“I can’t get him to sit down for more than 5 minutes.”
“Whenever I try to get her to do something, she pretends like she doesn’t hear me or she just runs away.”
“I can’t teach him to do anything, because he doesn’t want to listen to me.”
Sound familiar? Yes, parents, I hear you and 100% agree that this is a problem.

Cue number 2 from my previous post: Assess any interfering behaviors that may prevent learning effectively. How exactly do we do this? Let me tell you…

It’s natural to over-focus on the problematic behavior, because well, who isn’t stressed out if their child is screaming, kicking, dropping to the floor? (I applaud you, calm parents, you’re doing the most to keep that zen.) So, from here on out, I want you to be aware of this. It is natural that the “bad behavior” is highlighted in our head. Acknowledge it, soak it in, and take a breath. It will get better, just make sure you give yourself the time and consistency to get there. The main goal of this assessment is to find the reason or function behind that problematic behavior. There are 4 possible functions to a behavior: SEAT.  Or better explained: 1) Sensory/Automatic- to fulfill a sensory need or to gain automatic fulfillment (like biting our nails as a way to cope with being anxious), 2) Escape – to escape something/someone, 3) Attention – to gain attention, and 4) Tangible – to get something out of it (like an object, money, etc.) This is what needs to happen.

Step 1: Make a table with 3 columns. The only reason mine’s typed out is so that you can clearly see what I wrote, and so that you’re not caught up questioning my handwriting. This can be on the back of your grocery receipt, your phone, anything accessible that you’re not going to lose. You can technically do it mentally, but it won’t be as effective cause it’s easy to forget the details. From left to right, label your columns A, B, and C, like mine below.

FYI, in case you were wondering: A stands for antecedent. It means what’s happening right before the behavior. What triggered the B? B stands for behavior. Record what you see happening. Be as specific as you can. C stands for consequence, what happened right after the B. Be honest about the consequence. I know we don’t want to admit that we gave our kiddo what she wanted after she cried and whined about it, but it is what it is. Write it down. No cheating.

So, now that you have that… 

Step 2: Record our ABCs and find out the possible reason behind these Bs. Here’s a sample.

Want to do it for the whole day? Here’s how that might look like.

For the whole dayers, you might find a pattern over time that certain Bs are happening in a particular place or a particular time of day. Highlight those, as they are just as important as finding the function or the reason behind the Bs.

…and that’s how we find the reasons or functions behind these behaviors. You may find that some behaviors have more than 1 function, and that’s completely fine. Note them and let’s plan it out. Now what? We need a behavior plan. We replace these behaviors that can help the learner be more successful. How do we do that? Stick around for my next few posts discussing tips and techniques on tackling behaviors for each function.

Let me know how your assessment goes. I’m curious to hear from your own experiences, and what functions you were able to find. Let me know if there were some bumps along the way, and we can problem solve together. Good luck! (Mostly on remembering to not get caught up on the behavior when it’s happening, and to write down the dang thing.)