It’s been a hectic time with lots of training and learning in Newcastle. I’ve been working with two groups of dedicated educators on the subject of functional behaviour assessments. This has been so rewarding as participants approached the task of collecting data on what is actually occurring when a student has an outburst of challenging behaviour.
Too often we get emotional about bad behaviour but in order to deliver thoughtful and targeted programs for these students we must first ask what is this behaviour communicating?
The ABC of functional assessments means examining the antecedent to the behaviour and the consequence. As we have little control over the behaviour we need to work on these two segments. For example a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder may have a meltdown during transition from one task to the next. By providing them with some warning like a timer they are able to transition calmly.
There is no quick fix to challenging behaviours but by taking teacher emotion out of the equation and being more scientific about planning we can see big changes.
