What's this behavior all about?

From my experience in the preschool classroom, I found that staff had various opinions about the purpose of students’ challenging behaviors. We were unable to successfully assist students with behavior challenges until we all learned how to assess why children behaved in certain manners. After learning how to conduct functional behavior assessments, I believe we all gained a better understanding that behavior is communication. Instead of thinking of challenges as “bad behavior,” we can study students’ behavior as a manner in which they communicating their needs.

Families and school staff must follow specific steps in learning students’ needs, or the function of their behavior. They should observe and record the behavior occurring on a regular basis, describing events that occur right before the behavior, the challenging behavior itself, and the event that occurs right after the behavior (Hester et al, 2009). By observing the patterns in this information, families and school staff are able to determine the purpose of children’s behavior so that they are able to correctly implement strategies to match the behavior. Below is an example of a graph used in recording this information.

Antecedent	Behavior	Consequence
(What occurs right before the behavior?)	(What is the challenging behavior)	(What occurs right after the behavior?)
Johnny is instructed to write his name	Johnny throws class materials	Johnny gets a time out, misses out on work
Johnny is instructed to do a cutting project	Johnny throws class materials	Johnny gets a time out, misses out on work
Johnny is given manipulatives for play	Johnny throws class materials	Johnny gets a time out, misses manips
Johnny is instructed to write his name	Johnny throws class materials	Johnny gets a time out, misses out on work

It is important to note that the purpose of behavior is to escape or obtain something (Hester et al, 2009). After observing the pattern above, family and staff can see that Johnny always throws materials after a fine motor activity is introduced. In addition, he is able to escape completing the activity after his outburst occurs.  Family and school staff can presume that the function of Johnny’s behavior is that he throws classroom materials to escape fine motor activities.

After learning the purpose of a student’s behavior, it is important to create positive behavior supports that help the student replace the challenging behavior with appropriate behavior that helps him/her achieve the same result (Hester et al, 2009). For example, given fine motor activities, Johnny can ask for a break to achieve his goal of escaping an activity. After realizing that they cannot avoid giving Johnny fine motor projects, the family and school staff could also create accommodations or modifications to the projects to make them less frustrating for Johnny. Eventually, they would seek to challenge Johnny over time so that he could complete more complex fine motor tasks when he is ready for them.

So when looking at your child/student’s challenging behavior, think about the events that occur right before and after the behavior and ask yourself, “What is he/she seeking to obtain or escape?” After understanding the child’s specific needs, you will be able to create more appropriate strategies to address his/her challenging behavior.