Observation Debrief

Observation Debrief

Kristin: So, the antecedent that I saw was our little friend there in the block area, he gets closer to some of the children in the block area. And the behavior that I saw was that he first sort of sticks out his tongue, maybe blows a raspberry, and then he scratches one of the child's shoulders. Right, he really, yeah, had some challenges there. Then the consequence was that the little boy yelled at him. Another boy brought him another toy, but that wasn't quite resolved.

Dawn: Right.

Kristin: Right? OK, so I have a little hypothesis. I'm thinking he really wanted what that child had. So, he wanted to get something, OK? OK, that was my best guess.

Dawn: Yeah, I think that video that we saw outside was pretty similar, right? He wanted the truck. The little boy wanted to go get it. He went and tried to grab it from her. So, the antecedent was a noticing he wanted that toy. Then he goes over there and he tries to take it from her. And then there's a little bit of a tussle and they are unhappy. And one of the children are left hurt and mad because they don't have that toy anymore. So, in this one, I think the function's trying to obtain a toy as well.

Gail: Great. So, we've seen two from the same brand and we start to see a pattern. And what was great is that you talked about the function in terms of obtaining or getting. He wants to get something. He wants to obtain something. And that's usually what we think about with the function. We usually define it in two different ways. It's either to get something or to get away from something, to escape. So, we talk about, like, obtaining or escaping. And we try and think about, is this something that they're trying to – is the function of the behavior to obtain a toy or attention or a social interaction or just some stimulation? And then we might also think about, or is this function to escape a loud noise, escape an activity I find too hard, escape an activity I find too boring, escape an aversive demand, so stop doing something I like to do. So, we really, you know, it's pretty simple. It's just thinking about, is this to get something or is this to get away from something? That's usually what the function is. So, of course, beautiful job. You're very experienced at this.

Dawn: Thanks.

Gail: But it does really help to observe. So, even if you really know, every time there's a child that engages in challenging behavior, it helps to kind of sit back or videotape it if you can or have somebody come in the room and cover for a little bit while you can just write those things down. Because there's little things you might not notice if you're just kind of recollecting. You might not notice that – maybe over time you notice that, like, oh, it's not just that he wants a toy, but he wants the same toy as what his friend's playing with, right? So, you'll start to see some things there.

Dawn: Yeah, maybe your coach can help you take time out to observe.

Gail: Oh, great idea. They can come in and cover. That's a great idea. So, once we come up with the function of the behavior – so we have the antecedent, behavior, consequence, and then our hypothesis or the function – then coming up with the behavior support plan is actually relatively simple. So again, you know, you don't have to do it all alone. You can get some support and help on things. But I want to just show you how simple I kind of think the best behavior support plans are. So, they're not just a blank slate. There's actually something on here, and so I'm going to draw that for you right now.

So one of the things that we did – because this is how simple they are, you could do it on a whiteboard – is that we came up with the antecedent, the behavior, and the consequence of this child's behavior. So, we kind of think about those being the top of our behavior support plan. So, what happens before, in general, that kind of gets this child set up, I guess. What is the behavior that they engage in, or behaviors? And then what typically happens afterwards? And then someplace in here, we're just going to write down what our best guess is, right, our hypothesis or the function. And remember, we think about that as either they want to get something or get attention, get something, get someone or they want to avoid or escape something or someone. And then, at the bottom of this is what I'm going to call PTR. And that is, the P is for prevention strategies. So, if this is what sets the child off, how can we put in place some prevention strategies that might reduce the likelihood that the child's going to respond to that antecedent in the first place? So, we might – and how do we make that behavior irrelevant?

Dawn: Right. 

Gail: Right. And then we might think about teaching. What do we want to do – for the child to do instead? So, you both identified for that little boy, Tim, you both identified that he's trying to obtain something, right? That function was to get a toy. So, what might we want him to do instead? We might want him to ask.

Dawn: Yes, like, find a healthy way to ask.

Gail: Right, great. Request a turn, right? So, that's what we would put in the teach part. And then the R is for responses. And so, when we think about how we're going to respond, we think about two different things. We think about how are we going to respond when the child uses their new skill? And I think what we want to do is make sure that that new skill always gets him what he wants.

Dawn: Right, we need it to work.

Kristin: You ask for a turn!

Gail: Yeah, you ask for a turn, you get a turn. Eventually, we might kind of teach them to wait a little bit longer, but initially, that response needs to be as efficient and as effective as that challenge behavior was. And then, speaking of that, the other response that we're going to think about is, what do we do when the child engages in the challenging behavior? And the secret to these behavior support plans is that that challenging behavior really can no longer get the child's needs met. So, we always need to respond in a way that doesn't let that challenging behavior serve the same function.

Dawn: Right, it can't work anymore.

Gail: So, we might prompt them to use their new strategy. We might give them a choice. We might send them – we might even go back to prevention strategies. So, let's just do a little bit of brainstorming here. In thinking about what we thought about with our friend in the red is we kind of came up with what happens. It's usually group play. So, during group play times, Tim, our friend in the red shirt, Tim usually – he might engage in aggressive behavior. So, we saw hitting, kicking, screaming, scratching. So, engages in aggressive behavior and that usually is, you know, usually what happens after is he gets the toy or he gets attention or something. And so we really thought that the function was to get something. So, the function in this little box would be to get something or get a toy. And you can see that we actually have a slide of that. And so what might we do for prevention strategies if we just brainstormed here? What might help to prevent Tim from even kind of getting triggered, if you will?

Dawn: Well, he always seems to want something that someone else has, so maybe we need multiple items of that?

Gail: Great idea. So, making sure that there are multiple of the same toy. That's a big thing, especially for toddlers. A great prevention strategy is to have two or more of the same toy.

Dawn: Because I want what I want and then I also want what you have at all times.

Gail: Right. And Kristin, what would you think?

Kristin: Well, I'm wondering, I mean, I don't know enough about him yet, but maybe trying just having something right in every area that he really likes, sort of the outside area, the block area, maybe a little picture that might say, "First I ask, then I get a toy." Maybe just a two-step first, then.

Gail: So, just using some visual supports. And then that – I love that, "first, then." Because then if he does engage in that challenging behavior, one of our responses might be to kind of point to that. Remember, first you ask, then you get. OK, great.

Dawn: You might do some role-playing or practicing at circle time about how we ask a friend for a toy or how we share something.

Gail: Right. I love that idea, Dawn, because it's getting at both. Not only Tim, like, building some strategies for him in how to ask for a toy, but it's also a nice role play for children of how to respond. So, when someone asks for a turn, we give them a turn. We can ask for a turn back, right? Because what we need to do is create some support so that the peers know how to respond to Tim, too, when he [inaudible].

Kristin: We want them to be able to give it up when he's asking so nicely. Like, first learning, right?

Gail: The easiest thing to do in preschool classrooms. So, we just need to really celebrate and acknowledge when children do that. So, great. So you've got it. So, you would write those prevention strategies down. We'd think about new ways for Tim to behave. So, maybe he's going to request a turn. If Tim doesn't yet have verbal words, maybe it's just a picture where he can request a toy or he can just gesture, "My turn." And then again, we're going to think about new responses. So, whenever he asks for a turn at first, he's going to get a turn, right? And then, eventually, we're going to teach him some ways to delay that. And then every time he engages in challenging behavior – hopefully we've prevented it – but when he does, it can no longer get his needs met, right? We're going to have to prompt him back to – I love that idea of prompting him – back to the picture or saying, you know, "Use your words," prompting him back. And then as soon as he does, he does get his needs met. So, that's it. Like, super simple behavior support plan.

Kristin: Doable.

Gail: It is doable. It's like a whiteboard, you could do it.

Kristin: It demystifies sort of the whole big behavior support plan and especially if somebody can, just like you said, that team, if you can get somebody else to just let you observe it. That's such a key part of it.

Gail: Yeah, and just noticing, you might notice some little things that you didn't see before that might be happening there. So, that's it. ABC, PTR is our behavior support plan.

Dawn: That's fantastic.

Kristin: It is. It's really going to be helpful for him.

Dawn and Kristin: Thank you, Gail.

Gail: You're welcome. Thank you. You did all the work.

[laughter]