Learning and Support Plan | DEVELOP A BEHAVIOUR PLAN

BEHAVIOUR DOMAIN

Trialling strategies helps to work out the function of the behaviour and begins the process of designing the Behaviour Plan. Successful strategies can be included and unsuccessful ones discarded.

Behaviour Plans should have a positive focus. Teaching new replacement behaviours that meet the same function for the student, opportunities for practice, and reinforcement are the primary drivers of the plan. Planning strategies for making the problem unsuccessful for the student are the other elements of the Behaviour Plan. If the problem behaviour is no longer reinforced and doesn’t meet the student’s need, it is likely to reduce.

Negotiate with stakeholders about positive and negative consequences that are meaningful to the individual.
Plan for teaching the required skills (e.g. social skills, relaxation)
Support communication: understanding, expression, social interaction
Modify the environment (e.g move furniture, remove temptations)
Modify the activity, (e.g presentation, expectations, reinforcement)
Visuals to support communication, memory, self-management, and organisation.
Plan opportunities for the student to practice new skills and receive quality feedback on their progress.

Download the Behaviour Plan

Save it to your desktop and follow this section to help complete the Behaviour Guide.

Problem Behaviour

Short statement from ‘Define Problem Behaviour’ section.

Function of Behaviour

From ‘Identify Function of Behaviour’ section.

Replacement Behaviour

The behaviour that we want the student to use to meet the function of the problem behaviour. This behaviour will then replace the problem behaviour. The primary purpose of the plan is to teach and reinforce this positive replacement behaviour.

Sources of Information

Ask student or teacher.

Examples

Problem behaviour: Calling out in class.
Replacement behaviour: Putting hand up and asking for help.
Problem behaviour: Threatening other students.
Replacement behaviour: Negotiating skills for resolving conflict.

Behaviour Goal

For long standing behaviour issues, positive change can take a long time. It is unrealistic to expect that entrenched behaviour issues will be resolved in weeks or months. The Behaviour Goal is the next step towards the main goal of appropriate school behaviour at all times.

Consider how long the behaviour has been occurring, how intense it is and how effective previous strategies have been. Be realistic – it is better to have success with small goals, than failure on unachievable ones.

Sources of Information

Student, teacher, executives.

Examples

Problem behaviour: Absconding from the classroom out of the school grounds.
Inappropriate expectation: Student will remain in the classroom at all times when required by the end of this term.
Behaviour goal: Student will remain in the school grounds when leaving the classroom, and will not have absconded from the school grounds for at least one month, by the end of Term 2.

Behaviour Minimisation

Behaviour minimisation strategies are things that we do to reduce the chance of the behaviour occurring. Minimisations are aimed at meeting the function of the problem behaviour in a pre-emptive manner. They involve proactive, planned and consistent environmental, academic and social adjustments. These strategies are adult-controlled and are done all the time.

When looking at the Contributing Factors and Antecedent sections of the ABC Chart, consider strategies to remove, reduce or address the triggers for problem behaviour.

When looking at the Consequences sections, consider how you can meet the functional goal for the student without the need for the problem behaviour.

Academic: Modified learning program, differentiated expectations, visual timetable, using different technologies for responding.
Environmental: Seating plan, routines (lining up, transitions, etc), playground structure and supervision, clear physical boundaries, keep doors shut.
Social: Saying good morning, proximity, group structures, giving students responsibilities/jobs.

Sources of Information

Use information in the Antecedent and Consequence sections of the ABC Chart.

Examples

Behaviour: Refusal to work, escalating to leaving the classroom.
Antecedent: Being presented with list of 20 spelling words.
Function: Avoidance of an overwhelming task.
Minimisation strategy: Break task down to 5 words at a time every lesson.
Behaviour: Non-compliance with class morning routine.
Consequence: Teacher reprimands the student
Function: Gain relationship with the teacher.
Minimisation strategy: Say good morning and converse with the student before coming into the classroom every day.

Early Warning Signs

Early Warning Signs are the indicators that the student is about to display the problem behaviour. By analysing the student’s body language and verbal cues, the teacher is able to pre-empt the behaviour and can intervene to prevent its escalation.

Certain situations can also be early warning signs, or predictors of problem behaviour. Adults must recognise these situations so they can intervene to bring them under control so the student’s behaviour is not triggered.

Sources of Information

Use the Antecedent section of the ABC Chart to determine the observable Early Warning Signs.

Examples

Problem behaviour: Hitting other students
Early warning signs: Standing up, staring at another student, jaw muscles tight, breathing heavily, and making verbal threats.
Problem behaviour: abusive language to the teacher in response to difficult task.
Early warning signs: Looking at the work, muscle tension in shoulders, head down, deep breaths and sighing, muttering under his breath.
Problem situation: Noisy lining up after lunch.
Early warning signs: More noise and movement than usual, students in wrong area

Early Intervention

As soon as the Early Warning Signs are exhibited adults must intervene quickly to prevent the escalation of the behaviour.

Students require support of some kind to deal with the situation they are faced with, and the skill is in identifying the type and level of support they need. The interventions used at this time are non-confrontational and are aimed at assisting the student to redirect their behaviour. Successful interventions will result in a de-escalation of the behaviour.

Sources of Information

What have you done in the past to prevent the behaviour from occurring? Ask other teachers that have previously taught the student. Ask parents.

Examples

Close proximity, redirection, distraction, use of student’s name, non-verbal cues such as wink, use of visuals, calm and quiet tone of voice, support with the academic task, etc.
“I see you need help with…”
“It looks like you are having trouble with…”

Strategies: Displaying Positive Behaviour

This aspect of the Behaviour Plan is aimed at teaching, practicing and reinforcing the replacement behaviour. The implementation of this part of the plan will require sustained effort from the adults involved. Behaviour change takes time to become embedded, especially for students with long-standing behaviour issues.

Social Skills Teaching

Explicit
Observable
Planned
Relevant

Opportunities For Practice

Structured
Supportive
Frequent
Explicit
Reinforced
Real Life Contexts

Reinforcement

Lowest level that is effective in maintaining the replacement behaviour.

Relationship based

Specific – explicit, descriptive feedback to encourage the replacement behaviour.

Positive reinforcement needs to be meaningful to the student – find out what is valuable to the student and what will motivate them to perform the replacement behaviour.

The student must be explicitly taught the sequence of positive reinforcers (they may be displayed as visual reminders).

During the early implementation of the plan positive reinforcement needs to be delivered immediately and consistently.

Sources of Information

Likes and dislikes from Student Profile, as-is or modified school-wide reward systems.

Strategy Examples

Low level reinforcers: verbal praise, eye contact, thumbs up, smiling.
Moderate level reinforcers: Time with the teacher, showing people good work, being a classroom helper, phone call home to parents, display of work, photos of students, sending work or photocopies of work home.
High level reinforcers: stickers, star charts, food rewards, prizes, raffles, table points.

Strategies: Displaying Negative Behaviour

These strategies are designed to stop the problem behaviour from successfully meeting the student’s functional goal or to make the behaviour too costly for the student. For violent or unsafe behaviour a Risk Management Plan is also required.

It’s not about Punishment

Some ‘punishments’ are actually very rewarding for a student and may perpetuate the behaviour, e.g. sitting in the office with an executive if their behaviour is to avoid the classroom or spend one-on-one time with an adult. Be careful to not reinforce the behaviour by accident. Consequences need to be tied to the behaviour and seem ‘natural’, e.g. making a mess means you have to clean it up, rather than having a detention and someone else cleaning it up.

Learn a more appropriate skill to meet the need
Several steps in the plan, increasing in intensity
Steps taught, predictable
Not reinforcing by accident, tied to function
Communicated to all working with student
Emotionally neutral
Practicable to follow through

Additionally, each step provides an opportunity for learning to occur.

Negative consequences need to be explicitly taught to students and all stakeholders.

When delivering negative consequences they need to be emotion free as they are just part of a system that students know. The system delivers the consequence, not the person.

Ideally, some form of restitution will occur where others have been affected.

Sources of Information

Likes and dislikes from Student Profile, observations of teachers

Strategy Examples

Tidy up the mess (natural consequence)
Apologise (learn a skill)
Loss of a privilege/preferred activity
Have a back up plan! What if the designated executive is busy/absent? What if the parent/carer can’t be contacted by phone?

School Systems

Students with behaviour issues are not just the responsibility of one teacher. To support them effectively, others across the school community will have roles to play.

Communication

Increasing the knowledge and understanding of all staff about a student can increase their empathy and positive feeling towards them. Relationship building by all adults at school, by increasing positive attention, can assist in students feeling more connected to the school and gives staff something to fall back on if they need to deal with a student in a difficult situation.

It is important to share the content of Behaviour Plans, particularly if interventions are occurring in non-classroom contexts (e.g. sport, assembly, playground, etc). There will need to be some understanding and ‘buy-in’ from other teachers that will have to use new strategies to manage the student. Staff/stage meetings are a good forum for communicating this.

Training

Some staff may need training in areas such as autism, behaviour management, trauma, Non-violent Crisis Intervention (NCI).

Executives

Executives will be responsible for higher-level decision making so it is important to have their involvement from the beginning. Interventions such as partial attendance, altered start and finish times, school counsellor involvement, student involvement/non-involvement in certain activities, adjusting school procedures, etc, will need their approval or action.

Evaluation

Method of assessing goals:

Usually teacher/executive observation, school behaviour data collection.

Goal achieved Yes / No

Yes – Celebrate achievement! What is the next small goal and strategies to get there?

No – Why? Was the function identified accurately?

Was the plan implemented with fidelity (i.e. as written) and for long enough?

Outcomes of intervention

What has happened as a result of implementing the Behaviour Plan?

Expected consequences regarding the Problem Behaviour – increase/decrease/other behaviours arising.

Unexpected consequences – relationships with peers and adults, academic, family feedback, etc.

Implementing

Teach the plan to the student! Explain the steps in the plan, both positive and negative, so it is predictable for them and follow it though consistently. Parents/carers need to know about their role in the plan and outcomes need to be communicated regularly with them.

• Teach rules
• Provide visual supports
• Implement consistently
• Provide regular and robust feedback to the student
• Mentor versus monitor
• Be ready to ride out the storm (it’s going to get worse before it gets better)
• Review and revamp when effectiveness wanes
• Communicate with other staff and parents
• Look after yourself – debrief regularly