6: Examples of Behaviors

Examples of Behaviors that Serve Different Functions

Video Script

In Module 5, we discussed creating a behavior intervention plan for Alison that was based on her functional behavioral assessment that has identified teacher attention as the function of her behavior. Attention is just one function, and while it is quite common, we find that children engage in behaviors for a variety of other reasons. In this module, we will present a few behavior intervention plans that address different functions. For example, Johnny repeatedly and loudly kicks his desk. This is a concern because it disrupts other students and may eventually damage the legs on the desk, but mostly because Johnny seem to stop focusing on his work and therefore stops learning. This often happens after he has been sitting for quietly for 10 minutes. People often respond to this behavior by removing him from the classroom for being disruptive. Initially, his teacher thought that Johnny was engaging in this behavior to escape from completing his assignment. However, data collected through the FBA suggested that Johnny willingly returned to his desk to complete his assignments after a short time out of the classroom. The function of Johnny’s behavior may be sensory. He may simply be unable to sit still for longer than 10 minutes without moving around. With this hypothesis, we might recommend that his teacher ask Johnny to work for 7 minutes, get up out of his desk, go to the drinking fountain at the end of the hallway, immediately return, and work for another 7 minutes. This cycle would be repeated several times with opportunity to walk every 7 minutes being his prevention plan. Ideally, this plan would prevent Johnny from becoming so antsy that he needs to kick his desk and wiggle in his chair. Regarding the replacement behavior, it will help Johnny if he could learn to recognize when his body is signaling that he needs to move around (remember we spoke about self-regulation skills in an earlier module). After he is taught to recognize these signs, he should be taught to raise his hands and ask his teacher to be able to go to get a drink, use the pencil sharpener, or get a book from across the room. Thiswould provide opportunity for movement that should serve as a replacement behavior. Another example may be Tria who throws pencils at her peers. This is a concern because she could injure another student and it occurs daily. This occurs during morning work time and after she has attempted her work but has been unable to answer more than a few questions. Her teachers often respond to this by sending her to the assistant principal’s office. This behavior may be a way to escape her work and as a way of saying “I don’t want to do this!” The function of Tria’s behavior may be to escape. She is unable to complete more than a few problems prior to giving up. Because the function of her disruptive behavior was to escape doing hard work, her teacher might break the work up into smaller and more easily mastered segments. Tria’s replacement behavior may be to request to take a break when she feels overwhelmed with the task. She may be given one “break” pass in the morning and one in the afternoon to be used when her work is getting too difficult for her. After she takes her break, she should be prompted to ask her teacher for help with the assignment. We may also want to teach Tria to ask for assistance when she begins to feel overwhelmed. Here is another example. At the end of the school day, Billy begins pacing the room, humming, and staring at his hands. This only occurs at the end of the day, but it is a concern because the behavior is so inconsistent with his behavior during rest of the school day. His teachers often respond to this by telling Billy to calm down and moving him to a corner in the room to sit by himself. This behavior may be a reaction to increased sensory input in his environment. At the end of the day, the principal makes an announcement on the loud speaker, children are gathering their book bags, and parents are lining up to pick up their children from school. The function of Billy’s behavior appears to be sensory. Because Billy’s behavior is a sensory-maintained behavior, his teacher may work with his occupational therapist to implement sensory strategies. They may decide to turn down the loud speaker in the classroom and allow Billy to leave his classroom a few minutes before his peers begin preparing to leave and parents begin arriving. Billy’s replacement behavior may be to identify when he is over-stimulated and go to a listening center in the classroom where he can listen to calming music or stories on a headphone, which may block out much of the classroom noise. Another example is Jon, a child who is nonverbal, who hits his head with an open hand. This is a concern because of the potential for injury, and because it causes others to avoid interacting with him. It occurs in the morning, in the middle of the day, and in the evening. This happens before mealtime and when Jon is waiting for his meals. People respond to this behavior by giving Jon a snack while he is waiting for his food. The difficulty is that this behavior may be a way to get food – a tangible outcome – and as a way of saying “I want food!” Because the function of the behavior appears to get food and because the behavior is so severe, his teachers and parents may provide Jon with a snack before they begin preparing his meal. This may help reduce his hunger and to increase his patience while he is waiting for food. A replacement behavior may be to provide a functional communication system to Jon so that he may use a more appropriate method of communicating his request for something to eat. For example, he may be taught how to use a form of augmentative communication technology to communicate that he has a desire for food. Our final example is of Sam, who spits on peers in class. This is a concern because of the hygiene issues with exchanging bodily fluids, but more importantly because it makes Sam so undesirable as a social companion. The spitting occurs throughout the day. This often happens when Sam’s class is engaging in less structured activities. Sam’s peers respond to this behavior by crying or yelling at him. His teacher responds by sending him to the assistant principal’s office. Initially, his teacher thought that Sam was engaging in this behavior to escape participating in class activities. She developed an intervention to address the function of escaping, but the behavior of spitting did not decrease. After conducting another FBA, it was hypothesized that Sam’s spitting behavior was a way to obtain attention from his peers and as a way of saying “I want to play with you!” Because the function of the behavior appeared to be to gain attention from his peers, his teachers assigned Sam a peer buddy during every unstructured time. A replacement behavior may be to teach Sam how to ask, “You want to play?” What we wanted to do in this segment is provide lots of examples of behaviors and functions, along with prevention and replacement strategies to go along with each. In the next segment, we’ll talk about how the law supports using positive behavioral supports in the classroom.

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Interventions that Address the Function of Attention & Escape
Interventions that Address the Function of Tangible & Sensory

Interventions that Address the Function of Attention & Escape

The term function-based intervention refers to the behavior change strategies that are based on the data gathered during the functional behavioral assessment and that are directly linked to the function of the behavior.

The goal of the functional behavioral assessment is to use it to design an intervention that decreases the problem behavior and increases the desirable behavior (Umbreit, Ferro, Liaupsin, & Lane, 2007)

A function-based intervention should do one or more of the following three things:

The intervention should change the environment in an attempt to prevent the challenging behavior
The intervention should involve teaching and reinforcing a new behavior
The intervention should incorporate ways of responding to the challenging behavior that do not reinforce that behavior.

See below for a list of function-based interventions for behaviors that address the function of attention and/or escape.

*Function-Based Intervention*	*Attention*	*Escape*
Behavioral Momentum		X
Check In/Check Out	X
Effective Instruction Delivery	X	X
Scheduled Breaks/Noncontingent Escape		X
Scheduled Rewards/Noncontingent Reinforcement	X
Novel Staff		X
Preteaching		X
Proximity Control	X
Reduce Task Demands		X
Self-Modeling	X	X
Self-Monitoring	X	X
Time In	X
Praise/Contingent Praise	X
Reward Desired Behavior	X	X
Working Through It/Escape Extinction		X
Ignoring/Extinction	X

Interventions that Address the Function of Tangible & Sensory

See below for a list of function-based interventions for behaviors that address the function of tangible and/or sensory.

*Function-Based Intervention*	*Tangible*	*Sensory*
Scheduled Exercise		X
Modify Environment		X
Preferred Items/High-Interest Items	X
Visual Cues		X

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Examples of Behaviors that Serve Different Functions

Video Script

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Interventions that Address the Function of Attention & Escape

Interventions that Address the Function of Tangible & Sensory