Mini Video Training Series Ep: 11 Replacement Behaviors

Hi, this is Sasha from The Autism Helper, and in this episode of the mini video training series, I'm going to talk about how to identify replacement behavior. Sometimes I get asked, "What is a good replacement behavior for running or aggression?" And I can't answer this question. I don't know your student or child. I don't know the whole picture. But this worries me because it's going about identifying a replacement behavior completely the wrong way. You don't want to look at just what a behavior looks like. The behavior is running or hitting or kicking. That's not where you go to first. First, you want to go to why the behavior is happening. I care less about what the behavior looks like than I do about what— why the behavior is occurring. All behavior is communication, and that negative behavior is communicating something. So in order to figure out a replacement for the negative behavior, we first have to figure out the why. So let's backtrack. What's a replacement behavior? A replacement behavior is a response or behavior that will replace the negative behavior, and the replacement behavior is a positive, prosocial, communicative response. The key is that the replacement behavior is going to get at that same why, the same reason or result that the negative behavior was getting. The replacement behavior is going to get at that same thing. So the first step is figuring out why the negative behavior is occurring. So like I said, all behavior is communication, and your child or student is communicating something loud and clear with extreme behaviors. For behaviors like aggression or running, it is communicating something. And when you switch your viewpoint to think about all behavior is communication, I think it allows us to interact and deal with these situations a lot better because these kids have no other way to communicate that they want attention or they need a break or they feel overwhelmed except aggression or great disruption or some extreme response. So you first want to figure out why the behavior is occurring, and here you're going to take ABC data. The A is the antecedent, which happens before the behavior, and the C is the consequence. Something that happens after the behavior. And remember, when you think about the consequence, I don't mean, mean like the old school, like, "You have a consequence." It's just anything that happens after the behavior. If nothing happens after the behavior, that's a consequence. So you want to take some data in your classroom. Don't add any interventions yet, or just use the interventions and strategies you've already been using. Because remember, you're part of your student's environment. So look at that whole big picture when a behavior happens, when running out of the classroom happens. Look at what happened before. What type of work was the child doing? Who are they working with? What other things were going on in the classroom? Look at that whole big picture and then look at, look at what happened after the behavior. After the child ran out of the room, did people run after him? When he came back, did he have to go back to the same task or he'd go to break time? Did he get to get a special treat or something like that? So again, you want to look at everything. You're really playing detective here. So you want to notice all the little details so you can try to make an educated guess. We're never gonna know for sure why behaviors occur, and sometimes the reasons change or there's multiple reasons. So we're gonna make a best guess by looking at our data. So you need some thorough ABC data if this isn't your area of expertise. Check out my website, theautismhelper.com. I have a bunch of posts on ABC data. Or consult a behavior expert in your school or your child's life. So take that ABC data and try to make your best guess as to why that behavior is occurring. Is it occurring to get attention? Is it occurring to escape a task or escape a social situation? There's a lot of reasons that a behavior can occur, and sometimes behaviors occur for multiple reasons. So it's important to consider that. So once you figure out why the negative behavior is occurring, then determine an appropriate pro-social communicative way to get to that same result. So you're gonna want to teach a replacement behavior. For your students with verbal skills, that might be requesting a break or requesting access to the iPad. For kids with limited verbal skills, it might be using a visual, an AAC device, a PECS book, So some type of behavior that's going to get to that same result: a break from a task, attention from peers, escape from a social situation. So you want to make sure that it's reaching the same result because just by eliminating— trying to eliminate the negative behavior, we're not eliminating the want for that consequence. We're still going to want attention or want a break. We just need to give a positive way to get it. And at this point people tell me, oh well, he knows how to ask for a break, or he knows he should raise his hand. They always kind of say like that, he knows. Well, maybe he knows how to ask for a break or ask for attention, but you haven't shaped it up. So first try teaching that behavior and then you need to shape it up. You need to get the buy-in. And I think this is where we have a misstep a lot of times is we don't spend enough time getting the buy-in. The replacement behavior needs to be two things: it needs to be easier and more effective than the negative behavior. It needs to be kind of a no-brainer option. Of course I would use this replacement behavior. It's way easier than the negative behavior and it works so much better. This is hard because a lot of our kids' negative behaviors are easy for them to do. It's easy to scream out whenever you want, and it works every time. Whenever you scream really loud, people look at you and give you attention. Thinking about, thinking about our kids that engage in running behaviors. Every time you sprint out of the classroom, oh my gosh, it's a party! You've got people chasing after you, you don't have to do your work, it's a— you're getting everything you want. It's really effective. So the example I always use here is about coffee. So I love Starbucks. I go to Starbucks way too much. But let's say the Starbucks by my house closed. I went on Monday, no one was there. I went on Tuesday, no one was there. I go on Wednesday, I'm getting annoyed. My behavior of going to Starbucks is because I want to access coffee. So after a while, my behavior is not working. So I'm like, oh, and soon a Dunkin' Donuts opens closer to my house. It's closer than Starbucks is. So I go there. When I go to Dunkin' Donuts, everyone's super nice to me. There's no line. The coffee is 10 cents. It's super cheap. And every time I go, they give me this amazing fat-free donut and it's delicious. It's like the best thing ever. So it's better for me to go to Dunkin' Donuts. So I go to Dunkin' Donuts again, there's no line, 10-cent coffee, fat-free donut, it's all good. If Starbucks reopens, where am I going? I'm still going to Dunkin' Donuts. It's the no-brainer option. Of course I would go to Dunkin' Donuts. It's closer, it's easier, it's more effective, it's all around better. So that's what you need to figure out. You need to figure out a no-brainer option. Something that's really easy for our kids to do, So even if your kids have verbal skills, verbal skills are hard. Maybe you still want to rely on a visual. If you're on PECS Phase 4, well, that's challenging. Maybe you want to use a single picture exchange. So think about making sure that your response you're teaching is easy and it's more effective. So when I say more effective, it means that it's going to get that reinforcement, that result, that why, all the time. I like to call this time Phase 1. People are scared of Phase 1. Phase 1 is all the good, all the time. Every single time your kid uses a break card, every single time they ask for the iPad, every single time they come to you to get your attention, they get it. That's what Phase 1 is, all the good, all the time. It's exhausting to live in Phase 1. You will likely get no work done in Phase 1. That's okay, because guess what? When you were having 10 meltdowns a day or 10 times running out the classroom a day, you weren't getting any work done anyways. So in Phase 1, when every time your student is using that replacement behavior, they get what they want, you're eliminating aggression, you're eliminating any type of potentially dangerous situations, and you're getting your child or student communicating. They're communicating what they want to you in a positive, pro-social way instead of that negative way they were communicating it before. And people are scared of this Phase 1 because we're in school, we have to learn in school, you can't take a break every time you ask for one, but you've gotta get that buy-in first. So by building up that, hey, every single time you give me this break card, you get to go to break. Even if you use it 82 times a day, we have to use those opportunities to build the buy-in. And don't worry, you're not living here forever. But I think sometimes we miss this step. We jump through too quickly and our kids just don't have buy-in in the replacement behavior. So they go back to the negative behavior, to what they know, what they know works. For older kids, those negative behaviors have likely been working for a really long time. Think about our teenagers. Those negative behaviors maybe have been working for 10 years. So make sure that that replacement behavior is easier, is more effective. So in— after that Phase 1, after you get that buy-in, then you can kind of move to Phase 2. So Phase 2 is delay and denial. So every time you use the break card, we're gonna start to delay it a little bit. You can have a break in 15 seconds, in 2 minutes, etc. And then starting to say no. Nope, you raise your— I know I saw you raising your hand, it is so nice that you're raising your hand, but you're not getting my attention right now, or you're not getting access to the iPad right now, or break time. So you're gonna start to build in that delay of you don't get it exactly when you ask, and and then denial. Sometimes you don't get it. There's no perfect amount of time to spend in this idea of Phase 1, all the good all the time. It's gonna depend on the student, but you want to get that buy-in. And remember, you can always go back. If you start doing some delay and denial and you see some of those negative behaviors pop up, you can go back and spend a little more time getting that buy-in for the positive replacement behavior. So while you're teaching this positive pro-social replacement behavior that's easier and more effective with than the negative behavior, you're going to pair this alongside reducing or eliminating the why for the negative behavior. So let me explain what I mean. So let's say you have a student that engages in aggression for attention. You can't just eliminate attention. If you get punched in the face, you're going to react. Any person reacts somewhat, but you can eliminate or decrease the amount of attention that you're giving. So if it is an attention behavior, when there is aggression that comes up, you can redirect, you can provide some prompting or some type of safety plan with minimal eye contact, with no talking, with minimal staff involved. Because you here want to play with the magnitude of the result. So when I say that the replacement behavior is more effective, it's going to get this big, great, amazing attention. And that negative behavior, the aggression, yes, it's still getting some attention, but it's minimal and it's not the quality attention that the student wants. I see this happen a lot with kids that engage in running behaviors. When a kid runs out of the classroom or out of, God forbid, a school, it's scary, right? It's a safety concern. Of course you have to go get that child. Obviously some buildings have plans for this with staff members at various gates and walkie-talkie systems, but the typical gen ed school doesn't have that. So yes, you're going to chase that student, and for the kid that's engaging in that behavior, it's glorious. They're playing tag with someone who would likely never play tag with them, and they're just having a grand old time. You can still go get that child, go chase after him, bring him back to your classroom with minimal attention. You don't need the show, the circus that follows this a lot. 3 adults sprinting after, yelling, grabbing, bringing him back, everyone talking about it, verbal reprimands, lectures. Eliminate all of that. You are giving the student exactly what they want for these attention behaviors. So make sure that you play with the magnitude of your responses here. We can't always eliminate that desired consequence, especially for things like attention or escape from a task, but you can play with the magnitude of it. So it's important to consider that alongside teaching these replacement behaviors. So remember, when we're thinking about replacement behaviors, we start with the why. We have to figure out why the negative behavior is occurring. So you're gonna take that thorough ABC data and figure out a response that's easier and more effective for that student to use. Then you'll spend some time in the all the good all the time, what I call the Phase 1, getting that buy-in. Then you can start to add in some delay, have having some wait time, and then saying no. So next time you're having to look at work with a student with a negative behavior that's potentially dangerous and stigmatizing for that student, consider teaching a replacement behavior that's positive, prosocial, and communicative, but make sure that it also touches on that same goal, that same thing that your kid was communicating, and gets to to that same result. So thanks for watching this episode of the mini video training series. I'm Sasha from theautismhelper.com.