Writing Behavior Support Plans for Real Implementation

1. Writing Behavior Support Plans for Real Implementation WCESC Social Communication Program Molly Leicht Christy Even

2. Why don’t some behavior plans work? • Plan cannot be supported by the environment • Lack of resources • No one is supervising the implementation • Vague communication with staff • Individuals implementing the plan are not involved in 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

3. Important Components of Behavior Plans Designed for Implementation • Assessment • Proactive Interventions • Skills to Teach (Replacement Behaviors) • Plan for Implementation • Reinforcement system • Creation of supports

4. Difference between Behavior Plans and Crisis Plans 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 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

5. Assessment- Where to Begin? • Antecedents • Consequences • Function • Baseline Data- Frequency, Interval, Intensity • Analyzing the data- team process • Assessment is ongoing • Underlying characteristics

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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. • 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)

12. 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: • 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

13. 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.

14. 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

15. Case Study • Appropriate ways to gain attention (raise hand, tap on shoulder/arm, silent 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.

21. 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

22. Staff response to Behavior • Different functions of behavior may require different responses from staff. • Tangible • First/then; reminds of reward • Escape • Staff works through behavior • Attention • Staff ignores and redirects • Open discussion about differing behavior philosophies

23. Reinforcement System • Part of proactive interventions • May be most important part of behavior plan • Self-management strategies

24. 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’

25. Things to remember • Actionable • Training staff • Realistic • Measurable