Many students may benefit from an individualised positive behaviour support plan, but often these plans fail to meet the needs of the students concerned. Many educators want to know when a behaviour support plan is needed, how can they help develop one that is student-centred and effective, and how to ensure the behaviour support plan meets the needs of the student for long-term change?
A team of Monash Education researchers explain when behaviour support plans are needed and offer practical and evidence-based strategies for teachers in developing them.
What is a behaviour support plan?
A behaviour support plan is a written set of strategies that parents, educators, and professionals often use to address the needs of a person who is displaying behaviours of concern.
Behaviours of concern:
- Anything that puts the person or those around them (such as their carer or teacher) at risk
- Causes them to have a reduced quality of life
- Impacts their ability to join in everyday activities.
If one or more of these behaviours have been identified, a high-quality positive behaviour support plan to address the underlying cause is needed.
A behaviour support plan focuses on prevention and proactive strategies for teaching new skills. It takes the form of a written document so everyone who supports the person (such as their parents or guardians, teachers, and support workers) will take a consistent approach.
The importance of prevention
There is a strong relationship between academic skills and behaviours of concern being displayed in the classroom.
In other words, persistent behaviours of concern are likely to interfere with academic participation and learning, and academic tasks that are too difficult or not enjoyed by students are likely to set off behaviours of concern.
That’s why, as our recent research shows, behaviour support plans are best delivered within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), which integrates academic, behavioural, and student wellbeing programs into one unified framework. This framework provides all students with the best opportunities to succeed academically and socially in school, and is delivered in three tiers, through the lens of positive and proactive practice. Figure 1: The three tiers
- At Tier 1, the MTSS aims to create a safe, welcoming, and effective learning environment for all learners with few distractions and keep students engaged in classroom instruction.
- At Tier 2, smaller groups of students who do not respond to initial supports provided at Tier 1 receive more frequent and intensive support to help them engage in learning (in addition to Tier 1 supports).
- At Tier 3, the smallest number of students (i.e., those who do not respond to supports provided at Tiers 1 and 2) receive highly individualised and data driven support matched to their individual need – this is the behaviour support plan.
A behaviour support plan will be implemented in conjunction with positive, proactive, and preventative practices that optimise student learning and behavioural, social, and emotional development.
Understanding trauma when developing behaviour support plans
Although not all students who display behaviours of concern will have experienced traumatic life events, some will. That’s why it’s important to adopt a trauma-informed approach when supporting students with behaviours of concern (Berger & Martin, 2020).
Top tips for adopting a trauma-informed approach:
- Understanding the risk factors for trauma (family violence, mental health issues, poverty, social isolation, lack of learning opportunities etc), as well as the protective factors against trauma (such as positive attachment to caregivers, strong sense of belonging in family and community, peer role models and access to social services ).
- Learning how trauma can impact the development of the brain, in particular the parts of the brain that perceive threat and are related to fight or flight reactions.
- Understanding what trauma is – not an event per say, but a response to a stressful event or series of events in which the person’s ability to cope is significantly reduced – and realising that each person’s response to a potentially stressful event is different.
- Acknowledging that some behaviours of concern can actually be adaptive responses to trauma. This is because students may actually not have their basic needs for food, shelter, affection, and safety met. Behaviours of concern may allow students to communicate their most basic wants and needs.
- Always promoting safety first (physical safety and positive, safe relationships) and helping trauma-impacted students to experience choice and control within their lives.
Developing a behaviour support plan for students
Here is an overview of our five-step model for developing a high quality behaviour support plan for students.
Step 1: Conduct a functional behaviour assessment
A functional behaviour assessment (FBA) is a data-driven process for identifying the underlying reason for, or purpose of, challenging behaviour. It assumes that challenging behaviour is a form of communication for the person and helps to decipher what they’re trying to say.
Research suggests that behaviour support strategies are most effective when they address the function of behaviour, usually by teaching safer and more understandable forms of communication, and that strategies informed by the results of an FBA are more likely to bring about meaningful and long-lasting positive changes in behaviour.
For more on this, see our previous TeachSpace article, How to find the underlying reasons for challenging behaviour with functional behaviour assessment.
Step 2: Look at ways to change the environment around the person
Changing the environment around the student will increase the student’s ability to participate in learning activities and social interactions, as well as decrease the likelihood of (or prevent) the behaviour of concern from occurring in the first place.
Example of changing the environment:
A student is engaging in behaviours of concern to get the attention of their peers. You can try the following proactive and preventative strategies to change their environment:
- Create predictable times throughout the class period for social interactions for all students and use visuals to signal when it’s time for social interactions, versus when it’s time for quiet.
- Allow the student to give input into the types of activities they would like to do at school with friends, and who they would like to play with. Co-create a daily or weekly calendar with the student that shows when these activities will occur.
- Create opportunities for the student to participate in mutually enjoyable activities with peers, with support from a buddy or teacher, to help the student build more positive relationships with peers. Provide frequent check-ins and positive feedback to the student during social interactions.
- Provide opportunities for the student to access both universal and targeted access to programs that will develop their social and emotional competencies, including their social skills.
- Employ strategies within the school and classroom that help students build a sense of belonging and feel safe, welcome, accepted, respected and valued. For more on this, see 5 Ways to Boost Students’ Sense of School Belonging.
Step 3: Teach safer and more understandable communication
Teaching safer and more understandable forms of communication will help the student express their wants and needs without engaging in the behaviour of concern.
It is important that the communication behaviour (or replacement behaviour) serves the same function of the behaviour of concern.
Example of teaching safer and more understandable communication:
Sam is engaging in behaviours of concern to avoid participating in difficult or non-preferred classroom learning activities.
A replacement behaviour might be to teach Sam to request a break from, or help with, the difficult task. First, practice the replacement behaviour as a role-play when the stakes are low. Then prompt the student to use the replacement behaviour when difficult or non-preferred tasks are presented.
Reinforce the replacement behaviour by providing the break or help as soon as they ask. However, if the task is difficult, it is also important to meet the student where they are at, and look for ways to break the task down into smaller components. We want to help the student re-engage in academic activities.
Step 4: Stay calm and safe when behaviours of concern occur
It is important to have a plan in place when the behaviour of concern happens.
If the behaviour of concern does not pose a safety risk to the student or others, it is helpful to stay calm, redirect the student back to an activity, and minimise the amount of attention provided to the behaviour of concern (while still attending to the student). It’s also a good opportunity to prompt the student to use the replacement behaviour.
You can also try to co-regulate with the student when these types of behaviours occur, which means adjusting your own tone of voice and body language to model calm and regulated behaviour.
If the behaviour of concern does pose a safety risk to the student, others, or property, it is important to first build a team around the student. All members of the team will be a part of the student’s support group, and include the teacher and a school leader, as well as specialists who have experience supporting students with high-risk behaviour.
Taking a team approach when supporting a student with high-risk behaviours of concern is important because it ensures that responsibility for safety is shared and provides opportunities for team-based debriefing, data analysis, and problem solving.
Team actions for students who show high-risk behaviours of concern:
- Identify any ‘precursor behaviours’ that tend to reliably occur before the high-risk behaviour. For example, you might find that refusing to participate frequently precedes your student’s aggressive behaviour, so your team will know how to help the student communicate their wants and needs when they begin to protest or show reluctance in joining an activity.
- Develop a safety plan that clearly describes what everyone’s to do in the event that the behaviour of concern occurs. The safety plan will articulate the steps to be taken to maintain the safety of the student and others as the top priority, and to diffuse the situation quickly and calmly.
- Create regular times to meet as a team to debrief, review incidents, and problem solve how to support the student in proactive ways, to prevent future occurrences of the high-risk behaviour of concern.
Step 5: Monitor the effectiveness of the behaviour support plan
Data will be collected to allow for monitoring of the effectiveness of the behaviour support plan. ‘Data’ are any pieces of information that can be described, observed, measured, thematically or categorically organised, quantified, and analysed. Data collection allows the team to determine what is working well and be continued, and what practices and interventions are not benefiting students and be discontinued.
Types of data collection:
Indirect data are generally measures of perception, opinion, or attitude about a behaviour, skill, or practice. It can be collected using rating scales, surveys, or interviews. These types of data are helpful in providing real-life examples of how the plan is working or where it can be improved. Indirect data can also include measures of things that are correlated with behaviours of concern, such as the frequency of out-of-school referrals, suspensions, expulsions, or critical incidents.
Direct data are measures of behaviour targeted for increase (communication) or reduction (behaviours of concern). There are many different types of direct data that can be recorded. The type of data collection system used will depend on the target behaviours that are being measured, and the resources in the environment in which the plan will be implemented (for example, staffing ratios and other practical considerations).
Additional resources
Download our FREE behaviour support plan template (docx).
This template can be used as a guide for developing behaviour support plans that include the most important components.
If you are interested in learning more about conducting functional behaviour assessments and developing behaviour support plans, we recommend the following resources:
Steege, M. W., Pratt, J. L., Wickerd, G., Guare, R., & Watson, T. S. (2019). Conducting school-based functional behavioral assessments: A practitioner's guide. Guilford Publications.
Greene, R. W. (2016). Lost & Found: Helping behaviorally challenging students. Jossey-Bass.
Ayre, K., & Krishnamoorthy, G. (2020). Trauma informed behaviour support: a practical guide to developing resilient learners. USQ Pressbooks, Toowoomba, Australia.
References
Berger, E., & Martin, K. (2021). Embedding trauma‐informed practice within the education sector. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 31(2), 223-227.
Leif, E., Allen, K., Fox, R., Stocker, K. (2021). A review of the evidence for multi-tiered systems of support. Reported prepared for the Victorian Department of Education and Training.
