Challenging behavior can interfere with children’s learning and can even be harmful to the child and others. Working with children with challenging behaviors can be stressful for providers, teachers, and caregivers. Part of a multitiered system of support, Tier 3 includes practices for providing individualized, more intensive interventions to children with persistent challenging behaviors when other approaches have not been successful.

Tier 3 practices focus on performing a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and developing a behavior support plan.

A team-based approach is key. It is important to remember that performing an FBA and developing a behavior support plan is most successful when using a team-based approach guided by a knowledgeable facilitator (e.g., behavior specialist, mental health consultant, social worker, trained staff member). Other potential team members may include the child’s parents, teachers, school administrators/directors, childcare providers, therapists, other caregivers, and other family members.

Functional Behavioral Assessments and Behavior Support Plans are complementary. Active participation and collaboration among team members is essential to understanding the purpose of a child’s challenging behavior and appropriately responding to it. The complementary process of conducting an FBA and using this information to develop a behavior support plan can promote children’s social and emotional skills and reduce challenging behaviors before they lead to suspensions or expulsions in early childhood settings.

How do I do this?

Step 1. Discuss and reflect. Discuss with your providers/teachers the importance of using a systematic process to understand how, why, and when a child’s challenging behavior occurs. This information can be used to develop an effective behavior support plan.

• It is important to recognize what systems and practices are currently in place to address challenging behavior. Providers/teachers and staff should be supported as they reflect on their own practices. It may be helpful to ask questions.
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• What do you do when there is a child in your classroom who engages in challenging behavior?
• What strategies do you use to address children’s challenging behavior?
• When using these strategies, what has been working well and what has been challenging?

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• It can also be helpful to discuss to what extent practices that are specifically relevant to FBA and behavior support plans may or may not be present. Providers/teachers may already be engaged in these steps but call it something else.
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• Do you have experience conducting an FBA and developing a behavior support plan?
  • Have you encountered any challenges?
  • Are there supports you would like to help you conduct an FBA and/or develop a behavior support plan?
• Do you have a process for collecting information about:
  • What predicts a student’s challenging behavior (i.e., antecedent)?
  • What the behavior looks and sounds like?
  • What happens right after the challenging behavior occurs (i.e., consequence)?
  • When, or during which classroom routines, the behavior is most likely to happen (i.e., setting event)?
  • Why the child engages in the challenging behavior (i.e., behavior hypothesis statement)?
• Whom do you typically work with when trying to support a child with persistent challenging behavior?
• When a challenging behavior occurs in your classroom, how is it being documented?
  • Do you use specific tools or forms to describe the behavior?
  • How do you keep track of the frequency and intensity at which it is occurring?
• Are you using strategies to prevent challenging behaviors from occurring (i.e., prevention strategies)?
• Are you teaching children new skills that they can use to replace the challenging behavior (i.e., replacement skills)?
• Are you using strategies to help adults respond to the child’s behavior in a way that ensures the challenging behavior is not maintained and that new skills are learned (i.e., consequence strategies)?
• Has an Individualized Education Program (IEP)6 or Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) been developed for this child? If so, how can the existing goals/outcomes of the IEP/IFSP be integrated into this discussion? In what ways can we align the outcomes/goals of the IEP/IFSP with the goals of the proposed behavior support plan?

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Step 2. Support providers/teachers in documenting the behavior.

• The nature of the behavior. Provide a clear description of the behavior. What, specifically, does the child say or do? The behavior should be observable, measurable, and precise.

Vignette 1: Shaun’s disruptive behaviors include hitting, pinching, and kicking other children and adults.

Vignette 2: Sophie’s disruptive behaviors include crying, lying on the floor, refusing to participate (e.g., saying, “no,”), and leaving the assigned area.

• What happens just before the behavior? Write down the specific predictors and setting events leading up to a challenging behavior. This can help in understanding what triggers the behavior and under what conditions the behavior is likely to occur.

Vignette 1: Shaun is playing with the blocks and a dump truck, and another child reaches for a block. Shaun tends to exhibit challenging behavior in the block area or sandbox when another child tries to take a toy he’s playing with or a toy that is near him.

Vignette 2: Sophie’s provider announces that it’s time to transition to circle time activities. Sophie tends to exhibit challenging behaviors during non-preferred activities like circle time.

• What is the response to the challenging behavior? Observe the events that follow a challenging behavior. This can help providers/teachers and caregivers understand what is maintaining the challenging behavior.

Vignette 1: When Shaun hits, kicks, or pinches other children, they drop the toy and pick a new one.

Vignette 2: When Sophie cries and leaves the carpet during circle time, her provider, Mr. Brown asks the aide to talk and work with Sophie quietly at a table.

• Why the child might be exhibiting the behavior? It is important to understand the purpose or function of the child’s behavior. How is it “working” for the child, and what does the child get out of it?
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There are two main functions of children’s behavior:
• To obtain something (positive reinforcement), such as
  • A preferred activity (e.g., playing with a favorite toy)
  • Sensory input (e.g., interesting lights and sounds)
  • Attention (e.g., time with an adult or peer, physical contact)
• To escape something (negative reinforcement), such as
  • A non-preferred activity (e.g., a difficult task, a boring group activity)
  • Sensory input (e.g., hunger, pain)

The function of a child’s challenging behavior may not be obvious. In some cases, the function may change over time or serve multiple purposes. Continue to collect data to gather more information and discuss how to proceed with the behavior support team.

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Step 3. Use the information to develop a hypothesis. Information that is gathered and documented during a functional behavioral assessment is used to develop a behavior hypothesis statement. This is a “best guess” about why the child’s behavior is occurring.

Step 4. Use the information from the functional behavioral assessment and behavior hypothesis statement to develop a behavior support plan. The behavior hypothesis statement provides an assumption about the function of a child’s challenging behavior. It is central to developing an individualized, assessment-based behavior support plan to address a child’s persistent challenging behavior. A behavior support plan is designed to do the following:

• Provide prevention strategies. Prevention strategies are ways to make events and interactions that predict challenging behavior easier for the child to manage. When used, prevention strategies reduce the likelihood that a challenging behavior will occur. They may include environmental arrangements, personal support, changes in activities, new ways to prompt a child, or changes in expectations.

  Vignette 1: Ms. Flowers helps the behavior support team brainstorm strategies to prevent Shaun’s hitting, pinching, and kicking. Since Shaun engages in these behaviors to obtain preferred toys, the team decides to provide multiples of high-interest toys (e.g., blocks and dump trucks) at school.

  Vignette 2: As a prevention strategy, the behavior support team implements the use of a visual schedule with Sophie. On this visual schedule are pictures and text that depict a sequence of events. Adults use this tool with Sophie to help her see a visual representation of her day (e.g., breakfast, circle time, books, alphabet/numbers, recess, circle time, free play, nap time). The team agrees to provide clear expectations when using the visual schedule with Sophie to help with transitions between activities. They also give 2-minute warnings before the end of a preferred activity.

• Teach the child replacement skills. Replacement skills are skills for the child to use instead of the challenging behavior. Teaching the child appropriate social, behavioral, and communication skills allows him/her to successfully participate in everyday activities and routines. Caregivers should provide the child with consistent positive reinforcement when used.
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• When the purpose of the challenging behavior is to obtain something (e.g., attention, desired object, preferred activity), replacement skills that may be taught to the child include:
  • Asking for help
  • Asking for a turn
  • Asking for an item
  • Following a schedule
  • Participating in a routine

Vignette 1: Shaun’s speech therapist encourages the team to teach Shaun how to ask, “Can I play?” or say “My turn” whenever he wants access to a preferred toy. They also design a choice board that serves as a visual cue for Shaun. He uses the choice board to point to the toys he wants to play with.
Example Choice Board



• When the purpose of the challenging behavior is to escape something (e.g., a demand, social interaction, non-preferred activity), replacement skills that may be taught to the child include:
  • Asking for a break
  • Saying, “No”
  • Saying, “All done”
  • Identifying and expressing feelings
  • Using supports to follow rules
  • Following a schedule

Vignette 2: The team teaches Sophie the replacement skill of asking for a break both verbally and by using her visual schedule when she hears a song or story she doesn’t like during circle time. The team teaches Sophie to move the pictures on the visual schedule herself. The physical movement of the picture paired with the 2-minute warnings provides Sophie the support she needs between transitions. She learns to ask for a break instead of crying or running away.


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• Provide consequence strategies. Consequence strategies provide guidelines for how the child’s caregivers should respond to the child’s challenging behavior. This is to ensure that the behavior is not maintained and the new replacement skill is learned. The team can discuss their actions and responses to the child across settings, and then brainstorm appropriate ways to respond.
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  • When the purpose of the challenging behavior is to obtain something (e.g., attention, object, preferred activity), consequence strategies might include:
    • Redirecting the child to use a replacement skill
    • Offering choices
    • Stating clearly what the expectation is
    • Using “wait time”
    • Praising/reinforcing the child for engaging in appropriate behavior

  Vignette 1: Adults in the classroom stay around the block area and sandbox where Shaun’s challenging behaviors are more likely to occur in order to monitor the situation. They prompt Shaun to say “my turn,” redirect him to use his choice board, and provide positive reinforcement. They set up opportunities for Shaun to practice at school with other children and at home with Shaun’s brother.
  Example Behavior Support Plan for Shaun
  
  

  • When the purpose of the challenging behavior is to escape something (e.g., a demand, social interaction, non-preferred activity), consequence strategies might include:
    • Redirecting the child to use an appropriate replacement skill and then allowing escape
    • Offering alternatives
    • Stating clearly what the expectation is
    • Using “wait time”
    • Praising/reinforcing the child for engaging in appropriate behavior
    • Responding in a way that does not maintain the challenging behavior

  Vignette 2: Instead of providing access to the aide whenever Sophie refuses to participate in circle time, Mr. Brown and the aide redirect Sophie to use her visual schedule. They prompt her to ask for a break and then allow her to go to a quiet spot. The length of time that Sophie sits during circle time can gradually be extended (sit for first song/activity, then allow escape; sit for 2 activities, then allow escape, etc.). Every time Sophie follows directions and stays on-task, the team provides ample praise.
  Example Behavior Support Plan for Sophie
  
  

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Step 5. Identify training needs. Support your providers/teachers as they identify their professional development goals and training needs. They should feel prepared and comfortable conducting an FBA and developing and using a behavior support plan. Take into account if providers/teachers are unfamiliar with the process or if they have some experience. For providers/teachers who have not done this before, an in-person training led by a behavior specialist may be helpful.

If meeting in person is not feasible, additional support is available online. The Center for the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) offers free, comprehensive online modules that address topics such as determining the meaning of challenging behavior (see Module 3a) and developing a behavior support plan (see Module 3b).

Have a conversation with providers/teachers about their strengths and challenges related to this process.

Step 6. Plan course of action. After identifying professional development goals and needs, you should work with providers/teachers to identify action steps to help them accomplish their goals.

Step 7. Acknowledge progress. It is important to recognize the progress that providers/teachers and team members of the child’s behavior support team make. It is also encouraging for team members to acknowledge each other’s achievements.

• Team members can acknowledge each other’s achievements through “shout outs” in regular emails, meetings, or newsletters.

  Vignette 1: “Congratulations to Ms. Johnson and her team for implementing an assessment-based behavior support plan for one of her children! The team’s time and dedication to this process are greatly appreciated!”
  

• Program leaders can personally call or send handwritten notes to thank family members who are participating in the process.

  Vignette 1: Ms. Holloway writes a note to Shaun’s grandmother to thank her for coming in after school to answer interview questions about her grandson’s behavior at home. She also thanks her for her commitment to working with the teachers to support her grandson’s success at school and to implement his behavior support plan at home.
  

• Program leaders can develop a system so parents or other caregivers at home can send handwritten thank you notes to providers/teachers and staff on the behavior support team.

  Vignette 2: Sophie’s mom sends a note to Sophie’s provider Mr. Brown that says, “Thank you for giving Sophie better strategies to use whenever she encounters an activity that she doesn’t like at school. We are using the same strategies with her at home, and it has been making things a lot easier!”
  

• Team members can acknowledge one another during team meetings (e.g., gift card for a local coffee shop) with a few words thanking them for a specific task.

  Vignette 2: “Thanks, Mr. Brown and Ms. Peterson, for carefully recording information about Sophie’s behavior on the scatter plot form. It really helped us figure out during which classroom routines Sophie’s challenging behavior is most likely to happen.”
  

Step 8. Assess progress and new needs. It is important to remember that establishing and implementing an individualized intervention for children with persistent challenging behavior is an iterative process. It is one that should continually be assessed to understand what is and is not working well so that adjustments and refinements to the behavior support plan can be made.

One circumstance that illustrates the importance of monitoring progress and assessing for new needs is the chance that the behavior support team misinterprets the function of the challenging behavior. This could impose a consequence that actually reinforces the behavior instead of reducing it. For example, a behavior support team may initially hypothesize that the child is seeking attention. However, when the child’s behavior does not improve after the behavior support plan is implemented, the team may collect additional FBA information and reanalyze the data. They may find that the child is actually using the challenging behavior to avoid attention. This additional information can help the team revise the behavior hypothesis statement and adjust the behavior support plan to more effectively reduce the challenging behavior.

In order to make necessary adjustments to the behavior support plan and to offer continual support where needed, administrators should meet regularly with team members. Regular team meetings and check-ins allow team members to identify, share, and troubleshoot challenges.

Once a child’s behavior support plan is implemented, it could be valuable to hold a reflection session for the team to compile a list of “pluses” (what worked well) and “deltas” (what the team would like to change in the future). Equally important is to brainstorm strategies for addressing deltas. Team members can learn from each other by meeting or creating a document to share lessons learned and strategies found to be effective.

What Barriers Might I Run Into and What Are Solutions?

Potential Barrier: Providers/teachers lack the time and expertise to conduct a functional behavior assessment and develop a behavior support plan.
Solution: It is important to remember that the process for establishing and implementing an assessment-based behavior support plan is most effective as a team-based process. Having a behavior specialist/consultant on the team may be a good idea to serve as a source of expertise and training for your providers/teachers so that they feel supported at every step. Parents and families are essential to this process and involving caregivers with whom the child interacts on a daily basis promotes the child’s success in learning replacement skills across all settings.

Potential Barrier: Engaging the family.
Solution: Time constraints and teaming can be a challenge for the whole team. However, because this is a team-based process, every effort should be made to involve all team members, especially the parents of the child. Effective collaboration depends on good leadership and building relationships, and successful teaming is achieved when team members are actively participating in the process and feel like their input is being valued.

• Attend periodic parent-teacher conferences to meet parents and make the effort to learn more about the child or what’s going on at home. Communication is key.
• Create a safe environment at team meetings to foster open communication among team members.
• Build rapport and help to facilitate the conversation so that everyone has a chance to have his/her voice heard. (Parents and family members can give insight to how, when, and why a child’s challenging behavior occurs because they may observe it at home, on the playground, at a family member’s house, at the grocery store, with siblings, etc.)
• Ensure that all team members are actively participating in goal setting and plan development. This helps to keep team members invested in the process, so that everyone is on the same page and has a “shared vision”7 for the child. Goals should be agreed upon and attainable.
• Integrate the FBA and behavior support plan process into already existing IEP/IFSP meetings. One or both parents are required to attend IEP/IFSP meetings, so this will help ensure their participation in the process.
• Emphasize to parents and family members that additional support and training resources are always available (see Where do I go for more resources?)
• See the following resources for more information on teaming:
  Show Resources
  • Talking with Families About Challenging Behavior Do’s and Don’ts Sheet
  • Collaborative Team Meeting Notes Worksheet
  • Collaborative Action Planning Form
  • Strategies for Teaming with Families in the Process of Positive Behavior Support
  • Collaborating with Families: Building Capacity

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Potential Barrier: Student absences are making it difficult to implement the behavior support plan.
Solution: Program leaders and providers/teachers should reach out to parents and/or other caregivers and explain that the behavior support plan is most effective when the child is taught replacement skills across settings. Responses to the child’s behavior should also be consistent across settings. This means that the child should receive positive reinforcement for appropriate behavior not only at school but also at home. Repetition and consistency are key to reducing a child’s challenging behavior, and thus can reduce the likelihood of suspension/expulsion.

Where do I go for more resources?

• New Resource: For strategies that providers/teachers can use with individual children, see this brief tip sheet by the Pyramid Equity Project that includes eleven of the most effective strategies for responding to challenging behaviors.
• To learn more about the reasons for challenging behavior and effective strategies for responding, watch this video by the Connecticut Office of Early Education.
• For step-by-step guidance, tools, and examples specifically related to conducting a functional behavioral assessment and developing a behavior support plan, visit the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations (NCPMI) and review the Complete Guide to Positive Behavior Support.
• For training resources on FBA and behavior support plans visit the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundation in Early Learning (CSEFEL), which includes PowerPoint presentations, handouts, presenter scripts, and video clips (also available in Spanish):
  • Module 3a: Individualized Interventions: Determining the Meaning of Challenging Behavior
  • Module 3b: Individualized Intensive Interventions: Developing a Behavior Support Plan
  • Tools for Developing Behavior Support Plans
• For more information about practical strategies for helping young children with challenging behavior, visit the Center for Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation website on Creating Teaching Tools for Young Children with Challenging Behavior.
• For scenarios and strategies to use in training and professional development with your staff related to behavior management, see the Early Childhood Behavior Management Case Study Unit by the IRIS Center Case Study Unit.
• For additional examples and vignettes that illustrate how practical strategies might be used in a variety of early childhood settings and home environments, visit the What Works Briefs series on the CSEFEL website. These Briefs include short, easy-to-read “how to” information packets on a variety of evidence-based practices, strategies, and intervention procedures designed to help providers/teachers support young children’s social and emotional development.

References

Artman-Meeker, K., & Hemmeter, M. L. (2014). Functional assessment of challenging behaviors. In M. McLean, M. L. Hemmeter, & P. Snyder (Eds.), Essential elements for assessing infants and preschoolers with special needs (pp. 242-270). Boston, MA: Pearson.

Conroy, M. A., Davis, C. A., Fox, J. J., & Brown, W. H. (2002). Functional assessment of behavior and effective supports for young children with challenging behaviors. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 27(4), 35-47.

Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. (2015). Recommended practices glossary. Retrieved from http://www.dec-sped.org/dec-recommended-practices

Fox, L., Carta, J., Strain, P., Dunlap, G., & Hemmeter, M. L. (2010). Response to intervention and the pyramid model. Infants and Young Children, 23, 3 – 13.

Fox, L., & Duda, M. A. (n.d.). Positive behavior support. Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children. Retrieved from challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/explore/pbs_docs/pbs_complete.doc

Individualized Intensive Interventions: Developing a Behavior Support Plan [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/resources/training_preschool.html#mod3b

McLaren, E. M., & Nelson, C. M. (2008). Using functional behavior assessment to develop behavior interventions for students in Head Start. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions.

Sugai, G., Horner, R. H., Dunlap, G., Hieneman, M., Lewis, T. J., Nelson, C. M., Scott, T., Liaupsin, C., Sailor, W., Turnbull, A. P., Turnbull, H. R., Wickham, D., Wilcox, B., & Ruef, M. (2000). Applying positive behavior support and functional behavioral assessment in schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 2(3), 131-143.

Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention for Young Children (2011). The Process of Positive Behavior Support (PBS), Step Five: Behavior Support Plan Development. Retrieved from http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/explore/pbs/step5.htm

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