My Journey to Improve My Son's Challenging Behavior with Positive Behavior Support: Part 2 -What is PBS and Who Needs to be Involved?

What is PBS and Who Needs to be Involved?

The differences in my parenting style between my two children are paramount.   I learned quickly that the strategies and disciplinary actions used with my oldest, Samantha (who has no known disabilities), were useless with Richie. Thinking about it now, the strategies I used with Samantha were useless too. I used things taught to me culturally through my own family (spanking, yelling and punishing), then later I tried new strategies like “time-out.”   Some strategies worked, most didn’t.  How truly successful were my strategies if Samantha’s behaviors continued? 

For instance, I would tell Samantha to come home when it was dark outside, she was not allowed to go to anyone’s house without telling me.  Well, she would never come home when it was dark, and I would have to knock on all of her friends doors, one-by-one until I found her.  I would ground her at home for a week, and as soon as she was allowed to go out again, she would do the exact same thing.  If I knew then what I know now about positive behavior support, I would have developed a plan for Samantha.  With Richie, I knew that I had to abandon any strategies I used with Samantha, and not just because many were unsuccessful with her, but because even the strategies that did work with Samantha, would never have worked on Richie. I needed to rethink my parenting style.  I had to change the way I approached my son and how I chose to discipline him. More importantly, I needed to understand why these behaviors were happening.  This is no easy task with a child with autism who doesn’t speak. But it is possible to understand, change, and improve problem behavior using positive behavior support.

What is Positive Behavior Support?

Positive Behavior Support is a research-based behavior intervention process used to:

• Understand why challenging behavior is happening
• Replace challenging behavior with new life skills
• Improve quality of life

It’s important to know that all challenging behaviors serve a purpose, they are useful to the person. Children exhibit challenging behaviors to either avoid or get something.  Often times these behaviors are reinforced by their environments or the people around them (we’ll get to how I reinforced many of Richie’s problem behavior in a later post)! For more detailed information about positive behavior support, please visit: 

• Association for Positive Behavior Support
• Florida Network Association for Positive Behavior Support
• Florida Positive Behavior Support

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Isn't Positive Behavior Support Only Used at School?

No, I learned that the positive behavior support process can be used by parents at home, daycare providers in before and after school centers, recreational coaches, and by others in the community.  In time, Richie had started using aggressive behavior, such as pinching, hitting, kicking, throwing chairs, and other problem behaviors in the classroom to avoid an activity or task or get something he wanted (i.e. more time with the iPad).  He did these things at both home and at school.  A behavioral intervention plan (BIP) was needed, so a functional Behavioral Assessment was conducted by the behavioral team at his school.  

The IEP (Individual Education Plan) team met and discussed the development of the behavioral intervention plan (BIP). A Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) was conducted by the schools behavior therapist.  We (Richie's father and I) were asked to complete a questionnaire and provide some input, but the focus was mainly on addressing behaviors seen at school, not really at home.  We shared strategies that were successfully used at home, but we were never asked to take data or monitor Richie’s behavior at home, all of this was done only at school.  This is why so many parents (and professionals) believe that PBS is only practiced at school, and this isn’t true. 

Who Needs to be Involved in Developing a Positive Behavior Support Plan?

The first thing we needed to do was think about who would need to be involved in the PBS process.  We needed to develop a team. This team would include everyone who spends time with and knows Richie. Where does Richie spend a lot of his time?

• Home: Richie has two blended families. His father and I are divorced and we each have new relationships with extended families.
• School: All members (but not exclusively) of Richie’s IEP team. Richie has an ESE teacher with two aides in his classroom, and he receives support and services from several therapists and other school faculty.
• Community: Richie is not involved in any extra-curricular activities at this time. However, we do visit many family members and friends often.  Now, they may not need to be directly involved in the development of the plan, but they may provide some information based on their personal observations. I might share the PBS plan with people we visit often, so they’ll be familiar with how to recognize signs of challenging behaviors and how to handle them.   

After thinking about all three settings, it was pretty easy to start writing the names of our potential team members.  Please note that although you may have started out with a lengthy list of team members, it’s okay if your list decreases as you move along this process. Even if some people are not on board with using this process (teachers, therapists, family members, or ex-spouse), you can still proceed with the development of your plan. 

Our list of Team members was a pretty long one (I used titles in place of some names for privacy purposes):

Our Home:                   Dad’s Home:                    School:
Christine (myself)               Dad                            ESE Teacher
Kirk –Step-dad                   Step-mom                   Aide 1
Tiki – Step-brother             Step-brother                Aide 2
Samantha – Sister                                               Language Therapist
Phil – Brother-n-law                                             Occupational Therapist
                                                                         PE Teacher
                                                                         Behavior Therapists (3)

Now, that we have our team together, we can move on the next step.

Part 3: Gathering Information and Data Collection