During the 22-23 school year, I was burnt out on doing functional behavioral analyses.
Before becoming a school psych, I spent 10 years in the field of behavioral analysis . When used ethically, it can be a fun way to teach skills. Behavioral analysis is such a cool versatile field when you can explore it’s full range.
Unfortunately, as school psychologists, FBAs are the only thing we do.
It’s frustrating to pour your heart, soul, time and expertise into an FBA that goes unused. We gathered all the teachers and admin together to work on this plan together. We’re all onboard on implementation, but nobody does anything with it.
Of course, we get blamed for our behavior plan not magically fixing all the student’s problems. (I’m not bitter, I promise). This can leave you and your team feeling discouraged and defeated.
When people don’t follow our plan, it could feel like there’s no point in writing these plans. Even still, it’s not something we can delegate to someone else. Unless your district is lucky to have a BCBA.
I got so burnt out doing so many and constantly revising them because “they didn’t work”. People don’t realize how time consuming this is. The solution had to be easy to write and implement with fidelity. I needed a plan with clear consequences for students that weren’t up for negotiation.
I needed another approach to FBA/BIPs.
Enter in the Strengths-Based FBA!
Why are Strength Based FBAs and BIPS are so Important?
You may think that you have functional behavioral analysis all figured out. You know there are four functions of behavior: Tangible, Escape, Attention, and Sensory. There are antecedents, behaviors, and consequences.
The following school year, all of my FBAs were strengths based plans for students. I only had to do three for year because our district had a BCBA. It’s easier to play to the student’s natural strengths and abilities than to force them into a box. Students are more responsive to interventions that they know they’ll succeed in.
We can use relationships and motivation as our driving force instead of punishment.
This wasn’t a magic bullet.
But it did improve out student outcomes and teacher implementation significantly. I wish I had taken data on this. What was the likelihood of teacher’s implementing strengths-based BIPS vs. traditional BIPS? I wish we had quantifiable data on improved student outcomes.
It takes a mindset shift and some finessing but it’s doable. Your students can have great success as well. There are three easy ways for you to implement these strategies into your behavior plans as well.
#1. Shift the language from deficit focused to strengths based.
As school psychologists and behavior analysts, we’ve focused on student’s deficits. I often wrote “Student is often disruptive and non-compliant during large group instruction.” While it’s accurate, it also sounds accusatory and victim blaming. Most kids, if they can help it, don’t want to act out. They don’t have the skills necessary to deal with the triggers they encounter.
Behavior is just another form of communication.
In our ED program, a student with a trauma cussed at teachers during academic tasks. He’d escalate to antagonizing others with verbally aggressive language the longer he worked.
Looking at it from a trauma informed lens, it was clear that the student wanted to be heard. His past traumas likely made him feel powerless. He gained power in the classroom by being verbally aggressive. The team decided that “Disagreeing Appropriately” would be an important skill to teach.
Why write it this way opposed to the traditional deficits-based approach?
It gives us something to work with that doesn’t put the onus all on the student or the teacher. It gives us a chance to work on those missing skills opposed to only managing the problem behavior. It’s more proactive and skill based. Shifting from being deficit focused to strengths based made the rest of the plan easier to write.
#2. Emotional regulation plays a big role when identifying the function of problem behavior.
I know, I’m a bad behavioral analyst.
Traditionally, behaviorism only looks at what is measurable and observable. I’ve always wondered why emotions are never a part of the equation. Most of our students struggle with emotional regulation. It’s counterintuitive to make a plan without addressing a student’s emotional and physical state.
How many of us can say that we’ve acted rationally when we’ve been emotional? There’s a reason why the word “hangry” exists.
How do we expect kids to do something that many adults can hardly do? I’ve had students act out because they were hungry or needed the restroom and they couldn’t communicate effectively.
Here’s what I discovered when I started incorporating a student’s feelings into a plan:
- That some behaviors have simple solutions. If a student throws things because he’s hungry, it’s easy enough to give them a snack.
- Students with trauma don’t always respond in the ways we’ve been taught and it’s not always the same response each time.
- Students can be taught how to recognize how they feel when they feel a certain emotion.
If you need an example, this is how I write it:
Student may express frustration with non-preferred tasks by engaging in prolonged arguments and verbal aggression. Verbal aggression is defined as loud vocal outbursts using offensive language.
It’s not the most amazing thing in the world, but it incorporates emotions and addresses behavior. Emotion and behavior often influence each other.
#3. Focus on building skills and enforcing consequences.
Many people forget that consequences are the key to successfully shaping behavior.
We can have the best plan in place, but if there are no consequences, behavior change isn’t going to happen. I can’t be the only one who gets frustrated when teachers say a plan is not working, but they aren’t implementing it. I’m not even asking for fidelity, but at least get the visual schedule we recommended out. You can’t expect change if you don’t put in the work.
Shifting to building skills helps students fill in the gaps they are missing.
The easier it is to access the skill for the student, the more successful behavior change will be. Most students would rather just ask for what they want than to throw a full blown out tantrum. Throwing the tantrum is a way to get their needs met as quickly as possible, that’s why they do it. Most deficits based behavior plans don’t focus on skill building. They focus on fixing what is “broken” and punishment systems.
Focusing on deficits is draining. Nobody wants to be nagged to constantly fix something they haven’t learned. That’s like a mechanic shouting at you constantly because you don’t know how to fix a transmission. Or a teacher yelling at a preschooler because they can’t do calculus. Or yelling at a baby because they haven’t learned to walk yet.
See how ridiculous it sounds when you frame it that way?
Conclusion
In my 10+ years in the behavior field, I’m thankful plans are shifting to a strengths-based approach. Our field is working towards the next stage of a neuro-affirming approach. We’re not there yet, but it’s moving. I’ve seen a big shift in the past 5 years as advocates speak out on harmful ABA practices. The field has a long way to go, but it’s also jumped by leaps and bounds in a short amount of time than expected.
Shifting away from Deficits Based FBA/BIPs to a Strengths Based approach requires:
- Using strengths based and neuro affirming language and using neutral terms for behavior.
- A trauma informed lens that includes emotional and physical state as a part of behavior.
- A parallel process of building skills and creating natural consequences for problem behavior.