Writing Behavior Support Plans
for Real Implementation
WCESC
SOCIAL COMMUNICATION PROGRAM
MOLLY LEICHT
CHRISTY EVEN
Why don’t some behavior plans work?
 Plan cannot be supported by the environment
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Lack of resources
 No one is supervising the implementation
 Vague communication with staff
 Individuals implementing the plan are not involved in
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the planning
Individuals have differing behavior philosophies
Expectation of immediate results
Staff aren’t reinforced for their efforts
Administrators and other school staff aren’t educated in
plan.
Expectations are too high
Julie Donnelly, Ph.D. and Joan E. Armstrong, MS
Important Components of Behavior Plans
Designed for Implementation
 Assessment
 Proactive Interventions
 Skills to Teach (Replacement
Behaviors)
 Plan for Implementation
 Reinforcement system
 Creation of supports
Difference between Behavior Plans and Crisis Plans
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Behavior Plans
Teachable moments
Proactive interventions
Skills to teach
Most of plan dedicated to
when the student is in
the ‘rumbling’ stage
Assessment
Long term
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Crisis Plans
Student is in rage
Student is not able to
process or reason
NOT a time to teach
For safety of student,
staff and others
Goal is to de-escalate
student
CPI
Short term
Assessment- Where to Begin?
 Antecedents
 Consequences
 Function
 Baseline Data- Frequency, Interval, Intensity
 Analyzing the data- team process
 Assessment is ongoing
 Underlying characteristics
Case Study- Daniel
Observed Behaviors
 Physical aggression: hitting, kicking, biting
 Yelling and/or crying
 Running from area or adult
 Throwing objects (small and large)
 Cursing (hard to understand)
 Refusal to follow directions
 Excitable state: flapping hands, jumping, tensing
body, giggling
Case Study- Daniel
Antecedents
 Change in schedule or perceived routine
 Change in environmental make-up of personnel or students
 Stressful or overwhelming social interactions
 Anxiety brought about by fearful situations (wheelchairs, etc.)
 Large transitions (e.g. arriving and departing from school)
 Breakdowns in communication due to articulation or lack of
language/word finding skills
 Lack of understanding of what and how much is expected of
him
 Being told “no” or “stop” to a preferred activity or item.
Case Study- Daniel
Function of Behavior
 Attention (most often)
 Tangible
 Escape due to transition
 Sensory
 The function of each behavior can be singular or be
maintained by several functions. The function of
each behavior can change within the situation.
Proactive Interventions
 Day to day interventions
 Understanding the underlying characteristics
 Direct skills to teach (ex. calm down strategies),
but not related directly to behavior
 Indirect skills to teach (ex. social skills), but not
related directly to behavior
 Good teaching strategies
 Should be the largest section of behavior plan
Case Study- Daniel
 Proactive interventions
 Use of basic structured teaching principles (visual supports, physical
structure of classroom and materials, consistent routine communicated
with visual schedules)
 Plan for positive reinforcement- use of token board and verbal/social
praise.
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Student picks ‘what he is working for’, tokens are placed on a board when positive behaviors
are displayed, when all the tokens are earned student engages in chosen activity or item
Student may also earn ‘special rewards’ for activities or situations that are particularly
challenging.
Random reinforcement throughout the day (small items during group instruction, 1:1 work
or transitions)
 Use of timers or visual supports (tokens or schedules) to communicate how
much work is expected and when it will be finished
 Giving choices in regards to order of activities or type of activities
 Teaching and reinforcing independent work and play (ex. Play
independently for ____ minutes before receive reinforcement and/or
preferred adult interaction)
Case Study-continued
 Use of soft voice, whispering or singing especially during
transitions.
 Staff should not talk about student’s behavior in front of him.
 Development and maintenance of a sensory diet throughout
his day Current sensory regulation strategies include the
following:
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Brushing protocol upon arrival to school and after afternoon recess
Therapeutic Listening program 2x per day for 10 -20 minutes per session
Swing in the “pouch” swing 3 x per day for 10 minutes each session with
or without music
Chore in the afternoon to include heavy work: wipe tables/chairs, stack
chairs, sweep etc…
 Constant awareness of ‘rumbling’ stage (student becomes
quiet and eye gaze turns down) and use of redirection or other
supports to thwart negative behavior
Case Study- continued
 Based on data, a theory has been developed that Daniel chooses a person in his
environment that becomes of special interest and increases Daniel’s
anxiety/excitability. This can sometimes be the person that he perceives to be the
‘authority’. Intervention includes removal of interaction with this individual
during the behavior (ignoring) and prompting strategies implemented by other
staff to find appropriate times and ways to gain attention. See below for specific
information about switching staff during a calm down break. See attached for
specific prompting strategies to be used by staff.
 Explanation of new or anxiety producing situations (social stories, visual
supports, verbal explanations of other’s behavior)
 Uses of demand fade procedure when behaviors occur during a work task.
 Demand is decreased to the last amount in which the student displayed no
behaviors. Demand is slowly increased as positive work behaviors are
displayed. For example, the student was asked to do five tasks and showed
behaviors on the second task. When student returns to work, he will only be
asked to do two tasks before he receives a break. As positive behaviors are
displayed, the amount of work expected is slowly increased.
 Sometimes, use preferred activities to engage student in positive work behaviors.
Skills to Teach
 Directly related to behavior
 Replacement behaviors
 Underlying characteristics
 Examples:
 Social skills
 Waiting
 Tolerating ‘no’, ‘wait’, ‘later’
 Teaching schedules (transitions)/change
 Scripts
 Self-calming
Case Study
 Appropriate ways to gain attention (raise hand, tap on shoulder/arm, silent
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waving)
Calm down strategies (peanut butters- slow rubbing on legs, rubbing hands
together, dots and squeezes, independent repetitive activities- puzzles, peg
boards, sorting, etc.)
Teach Social Cognitive Thinking Skills which include:
recognizing/identifying who is your group in order to identify who it is
appropriate to have a conversation with, recognizing/identifying that
Daniel may have to wait to have a conversation with a person and then
identifying and stating when a more appropriate time will be
Reciprocal conversation skills- picking appropriate topics, expanding
repertoire of topics
Teach recognition of internal state (two color system); recognize that he is
anxious or worried
Teach recognition of being able to calm down on own or to take a break
If Daniel tells anyone at school, “I love you.” prompt him to use appropriate
language to express his feelings.
Implementation
 Creating procedures for the team to
share and posting (cheat sheet)
 Practice/Role Play
 Working document
 Communication with staff
 Administration support
 Supervision of plan
Staff response to Behavior
 Different functions of behavior may require different
responses from staff.
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Tangible
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Escape
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First/then; reminds of reward
Staff works through behavior
Attention
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Staff ignores and redirects
 Open discussion about differing behavior
philosophies
Reinforcement System
 Part of proactive interventions
 May be most important part of behavior plan
 Self-management strategies
Supports Needed
 Creation of supports
 Ease of use
 Durable
 Simple
 Everyone uses the same ‘script’
 Make sure supports are realistic with the
resources available
 Does not need to be ‘pretty’
Things to remember
 Actionable
 Training staff
 Realistic
 Measurable