Effectively addressing and improving problem behaviour starts with building a common understanding of the behaviour itself. By defining what it is and what it isn’t, we can observe when it is and when it isn’t occurring. 

Defining the behaviour in observable terms is a way of separating the student from their behaviour.

Saying ‘Latisha is aggressive’ implies something about Latisha’s personality and suggests that it will be difficult, if not impossible to change her behaviour. ‘Latisha hits and kicks other students when she has conflicts with peers’ labels observable behaviour that Latisha does, not something she is. This allows us to think of behaviour as actions that occur in certain situations and gives us some power to intervene in these situations.

Defining the problem behaviour is essential for all following steps in the functional behaviour assessment and behaviour support plan process.

If you don’t know exactly what behaviour you are dealing with, it is difficult to plan targeted improvement strategies and impossible to know if you have
been successful.