Learning and Support Plan | DESCRIBE THE CONTEXT

BEHAVIOUR DOMAIN
2 DESCRIBE THE CONTEXT

BEHAVIOUR DOMAIN

Behaviour does not occur in a vacuum – practically all problem behaviour in schools occurs within a particular social and instructional context.

Students learn to behave in ways to achieve a desired outcome or to satisfy a need.

In order to work out the purpose or function of a student’s behaviour, we must identify the specific contextual and environmental factors that trigger and maintain problem behaviour.

How to

It is assumed that the student has engaged in the problem behaviour on a number of occasions if the time is being invested in this problem-solving process. Identifying common themes across a number of occurrences will build a better picture of the behaviour than focusing on one isolated incident.
Contextual information should be gathered from more than one source to improve accuracy. It is important to have more that one person’s observations of the behaviour.

Sources of Information

Schoolwide discipline data (e.g. Sentral). Teacher/SLSO/executive reports. Planned observations (by school counsellor, executives, other teachers, SLSOs). Reports from parents. Reports from students themselves.

ABC Chart

Complete the rest of your previously downloaded ABC Chart…

Describe the Context – Contributing Factors

Contributing factors refers to conditions or events, that have occurred some time prior to, and that predispose the student to engage in the problem behaviour. If an event/condition is always linked to the behaviour it is not a contributing factor, it is an antecedent.

What events predispose the student to engage in the behaviour, or are linked to the behaviour occurring?

Ask other staff, parents or the student themselves. Consider:

Family or community factors (e.g. family stress, community violence, placement in foster care, changes in living arrangements, unemployment/financial stress)
Physical factors (e.g. fatigue, hunger, pain)
Medical (e.g. change/lack of medication, not wearing their glasses, illness)
Environmental factors (e.g. previous hot night, windy, full moon, noise or light conditions)
Earlier incidents (e.g. arguing with parents before school, conflicts on the way to school or at school involving peers or staff)

Sources of information

The Profile section may provide relevant background information. Student, parent or sibling reports.

Teacher reports or observations. PLASST – all domains.

Examples

Student’s uncle has just moved in with the family and has taken his bedroom. Student has to move into a bedroom with his older sister. This is affecting his sleep and both the student and his sister are angry about this new arrangement. His sister threw his things out the window before school and he is concerned about the safety of his possessions.
Mum has started working and has to leave home before the student is awake. There is no adult available to reliably supervise her taking her medication. She sometimes forgets to take it.
Student has a fight in the playground before school with a classmate. He is still angry when he goes into class at 9am.

Describe the Context – Antecedents

While the contributing factors may have happened hours or days before, antecedents are the conditions or events occurring immediately before the behaviour. They can sometimes be thought of as triggers or predictors of the behaviour.

What happened just prior to the behaviour occurring?

Consider

Time of day (e.g. before school, afternoon, lunchtime).
Day of week (e.g. Thursdays).
Location (e.g. classroom, playground, library).
Subject (e.g. reading, maths, music, sport).
Instructional activity (e.g. individual work, reading aloud, group work).
Non-academic activity (e.g. unstructured playground games, changing classes, coming in from lunch/recess).
Social interactions that may trigger the behaviour (e.g. with certain adults or peers, being given a warning, arguing with peer, being teased by a peer, engaging in horseplay, being told to stop or start an activity, embarrassment by teacher or peer, lower levels of supervision, reprimands).
Changes of routine (e.g. casual teachers, timetable changes, special events, cancellations).
Environmental aspects (e.g. noise, lighting).

When does the behaviour not occur?

(e.g. during certain subjects or activity types, with certain adults).

How did the student look?

Eyes- where was the student looking?
Muscle tension
Skin colour
Body height
Breathing

What was the student saying?

Tone of voice
Volume

Sources of information

Planned observations. Teacher/SLSO/Executive reports. Parent reports

Examples

Problem behaviour: Tran swears at peers and verbally threatens them
Time of day: Most days of the week
Location: Classroom
Instructional activity: Reading groups
Social interactions: Group working independently of teacher. He moves around in his seat, stands up and looks around the room, and plays with pencils. The problem behaviour occurs when his turn to read aloud is coming up, or another student corrects his reading errors. This behaviour does not occur when the teacher is working with the reading group or in any instructional activities that don’t require reading. This behaviour sometimes occurs when students are lining up before school before teachers arrive to collect them.
Problem behaviour: Mariah absconds from the classroom and leaves the school grounds
Time of day: After lunch, approximately 2pm
Location: From classroom
Activity: Any activity, particularly transitioning from playground to the classroom
Social interactions: In class interactions. She leaves class lines or classroom soon after transitioning from the playground. She runs around the playground, and if able to, will leave the school grounds.

Describe the Context – Consequences

Consequences are what happens after the behaviour occurs. This may be what happens immediately after (within a few seconds) or some time later (minutes or hours).

How is it managed?

Immediate: (within a few minutes of it occurring)
e.g. given alternative or preferred activity, activity stopped, requests stopped, sent to time out, teacher uses non-verbal prompt.

Longer term: (for the remainder of the lesson/day/week)
e.g. lunchtime detention, phone call home, moved into another maths group.

What do the other students do?

e.g. others are scared, peers leave student alone, peers respond or laugh, adults pay attention to student, one-to-one instruction, sits at the office with executives, parents called, student is ignored.

What does the student do?

e.g. walk out slowly, walk out quickly.

How does the student look?

Eyes- where was the student looking?
Muscle tension
Skin colour
Body height
Breathing
What does the student say?
Tone of voice
Volume

Sources of information

Planned observations. Teacher/SLSO/Executive reports.

Problem Behaviour: John is making noises in class and rocking on his chair.

Consequences: Other students are laughing at him. Teacher sends him to time out for disturbing the class. He walks to time out in a relaxed manner and looks at other students and smiles as he walks past. He avoids eye contact with the teacher.