Positive Behaviour Interventions & Support

What is Positive Behaviour Interventions & Support?

Positive behavioural interventions and supports (PBIS) is an approach schools use to promote school safety and good behaviour. With PBIS, schools teach kids about behaviour expectations and strategies. The focus of PBIS is prevention, not punishment. The PBS approach uses a person-centred, holistic approach and focuses on the unique needs of each person. It welcomes a natural setting and uses steps that stop problems before they start. This helps make sure everyone feels included and safe.

Holistic, Child-Centred Approach

1. While the ABA therapy is structured and skills-based, focusing on shaping specific behaviours through reinforcement techniques, PBS takes a broader, more person-centred view—looking at the reasons behind behaviours, and it does not use harsh or negative methods. PBS is often used for individuals with developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities, or in educational contexts. The approach promotes respect, dignity, and full, uncompromising inclusion in all areas of life.

2. Teachers have to be trained in PBS methodology and philosophy. A whole school approach is very effective; this requires the whole school to be trained in PBS methods. All the teachers use the same language and share the same approaches.

The WHY of Behaviour

PBS looks at the why of behaviour. Why can’t Deepak remain seated during math? Why does Leena rock in her chair repeatedly? Why does Brij cover his ears and scream when he goes to Music class? What purpose (function) do these behaviours serve for Leena, Deepak, and Brij? Challenging behaviours such as these do meet some basic needs for a student. The needs can be for attention, for sensory stimulation, or escape from work. Psychologists call this dysregulation that occurs when the environment does not feel safe to the child. The child responds with what psychologists call a fight, flight, or freeze response.

However, teachers cannot teach in a classroom where one or two students are so disruptive that none of the others can learn. The environment has to be safe for all learners. The Positive Behaviour Support approach broadens intervention. Instead of focusing only on reducing challenging behaviour, teachers focus on altering the environment, teaching skills, and praising positive behaviour. The goal in PBS is not to “eliminate” behaviour. Rather, it is to understand the behaviour’s purpose so that the student can replace it with new, prosocial behaviours that achieve the same purpose. Three areas of deficit skills addressed by PBS are communication skills, social skills, and self-management skills.

Key Components of the PBS plan

1. Understanding: To tailor a PBS plan effectively, you need to deeply understand the individual. This involves identifying not just their struggles and difficulties but first and foremost, their strengths and potential. PBS is fundamentally a strength-based approach. Recognising and building on the individual’s strengths can provide positive change.

2. Communication: Communication is the primary means through which we understand the needs, desires, and emotions of the individual in our care. Without effective communication, it’s nearly impossible to create a PBS plan that truly meets their needs.

3. Engagement: Engagement is a powerful tool in PBS. When individuals are meaningfully engaged, they are less likely to exhibit challenging behaviours.

4. Incident management: While the primary focus of a PBS plan is to create a positive, supportive environment that prevents incidents, it’s also important to acknowledge that incidents can happen and to have strategies in place to manage them effectively. For example, a student throws his book at a peer or teacher. The response from the adult will be calming, reassuring and positive.

5. Recovery: After an incident, it’s essential to focus on recovery. Recovery is about more than just returning to baseline; it’s about repairing any damage to relationships and ensuring that the individual feels safe, supported, and understood.

6. Consistency: Consistency ensures that the individual knows what to expect, which can significantly reduce anxiety and challenging behaviours.

Behavioural Regulation

How does a teacher help a student regulate himself in a manner that is not disruptive to the classroom? Before selecting specific strategies for de-escalating challenging situations in the classroom, it can be helpful to understand what we mean by behavioural regulation.

Regulation is a state of being where the child feels safe, present, and engaged. A student who is regulated is typically able to study, learn, focus, respond to instructions, and interact appropriately with teachers and classmates.

De-escalation is the process of preventing a challenging situation from becoming worse. When the child is upset, angry, or frustrated, the teacher can easily redirect the child to a calm state with a simple verbal reminder. But when the behaviour is very escalated, resulting in screaming, throwing books or pencils, hitting, etc., this can be a sign of dysregulation. The environment does not feel safe to the child. The child responds with what psychologists call a fight, flight, or freeze response.

How to address dysregulation?
Addressing dysregulation often requires a combination of teacher-directed techniques and student self-regulation strategies. Self-calming or self-regulation strategies have been shown to effectively help students overcome feelings of dysregulation, but they must be taught and practised ahead of time in contexts when the student is calm. Teaching self-regulation involves helping students to first recognise feelings of anger, frustration, etc. when they first become upset and then use a practised strategy for returning to a calm state.

Creating the Behaviour Support Plan

1. Define the behaviour
– The definition must be observable and descriptive. “Deepak runs out of the Music class” is too vague. A better description would be, “Deepak covers his ears when all the children sing together. When the singing becomes loud, he runs out of the class”.
– Teachers using PBS will always start with the A-B-C Chart.

2. Define the purpose of the behaviour
– The procedure known as Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA) was adapted from applied behaviour analysis (ABA) and is the cornerstone of a Positive Behaviour Support plan. The FBA helps determine the cause of the behaviour. For example, the data will help the teacher decide whether Deepak runs out of music due to sensory overload.

3. Create the Plan

Six PBS Strategies

1. Alter the Classroom Environment
2. Increase Predictability and Scheduling
3. Increase Choice Making
4. Make Curricular Adaptations
5. Appreciate Positive Behaviours
6. Teach Replacement Skills

Alter the Classroom Environment

Identify environmental triggers. Students with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for example, should be seated away from noisy, high-traffic areas. For students who are easily distracted, use a study carrel or a quiet learning centre(s). Assign a desk or a name if seated on the carpet.
Deaf students or those who are hard of hearing should be placed near the front of the class. Consider also having light on your face for students who lip-read and providing students with swivel chairs so they can more easily follow the conversation. Noise-cancelling headphones help students who are sensitive to loud noises. Some students–for example, students with autism–may be highly sensitive to bells, other loud noises, or other sensory stimuli such as particular perfumes, body odours, or particular colours.

Increase Predictability and Scheduling

Uncertainty increases anxiety levels in most children. All students experience frustration, but those with learning challenges are unable to tolerate ambiguity. Predictability of classroom routines is their “security blanket.” Experts say: “A classroom schedule that is well-designed and is implemented consistently may be the single most important factor in preventing challenging behaviours”.
Teachers who can develop or modify their routines to increase predictability will lessen anxieties (and challenging behaviours) for their students. There are several ways of doing this.

SCHEDULES:

Create a routine daily schedule and make sure that students are aware of it. Middle or high school teachers may find a student version of a “weekly planner” useful in increasing predictability and appropriate behaviour; elementary teachers may post their schedule prominently in their classroom. Prompting students to refer to their schedule and previewing what is about to happen at numerous times throughout the day is also important. Teachers can use these previews to clearly specify criteria and outcomes for activities. When students know what to do and when to do it, challenging behaviours are less likely to occur. Teachers may need to establish separate individualised routines for students whose attention spans are limited or who are unable to sit for longer blocks of time. Students with ADHD may need predictable time periods when they can leave their seats for some activity (e.g., collecting homework, distributing materials, taking attendance to the office) built into their schedules.

CHANGES:

Planned or unplanned changes in daily schedules occur in every school. Assemblies or fire drills may shorten class schedules and alter bell schedules, therapists or paraprofessionals may be absent, and buses may be late in arriving or leaving. Preparing students about how these changes will affect their day lessens anxiety. Students with autism, for example, appreciate knowing any schedule changes. Students who receive therapy on a regular basis appreciate knowing when their therapist is ill, how long the therapist will be gone, and who will provide therapy in the interim. Teachers can present this information in a format best suited to the student’s learning style. A picture of the therapist, for example, can be removed from a student’s schedule and replaced with a picture that says “Sick”.

TRANSITIONS:

Transitions where students have to move from one activity to another activity or from the classroom to the ART or Music room can be very difficult for students with special needs. Alerting students before transitions from one activity to another can increase the likelihood of appropriate behaviour. These signals give students the opportunity to finish what they are doing before having to put it away. Teachers can choose from a variety of signals; different students may need different kinds (e.g., auditory, tactile, or visual). Teachers can play a song or a piece of music to indicate it’s time to move on. As students repeatedly hear a particular song, they know that an activity is ending within a given period of time.

Increase Choice Making

Students with limited motor skills, verbal skills, or challenging behaviours are not provided with opportunities to make significant choices in their daily lives. They are often told what tasks they must perform, with whom they may interact, and what rewards they may have. Because these students have difficulty expressing choice, choice-making should be systematically taught and monitored in the same ways as other skills. Providing students with challenging behaviour with opportunities to make choices is another way of teaching them that they can influence others without having to resort to challenging behaviour.
Providing choice does not mean allowing students to control situations in which they pose a danger to themselves or others. Nor does it mean allowing them to do anything that they want to do. It does mean permitting students to make choices as part of an approach aimed at increasing students’ inclusion, productivity, and independence. By empowering students to make choices, teachers can help lessen student feelings of powerlessness.

Make Curricular Adaptations

Curricular adaptations are modifications made to enhance a student’s performance in completing activities and to reduce the likelihood of challenging behaviours. Why spend the extra time making such adaptations? Experts have found a significant relationship between curricular activities and students’ positive and negative behaviours. Activities/tasks that (a) students intended to use at home or in the community, (b) reflected students’ interests, and (c) were age appropriate were significantly associated with positive behaviour, whereas activities/tasks that did not reflect these characteristics were associated with challenging behaviours. In addition, researchers found that adjustments in the difficulty level, length, or pace of an activity heightened levels of motivation and reduced levels of off-task and disruptive behaviours in students with disabilities.
What can a teacher do to adapt the curriculum if this is triggering a student’s challenging behaviour? Consider the following four elements.
1. Think about the nature of the assigned task/activity and the way it is presented. Is the task or activity of high or low interest? Too easy or too difficult? Too long or too short? Too fast or slow-paced?
2. Adjust the nature of the task/activity. Present material using different modalities (e.g., auditory, visual, tactile) or shorten instruction to 20 minutes or less. Task variation is also helpful. This means intersperse difficult tasks with easy ones, especially when introducing a new concept.
Another way to adjust the nature of the task/activity is by taking advantage of student interests and preferred activities. This does not mean spoiling students by always letting them engage in preferred activities. It does, however, mean planning preferred activities to occur consistently and predictably throughout each day and week. If, for example, a student is highly motivated by computer technology, opportunities to complete tasks on the computer should serve as anchors in the student’s daily and weekly schedule. In addition, nonpreferred tasks (e.g., learning multiplication tables) can be “embedded” within the context of a preferred task or activity (e.g., using an animated computer software program to teach multiplication).
3. Adjust the method of presentation/monitoring. There are a number of ways teachers can adjust methods of presentation/monitoring of learning tasks or activities to meet the diverse needs of students. Two that deserve special attention for students with challenging behaviour are direct instruction and self-monitoring.
Direct instruction means using small group instruction or individual teaching so that the student has less opportunity to disrupt learning. The teacher gives her full attention during direct instruction.
Self-monitoring is a powerful, easily implemented intervention. Self-monitoring means the students learn to identify and record occurrences of their behaviour. The student is rewarded both for successful self-monitoring and for decreases in challenging behaviours. Self-monitoring works well because it increases the student’s independence, teaches self-control by increasing student’s awareness of how their behaviour affects learning.
4.Provide peer support, such as peer tutoring, or the teacher can appoint a peer buddy who can take notes for a student with dyslexia who has difficulty copying from the board. Peer Buddy groups also help with social skills. Research indicates that peer tutors use more age-appropriate vocabulary and can be more supportive than teachers!

Appreciate Positive Behaviours

To encourage good behaviour, always indicate your confidence in the student’s abilities. Let your student know you believe in them. Understand your students’ needs and preferences. Connect with your student on a personal level to share his or her interests. Use praise correctly as a way of encouragement, not a bribe.

DETERMINE THE RIGHT REWARD.

Make sure you have the right rewards: Training will have little effect without a good reinforcer. Decide what the student–not you–views as rewards. Typical rewards include food, drink, sensations (listening to music), materials (stickers, badges, certificates), activities (working on a preferred activity or with a special friend), and privileges (extra free time, new seating arrangement). A good way to start is to ask the student what would be a reward for him or her. If the student is unable to verbalise, try offering several choices.

Teach Replacement Skills

Many challenging behaviours occur because the student does not know a more appropriate way to achieve an important outcome. For example, let’s assume that Deepa really wants to see the bracelet her friend is wearing, but instead of using her words, she just grabs it out of her friend’s hand. Jenna dislikes reading and will throw the book or tear out the pages instead of letting her teacher know that reading is very hard for her. So here the replacement skill for Deepa will be – how to ask a friend to share. For Jenna, the replacement skill is telling the teacher which words are hard for her, instead of tearing the book.

Managing challenging behaviours using PBS strategies

Here are some examples of how teachers can use PBS strategies in the classroom.

Situation#1:
The student refuses to start his work, wanders around, and argues with a peer. What can a teacher do?
The teacher can offer a choice: You can complete the worksheet with a friend or independently. What would you prefer?
The teacher can redirect: Leela, start with the second question. I am here to help if you need it.
The teacher can co-regulate: Leela, I can see you are upset. Your cheeks are red, and your fists are clenched. Why don’t we breathe three times like this? Let’s start belly breathing…
The teacher can prompt the use of self-calming strategies that have been previously taught: Why don’t you take a quick drink of water?

Situation #2:
How to manage a full-blown behaviour crisis. The student throws pencils or books at the teacher, upturns chairs, and screams. What can the teacher do?
This is not the time to present consequences for behaviour; instead, first provide a safe, calm-down space for the student, limiting your words and demands.
Remind the student of the self-regulation routine: Provide the student with a reminder (verbal or visual) using minimal verbal directions to prompt mastered regulation or calming routine. Reminders should be brief and provided using a neutral tone and may be delivered privately.
Say: Point to a visual poster that shows deep breathing and say: Leela, remember to try deep belly breaths”.
Provide space: Give the student room while remaining close enough to monitor his or her behaviour. When signs of dysregulation occur, prompt the student to go to a break space or safe space to cool down. Say: Leela, you seem frustrated. Please take a break in the calm-down space.
Use Co-regulation with Limited Words: The teacher can say, “Leela, you are crying. Let’s get a tissue and sit down together”.
In conclusion, the Positive Behaviour Support system approach works very well because it is a responsive approach, not a punitive approach. We know for certain that Behavioural approaches using punishment do not teach the student a skill to use in the future. Secondly, once teachers know why a student’s behaviour is occurring, they are in a much better position to teach a more appropriate way of responding, a way that will serve the long-term interests of both student and teacher. This behavioural approach dramatically differs from traditional behaviour modification. It shifts the focus from “fixing” the student to “fixing” skill deficiencies, settings, and systems.

Video – Positive Behaviour Interventions & Support

Teacher Resource Document – Positive Behaviour Interventions & Support