My Journey to Improve My Son's Challenging Behavior Through Positive Behavior Support: Part 3 - Gathering Information and Data Collection.

Gathering Information and Data Collection

In order for us to learn about how we can improve Richie’s challenging behavior, we need to start gathering information and collecting data.  This is the most important part of the positive behavior support process, because it’s going to help us to decide on what goals to set, how to avoid certain behaviors from happening, what strategies to use when behaviors happen, what new skills we want to teach, and how we can manage behaviors.  This is a crucial part of developing the PBS plan. 

Prioritizing Behaviors

One of the first things we were instructed to do was to list Richie’s problem behaviors from 1 through 5, the first one being the most important behavior to address.  Using this form would help us to narrow down our focus on the behaviors we identified as the most challenging ones and cross off ones that were not really in need of our attention at this time. When I first completed this form, my list looked like this:

1. Aggressive Behaviors: Hitting, pinching, scratching, head-butting, pushing others.  Self-injurious behaviors: biting himself and banging his head against the wall, glass, etc.
2. Sleep: Richie is not getting enough sleep.  He will stay up all night if we allow it.
3. We’ve seen a change in Richie’s eating habits: he is not eating at the appropriate times as he once did (he’ll wait to eat his food, sometimes an hour after he has been served).
4. Richie engages in self-stimulatory behaviors that interfere with his participation in family activities (prefers watching movies on iPad/device, waving items in front of his face, etc.).
5. We would like Richie to be able to communicate when he experiences pain (stomach pain, headache, or any other discomfort). 

When I brought this list to our behavioral consultant, she pointed out that the first line of behaviors on my list are actually three separate behaviors, because they each serve a different purpose. We then talked about the behaviors that needed our immediate attention.  Was Richie’s self-stimulatory behaviors something of great urgency?  When I really thought about this, it wasn’t a behavior that desperately needed our attention, so it was crossed off the list. Then we talked about Richie being able to communicate pain. While this is an important topic to tackle, it’s also very difficult to teach. But was it something we needed to focus on at this time?  Not really, Richie is a very healthy kid who is not on any medication at this time and doesn’t get sick often. So this was also crossed off the list – for now.  The new list now looks like list:

1. Aggressive behaviors towards others: pinching, scratching, hitting, kicking, and head-butting.
2. Self-injurious behaviors: head-banging against the wall, biting his hand or arm, slapping the back of his neck, hitting his head with his knee.
3. Damaging property: making holes in the wall with his head or hand, broke the glass on the china cabinet by hitting it with his hand, broke several television sets by either pushing them down, or hitting the screen with hand.
4. Getting out of bed at night: Richie does not sleep well at night. He will pace in his room the entire night and make disruptive noises.  I have to lie next to him in order for him to sleep and not disrupt anyone else from sleeping.

Data Collection

Now that we knew which of Richie’s behaviors was important for us to address, it was important to start collecting data on the behaviors we observed in each of our settings.  This requires all members of our PBS team to start documenting and collecting data using the same forms.  Please note it was difficult for me to get all members of the team to document information.  This is a time consuming and tedious process, but it is important and needed for the development of the PBS plan.  Please don’t be discouraged if not all members of your PBS team complete the forms, not all members of my elaborate team did it either.  It’s important to remember that any data collected is good data, and we can still proceed with the process.  
I sent an email to the IEP team and Richie’s father on the forms we needed to complete for gathering information and data.  They were:

1. FBA (functional behavior assessment) Questionnaire: this document asked us for general information about Richie (where he lives, the services he receives, medication he takes, things he enjoys doing, communication and other known skills, known triggers that upset him, etc.).
2. PBS Quality of Life Questionnaire: this document got us to review and really think about circumstances that are associated with Richie’s quality of life (Health and Safety, Self-advocacy, Social Relationships, and Productive Activity). It’s a tool used to rate Richie’s ability to do certain things independently.  We also rated the level of support needed to conduct certain tasks or activities (It's important to note that this form is typically completed first, and the goals are identified before the FBA process. I sent these forms to the team all at once in the interest of time, as many members were school faculty). 
3. ABC (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence) Data Collection Sheets: this document is used to record and track behaviors and the time of day they occur.  Over days and weeks, this data would help us to identify behavioral patterns. For Richie, the data collection sheet were modified to capture the behaviors of greatest concern.  We used a sheet that was called: Richie Data Sheet (I'm leaving it in word form so you can make changes if you need to).

I know, I thought the same thing when I was given these forms – it’s a lot of work.  But trust me, as I started to complete them, there were so many things that I was able to learn about Richie’s behaviors that never occurred to me before this process. I may have been addressing Richie’s behaviors in the past, but I was not replacing them with new skills he needed to learn. I also didn’t explain to Richie why certain tasks were expected of him. Would you want to do something if you didn’t see the value in it? What if it wasn’t important to you?  The same behaviors always came back, so I was missing some important elements in the process.  And this is a very common issue that comes up often when people try to implement the PBS process.   
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• Tip: I left copies of Richie's data sheet all over the house for easy tracking.  I had one upstairs in his room - on his desk, I had one on the counter in the kitchen, and on my nightstand in my bedroom. 

Once we were able to gather all of the information collected from all members of the PBS team who participated in this process, we would be able to move on the next step:
                                                     
Part 4: Analyzing Data and Goal Setting