of the negative behavior and an increase in the frequency of the positive behavior. It may take several weeks of implementation for this cycle to be observed, therefore, teachers and parents must have patience.

When behavioral intervention plans prove ineffective, there are generally two reasons: either the plan was not implemented completely or consistently or the Communicative Function was not accurately identified. In the latter case, the Team may need to do further analysis to better identify the need being expressed by the behavior. Occasionally, behaviors have more than one communicative function (e.g., attention and escape), so the ensuing behavior plan must address both needs.

Shifting the “Pay-Off”

Behavior will continue and intensify as long as the result (the “pay-off”) continues to meet the individual’s needs. When a student is engaging in behavior that is maladaptive (not supportive to the classroom or school setting), the teacher must shift the pay-off for the student. Effective interventions reduce the pay- off for the negative behavior and increase the pay-off for appropriate behaviors that support the learning environment. This is achieved through environmental adaptations and/or reinforcing or teaching Replacement Behaviors.

Environmental Adaptations

Adaptations to the environment are changes that the teacher makes in the classroom or other school settings in order to meet the needs of the student(s). Areas to consider include:

Psychosocial: The overall “feeling or tone” of the room, the interactive styles of the teacher and other adults, and the level of support and interaction provided by other students.

Procedural: The rules of the classroom, and systems for handling procedures, such as turning in papers, asking for help, etc.

Instructional: The temporal order of the day or period; the order and timing of high-interest versus low-interest activities, and quiet versus noisy activities; the size and heterogeneity of student groupings; methodology and materials used.

Physical: The physical layout of desks and work and storage areas, as well as seating of particular students.

Organizational: The way the teacher manages his or her time, materials and supplies, and interacts with and organizes other adults in the room.

Implementing Replacement Behaviors

Replacement Behaviors are behaviors that meet the same need as the behavior of concern, but in a more socially acceptable way. They are not merely the absence of the problem behavior. When selecting a Replacement Behavior, it is important for the skill to be appropriate to the communication and cognitive level of the student, and ideally to exist already within the student’s repertoire of behaviors. The focus of intervention is to shape and increase the use of the Replacement Behavior.

Sometimes, a student may know the appropriate behavior (e.g., raising hand to participate in class) yet may engage in a negative behavior (e.g., shouting out) because he or she gets more frequent and intense reinforcement for the undesirable behavior. The teacher can increase the pay-off for the positive behavior by calling on students and giving praise when they raise their hands and reduce the pay-off for the negative behavior by ignoring the shouting out. Thus, the need for attention is met in an appropriate way for the classroom, and the positive behavior will increase in frequency while the inappropriate behavior will decrease.

Some students may not know or be able to perform the appropriate behavior and will need to be systematically taught the new skill. This can be achieved through group instruction to the class, individual instruction to the student, modeling, role play, practice, and reinforcement.

As a teacher, coach, or school leader you cannot just tell a student or player what to do. You need to teach them how to do it. You must teach how to get there, how to do thing right, and how to apply things. This is vital to supporting behavior.

Resources

This Google Doc is to a resource that contains Intervention and Strategies Organized by Communicative Function. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ofyApCvyEgub_Pr59ogvXGlItOul8x2qlZsiLo4A7P8/edit

Chris Weber's New Book:

Behavior: The Forgotten Curriculum - An RTI Approach for Nurturing Essential Life Skills (Transform Your Differentiated Instruction, Assessment, and Behavior-Management Strategies) https://www.amazon.com/Behavior-Curriculum-Differentiated-Instruction-Behavior-Management/dp/1943874328/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526931579&sr=1-1&refinements=p_27%3AChris+Weber 

Enjoy the last few days or weeks of school. Thank you for all you to to serve all children! 

CJ