Behaviour Support Plan

People tend to look at challenging behaviour such as a tantrum and judge the actions of a child without taking into account the trigger or the reason for the behaviour. They tend to punish bad behaviour instead of addressing the root or cause of the behaviour. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and other related disorders can often exhibit challenging, excessive and concerning behaviours. These behaviours may include extreme tantrums, self-injury, aggression, and other self-stimulatory behaviours. In neurotypical children, some of these behaviours, like tantrums, are often developmentally typical and age appropriate but when it becomes dangerous and excessive, it severely impacts the life of the child and their family. At Applied Behaviour Solutions, we take a functional approach to behaviour management. We recognise behaviour as being a concern when it interferes with social interaction, their ability to learn, when it leads to property damage, the injury of themselves and/or others or when the behaviour is age inappropriate.

We use applied behaviour analysis (ABA) as our methodology to teach children the necessary skills they need to function and to reduce these concerning behaviours. ABA is a research based method where the principles of B. F. Skinner and behaviour are applied to issues that are socially important to produce practical change. The core of these principles entail that behaviour that is followed by a desirable consequence will occur more often in the future and vice versa. In ABA there is a 3-term contingency where we look at the stimulus or event that occurs immediately prior to the behaviour (the antecedent), the behaviour, and the stimulus or event that occurs immediately after the behaviour (the consequence). The letters used to represent this 3-term contingency is “ABC”:
A – Antecedent
B – Behaviour
C – Consequence

We use these principles of ABA to conduct individualised assessments and our Behaviour Analysts use the results to draft an intervention to reduce and manage the behaviour. In our experience, problem behaviours always has a specific function: to seek attention, to gain access to something tangible, to escape an undesirable situation or automatic/self-stimulatory. When we are able to identify the function, we can identify what to do before the behaviour occurs or a consequence that will decrease the behaviour.

We look past the diagnostic labels and what the behaviour looks like and conduct functional behaviour assessments in order to identify why the behaviour is happening. These assessments are, in essence, problem solving processes; by identifying the relationship between the environment and the behaviour, we can determine what can be done in terms of skills building and environmental changes to decrease the behaviours of concern. These assessments allow us to determine what the function of the behaviour is.

Once our Behaviour Analysts conduct these assessments, they can draw up a unique and child specific Behaviour Support Plan (BSP) where they operationally define the behaviour, identify the function of the behaviour, determine what we can do to prevent the behaviour as well as what should follow the behaviour as a consequence to reduce the behaviour in the future. They then determine how to measure the behaviour and our trained behaviour technicians continue to take data on the behaviour to determine if the BSP is working. If the behaviour is not decreasing, they will adjust and change the BSP accordingly until we can see a positive change.

In behavioural terms, an antecedent is something we do or teach the child in order to decrease the chances of the behaviour occurring. A common antecedent we use is teaching the child to communicate their needs instead of using behaviour to get what they want. We can teach them to ask for a break instead of a tantrum or to ask for more time when they are playing, by doing this we are replacing the problem behaviour with appropriate communication. If a child does not have the verbal skills or they are unable to articulate their needs, we can teach them the communication skills they need by using, for example, a picture exchange system where we teach them to communicate using pictures or communication applications that are available on iPads or tablets. This is just one element we can put in place that can make a significant difference in the lives of the children and their families.
Dealing with extreme behaviour can be taxing on parents and the children, especially during these difficult and uncertain times where our routines and access to external help are compromised. We would like to give you some helpful tools to deal with behaviour at home during lockdown.

We advise you to, as far as possible, be mindful and kind during these times and to look at what is happening before a particular behaviour occurs; are you busy with work, did you take away a toy, did you give a demand or did nothing occur. If a behaviour like head hitting is occurring regularly without any significant event before the behaviour, give your child regular head squeezes or massages since they probably just need that extra sensory input. If you are dealing with aggression or self-injurious behaviour when you take away a toy or stop a preferred activity, give them a heads-up (or as we call it, a transition cue) to let them know what is about to happen and to give them time to process it. If they do tantrum once you’ve taken the toy away or when you stop an activity, do not continue the activity or hand the toy back to them until they have calmed down. The function of this behaviour is to access something tangible, if you give them back the toy once the tantrum starts, you are reinforcing this behaviour as an appropriate means of communicating their wants or needs.

We know how difficult it can be for parents to implement interventions at home and doing things once off is not guaranteed to create change. Consistency is vital and knowing the correct interventions for different functions of behaviour is key. While we can offer insights we still recommend that if there are serious behavioural concerns they should contact us so that we can help them.

Here are some helpful resources with more information regarding behaviour management at home:

We will be writing more articles where we will focus more on the individual facets of our BRP’s. Please feel free to look at some of our other resources concerning ASD, communication skills, repetitive behaviours, dietary interventions and the link between exercise and learning which you can find under Blog Posts on our website.

https://www.behaviorbabe.com/

https://www.iloveaba.com/2015/07/behavior-management-101.html