Implementing Function-Based Behavior Interventions in the Special Education Classroom

In my classroom and in my role as an autism & low-incidence disability coach, few days go by when I am not trying to decipher student behavior. After working with hundreds of students and thousands of educational professionals, I have developed a 5-step system for behavioral intervention that has worked really well. In today's post, I will walk you through each step to help you with solving problem behaviors that may be impacting student success in your classroom. 

Step 1: Determine the Function of the Behavior

It is essential to know what motivates a student’s behavior in order to implement function-based interventions to address the same function. If the intervention doesn’t meet the same need as the function, then it will not be effective.

There are 4 main functions of behavior. 

1. Sensory: Sensory-motivated behavior does not depend on others and may occur when the student is alone and without any demands being placed on them. Some examples could be humming, chair tipping, or hand flapping. Sensory-motivated behaviors are sometimes referred to as "automatically-motivated" behaviors because the reinforcement is automatic and doesn't rely on others. 
2. Escape: Escape-motivated behavior results in avoiding or postponing aversive or unpreferred activities. A student may elope to escape a sensory overwhelming environment or they may start throwing lesson materials in an attempt to get staff to terminate task demands. 
3. Attention: Attention-motivated behavior results in immediate attention from others such as a peer laughing when a student makes funny noises or a paraprofessional giving a big emotional reaction when pushed. 
4. Tangible: Tangibly-motivated behaviors result in access to preferred items or activities. For example, a student may climb shelving to gain access to a favorite musical toy or they may steal food from a classmate who still has some of their snack left. Tangibly-motivated behavior is sometimes referred to as "access-motivated" behavior because it allows the student access to what they want. 

When determining the behavioral function, if 3 or more functions are within 1-3 points of each other or all of the scores are relatively high, then the function of the behavior is determined to be communication because the student is using the behavior to communicate a variety of functions or needs. 

These scores can be determined using a behavioral assessment. I have several favorites that are all FREE! After reading about each option below, click on the links to be directed to options for each tool. 

• Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS): this is a quick 16-question survey that is user-friendly and focuses on a single behavior. It is my "go-to" because it is so easy to use and can be done quickly during a team meeting or I can give it to various members of the team and average the scores to get multiple perspectives on the same behavior. 

• Functional Assessment Screening Tool (FAST): this is another quick option that tends to be a favorite amongst BCBAs. It is also relatively user-friendly and focuses on a single behavior. 

• Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA): this is the most comprehensive option when done well. I emphasize done well because too often I see FBAs completed just to fulfill a paperwork requirement, completed by an outside agency that truly doesn't know the student, or completed and never visited again. What a waste! A good FBA requires a team effort and lots of mindful data collection and analysis. For this reason it can be pretty time-consuming which can make it more challenging to get done. 

Once the assessment is completed, the function with the highest total score (relative ranking of 1) is the primary function of the behavior. If there is a tie or if there is another function within 1-3 points of the primary function, then this is considered the secondary function.

Step 2: Choose a function-based behavioral intervention

Once the function has been determined, select an intervention that will meet the same motivation. Interventions may change the way staff responds to the behavior and/or may teach the individual more appropriate ways of getting their needs met. Function-based interventions should be implemented with fidelity across all staff members and environments. Plan to implement this intervention for a minimum of 4 weeks. 

A foundation of my Function-Based Behavior Intervention Cheat Sheets and Implementation Plan is the cheat sheets themselves which take 25 different behaviors and provides behavior intervention ideas for each of the functions of behavior for quick reference.

Step 3: Design the Behavior Plan

What do you want the student to do instead of engaging in the problem behavior that will meet the same function? It is important to determine a replacement behavior that says what the student will do NOT doing something or refraining from the problem behavior is not a replacement behavior. The replacement behavior needs to be functionally-equivalent to the problem behavior in order for it to be effective.

Once you choose a replacement behavior, there are 5 steps you can follow to effectively teach the behavior. This framework can be used when developing a student's Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).

1. Direct Instruction: The replacement behavior needs to be explicitly taught to the student so that they understand the expectation and begin to see the benefit or how the behavior may be equally or more effective in meeting the desired function.

2. Practice: In a structured setting, set up opportunities for the student to practice the skill. Then, as appropriate, proactively schedule opportunities for the student to practice the skill in the context of their typical daily routine to promote generalization.

3. Priming: Prime the student to remind them of the replacement behavior especially before times or events that have been previously challenging. Determine consistent verbal and/or visual cues that can be used across all team members.

4. Prompting: In the moment when the student is engaging in problem behaviors and/or needs a reminder, prompt the student to use the replacement behavior. Determine consistent verbal and/or visual cues that can be used across all team members.

5. Reinforce: The replacement behavior itself should be highly reinforcing because it should meet the same function of the problem behavior. It is critical for all team members to immediately acknowledge and honor the use of the replacement behavior so that the student knows it is equally or more effective than the behavior. Additional praise or reinforcement for using the replacement behavior can also be beneficial.

Step 4: Collect Behavior Data

It is important to monitor the student’s behavior to determine the effectiveness of the function-based intervention so that you can make data-driven decisions about continuing or adjusting the intervention. My Function-Based Behavior Intervention Cheat Sheets and Implementation Plan includes 4 different data collection sheet options to ensure all team members are using the same data collection method for increased fidelity.

1. Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (A-B-C) Checklist: Records antecedent/events (A) that immediately precede the target behavior (B), and the consequences/ events (C) that happen immediately following the behavior. I love this checklist version because it is MUCH more time-effective than anecdotal notes. 

2. Scatterplot: Records when a behavior occurs at ant time within an interval of time (typically 10-15 minutes)

3. Frequency Data: Records the number of occurrences of the target behavior

4. Duration Data: Records the amount of time in which a behavior occurs

Take data for a minimum of 4 weeks once the function-based intervention is introduced to have enough data to analyze for effectiveness. 

Step 5: Analyze Behavior Data

Review the collected data to determine the level of progress based on the data patterns. Below are some general guidelines:

• Mastery
• The target behavior(s) have been extinguished
• The target behavior(s) have been greatly reduced to a level that is no longer significant

• Adequate Progress
• The target behavior data is steadily decreasing
• The replacement behavior data is steadily increasing

• Slow Progress
• The target behavior data is decreasing but the rate is slow
• The target behavior data has plateaued
• The replacement behavior data is increasing slowly

• Inconsistent Progress
• The target behavior data is not consistently decreasing
• The replacement behavior data is not consistently increasing

• No Progress
• The data trend has remained consistent with initial tracking for either the target behavior (remains high) or the replacement behavior (remains low)
• The target behavior data is increasing

Make data-driven decisions about the effectiveness of the function-based intervention using the available data.

For easy reference, more in-depth explanations, and the cheat sheets mentioned above. Head over to my TPT store to grab my Function-Based Behavior Intervention Cheat Sheets and Implementation Plan.

Why I ditched Communication Notebooks in my SpEd Classroom... and never looked back!

My first few years of teaching I used communication notebooks in my elementary special education classroom.... and I HATED them. 

For those who are not familiar, a communication notebook is a notebook passed between home and school to communicate between families and school staff. It sounds good in theory, but in my experience it was not. 

Why did I hate these darn notebooks so much?!

• they were time-consuming... and the absolute worst time of the day to add something that is time-consuming is during pack up and dismissal. It is chaos enough as it is!

• they were ignored... every teacher knows which notebooks, binders, folders, etc. are checked every night and which ones are not. Which essentially means you have just wasted your time writing in the notebook. 

• they were negative... written communication about student behavior can be easily misunderstood and can lead to defensiveness which is not an effective way to foster a parent-teacher relationship

• they leave out the student... for our students it is so important to facilitate communication opportunities at every opportunity

So what can you do instead?!

• Reminder Bracelets: These were a game changer! I would attach them to the student's wrist or backpack loop and write on any reminder that I wanted to be sure wasn't ignored and they were MUCH faster (i.e. field trip tomorrow, please send more diapers, etc.) 

Oriental Trading Reminder Bracelets

• Think it Over Sheets: When a student engaged in negative behavior, I learned to focus less on the offensive and more on making it a teachable moment. In Dr. Ross Greene's book Lost at School I really connected with the concept that "kids do well if they can" and this was especially enlightening considering all of my students had disabilities which often impacted their emotional and behavioral regulation skills. Rather than sending home a long note to parents, my staff and I would reflect with the student on their behavior and help them choose an alternative for the future. (We also directly taught regulation skills through social stories, role playing, and sensory activities). Then I would sign the form and send it home for parent signature. 

• Home-School Communication Reports: To involve my students and work on their recall skills, I created these communication reports which we would complete at the end of each day. My students would circle or write what they did that day and then when they got home they could easily refer to their report to tell their families about their day. My families LOVED how their children could now share and it was a great authentic communication opportunity. On some, I also included a small box where staff or families could write a brief note if needed. This definitely eliminated any rambling negativity!

To grab these home-school communication reports and more check out this resource in my TPT store! 

Differentiated Daily Home-School Communication Reports

Until next time!

Social Skills Direct Instruction in the Special Education Classroom-- Circle Time

Download my FREE Being a Good Friend Social Story and Choices Sorting Mat!

I look forward to connecting with you and sharing SpEd Spot tips and FREEBIES!

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As I have shared before, in the special education classroom student behaviors often stem from a deficit in social skills. If we only reactively address the behavior, then it will be hard to see lasting improvement. However, proactively addressing behavior concerns with social skills direct instruction can make a huge difference!

Problem Scenario

Circle or Carpet Time is often a time of the day when we see an increase in unexpected behaviors. Not only can students struggle with their own on task behaviors, but they can also have difficulty juggling social expectations as well. 

Circle Time Social Skills Direct Instruction

When teaching social skills (or any new skill really) I tend to follow the same sequence of steps:

1. Teach: 

First, I teach the expected skill. Using a social story can be a great evidence-based strategy for introducing the concepts. Over the years, skills related to group work time that my students needed to work on included:

• Sitting appropriately
• Taking turns
• Raising their hands
• Sharing
• Joint attention
• Listening

The social story I created included all of these different skills but there were years that I would remove some of the pages if my students didn't need help in that area. This allowed us to focus more on the target behaviors. I laminated my social story and bound it using binder rings which made it easy to adapt from year to year!

This is also when we introduced the vocabulary we would be using from now on to remind students of what was expected and provide direct feedback such as what it means to “share” or have a “quiet mouth”. 

 

2. Practice: 

After reviewing the social story, there were several ways we practiced the skills.

• Role Playing: We would act out different scenarios illustrating the concepts we learned. My paras and I would act out the unexpected behaviors and students would act out the expected behaviors. We would go through the social story page by page to guide us.

• Games: Since there were so many skills to work on, I found that it was best to practice some of the skills in isolation using games such as playing Simon Says to work on listening.

• Choices Sort: I also completed a choices sort with my students. Depending on the year, we called it different things such as good/bad choices, green/red choices, and expected/unexpected choices. We did this as a cut and paste activity the first time but I also created reusable file folders to be used for priming and review later.

To make the sorts reusable, I printed the sorting cards on cardstock and laminated them. Then, I attached velcro to the back of each card. Next, I used a long file folder and made one side "good choices" and the other side "bad choices" (you can use the sorting mat headers as the folder headers... that's what I did!). I made an extra copy of the social story book cover and used it as the sorting folder cover. Then, I laminated the file folder and put velcro dots on the inside under each heading.

3. Generalize: 

It is important to be purposeful in planning how you will facilitate generalization of new skills.

• Prime: Prior to our group work times, I would review the social story or the sort to prime them or remind them of what was expected. 

• Prompt: If we noticed that a student was struggling in the moment, we would use visual reminders of what to do. I did not use what not to do since it was hard for some of my students to infer what to do instead, especially in the heat of the moment! The “good choice” visuals were helpful and at times I would make them into a visual cue ring for my paras and I to have on our lanyard so we were ready at all times!

4. Reinforce: 

This requires a lot of “catch them being good” time and looking for even the smallest successes. Since I was mostly leading the group, my paras would quietly praise any example of the expected behaviors we had taught. It was so rewarding even for us to spend more time focusing on the good behaviors and less time correcting unexpected behaviors! When a problem behavior would pop up, I implemented some pivot praise to praise the peers that were doing the expected behaviors to remind (and entice) others to do the same. 

Resources

If your students are struggling with work times, you don’t want to miss my social story and choices sort described above!

Or if you have other social skills your students need help with, don’t miss my other posts with accompanying resource packs:

Work Time

Being a Good Friend 

(include freebies!)

Or grab my bundle of all 3 and save!

 

Social Skills Direct Instruction in the Special Education Classroom-- Work Time

Download my FREE Being a Good Friend Social Story and Choices Sorting Mat!

I look forward to connecting with you and sharing SpEd Spot tips and FREEBIES!

Built with ConvertKit

As I have shared before, in the special education classroom student behaviors often stem from a deficit in social skills. If we only reactively address the behavior, then it will be hard to see lasting improvement. However, proactively addressing behavior concerns with social skills direct instruction can make a huge difference!

Problem Scenario

Group work times are often a time of the day when we see an increase in unexpected behaviors. Not only can students struggle with their own on task behaviors, but they can also have difficulty juggling social expectations as well. 

Work Time Social Skills Direct Instruction

When teaching social skills (or any new skill really) I tend to follow the same sequence of steps:

1. Teach: 

First, I teach the expected skill. Using a social story can be a great evidence-based strategy for introducing the concepts. Over the years, skills related to group work time that my students needed to work on included:

• Sitting appropriately
• Taking turns
• Raising their hands
• Sharing
• Joint attention
• Work completion
• Listening

The social story I created included all of these different skills but there were years that I would remove some of the pages if my students didn't need help in that area. This allowed us to focus more on the target behaviors. I laminated my social story and bound it using binder rings which made it easy to adapt from year to year!

This is also when we introduced the vocabulary we would be using from now on to remind students of what was expected and provide direct feedback such as what it means to “share” or have a “quiet mouth”. 

 

2. Practice: 

After reviewing the social story, there were several ways we practiced the skills.

• Role Playing: We would act out different scenarios illustrating the concepts we learned. My paras and I would act out the unexpected behaviors and students would act out the expected behaviors. We would go through the social story page by page to guide us.

• Games: Since there were so many skills to work on, I found that it was best to practice some of the skills in isolation using games such as playing Simon Says to work on listening.

• Choices Sort: I also completed a choices sort with my students. Depending on the year, we called it different things such as good/bad choices, green/red choices, and expected/unexpected choices. We did this as a cut and paste activity the first time but I also created reusable file folders to be used for priming and review later.

To make the sorts reusable, I printed the sorting cards on cardstock and laminated them. Then, I attached velcro to the back of each card. Next, I used a long file folder and made one side "good choices" and the other side "bad choices" (you can use the sorting mat headers as the folder headers... that's what I did!). I made an extra copy of the social story book cover and used it as the sorting folder cover. Then, I laminated the file folder and put velcro dots on the inside under each heading.

3. Generalize: 

It is important to be purposeful in planning how you will facilitate generalization of new skills.

• Prime: Prior to our group work times, I would review the social story or the sort to prime them or remind them of what was expected. 

• Prompt: If we noticed that a student was struggling in the moment, we would use visual reminders of what to do. I did not use what not to do since it was hard for some of my students to infer what to do instead, especially in the heat of the moment! The “good choice” visuals were helpful and at times I would make them into a visual cue ring for my paras and I to have on our lanyard so we were ready at all times!

4. Reinforce: 

This requires a lot of “catch them being good” time and looking for even the smallest successes. Since I was mostly leading the group, my paras would quietly praise any example of the expected behaviors we had taught. It was so rewarding even for us to spend more time focusing on the good behaviors and less time correcting unexpected behaviors! When a problem behavior would pop up, I implemented some pivot praise to praise the peers that were doing the expected behaviors to remind (and entice) others to do the same. 

Resources

If your students are struggling with work times, you don’t want to miss my social story and choices sort described above!

Or if you have other social skills your students need help with, don’t miss my other posts with accompanying resource packs:

Circle Time

Being a Good Friend 

(include freebies!)

Or grab my bundle of all 3 and save!