Including Families Throughout the PBS Process

1. Including Families Throughout thePBS Process

2. Positive Behavior Support • How do you know when you are receiving PBS? • What have we learned about what makes PBS work? • Florida’s Positive Behavior Support Project • Regional Collaborative on Positive Behavior Support

3. Positive Behavior Support • Positive Behavior Support is a team-based process for creating individualized support systems for children and adults. • Positive Behavior Support is based on understanding the purpose of the individual’s problem behavior.

4. Historical Forces Leading to PBS • Human rights concerns, especially with use of aversive interventions • Inclusion and deinstitutionalization movements • New research on functions of problem behavior

5. Critical Themes in PositiveBehavioral Support • Research based • Consideration of real life settings or events • Support provided within typical environments • Respect for persons values, feelings, and beliefs • Value of families, friends, and support providers • Educational approach to problem behavior • Positive changes in overall quality of life

6. Distinctive Features of PBS • Person-centered values base • Focus is on the child/adult • Individual and family are involved in the process • Goals are important to the person • Choice and preferences are important

7. Distinctive Features of PBS • Functional assessment of behavior • “A process of information gathering that leads to an understanding of the relation between problem behavior and events in the environment” • Why is the behavior occurring? • Developing a holistic understanding of the person and the context.

8. Distinctive Features of PBS • Emphasis on meaningful outcomes • Reductions in problem behavior - • important, but insufficient • New skills • Social contacts and relationships • Opportunities • Lifestyle improvements

9. Distinctive Features of PBS • Taking a teaching/educative approach • Communication Skills • Self-management • Choice-making

10. Distinctive Features of PBS • Concern with the context • Improving the context of the individual’s life • Adapting support to match the context of the person’s life

11. Distinctive Features of PBS • Comprehensive support plans • No one way or program • Matching support to the individual/family • Multiple components • Multiple settings and caregivers

12. Distinctive Features of PBS • Partnership and collaboration • Team approach • Not an “expert” model • Trans-disciplinary • Interagency, family, community approach

13. Positive Behavior Support Process • Step 1- Set goals • Step 2- Gathering information • Step 3- Making best guesses • Step 4- Creating a support plan • Step 5- Carrying out the plan/making necessary changes

14. Positive Behavior Support Step 1: Setting Goals • Developing a support team • Collaboration • Identifying broad and specific goals • Person-centered planning • The family’s role

15. Membership on Behavioral Support Teams… • Who needs to be involved…. • Members from all environments in which the individual interacts (home, school, and community) • People who know the individual well and want him/her to succeed • People who know supports and resources (and methods of accessing them) as well as potential barriers • Members to allocate necessary time and money

16. Family Members and the Team • Family members are a critical component of the team. • They are their child’s most powerful and valuable resource. • When the family goals are presented in the process, interventions are more likely to be consistent with family values and lifestyles, therefore, creating the best contextual fit.

17. Tips for Effective CollaborationBetween Families and Schools • All members are treated as equals • Focus on common interest rather than differences • Use awareness training to jump-start collaboration • Establish goals through a group process of team interaction and agreement • Equity of task distribution • Consensus decision-making • Ongoing problem-solving • Identify and recognize each team members resources, talents, and skills • Encourage risk taking and creativity

18. Characteristics of Person-Centered Planning • Includes and focuses on the child and family • Respects and empowers the child, family, and team members • Gives priority to expressed choices and preferences of the child and family • Results in creative solutions • Accesses typical community resources • Creates an environment where everyone is a learner • Individualizes support

19. The Family’s Role in Person-Centered Planning • Critical to the process • Provide important information and insights regarding medical/health issues • Provide important information on personal history, future goals, etc…

20. Person-Centered Plan: Sample Organizational Chart Dream People Health Choices Strategies Barriers and Supports First Steps Goals Places History Respect Hopes and Fears Themes

21. Positive Behavior SupportStep 2: Gathering Information • Understanding the basic’s about behavior • Functional assessment process • Data collection • The family’s role

22. What is Behavior? • Behavior is anything we say, do, think, or feel. • It is how we react to our environment. • Behaviors are learned and continue because they have a purpose or function. • We engage in behavior because we have learned a desired outcome occurs.

23. Children and Behavior • Some children use problem behavior to communicate their needs. • Problem behavior may interfere with learning. • PBS helps us understand the PURPOSE of the inappropriate behavior and teaches children necessary skills to replace the inappropriate behaviors.

24. Functions of Behavior • Why is it important for us to know the function of behavior? • So we can understand why the behavior is occurring • To find an appropriate replacement behavior • To develop the best behavior support plan

25. Functions of Behavior • One behavior can have multiple functions. • Example: Johnny can hit at home in order to get out of cleaning his room and other times he can hit in order to get adult attention.

26. Functions of Behavior • Several behaviors can have the same function. • Example: Johnny can use multiple behaviors such as hitting, screaming, and dropping to the floor in order to get out of cleaning his room.

27. Functions of Behavior • The goal is to understand the function of the behavior in order to develop an effective behavior support plan.

28. GET ATTENTION SENSORY TANGIBLE (objects & activities) GET AWAY ATTENTION SENSORY TANGIBLE (objects & activities) Functions of Behavior

29. Defining Behaviors • Should be decided as a team • Observable • Measurable

30. Alert Terms!!! • Most frequently used words that families should be aware of • Setting events – environmental factors that causes variations from typical behavior problems • Antecedents – events or factors that signal, prompt, or remind us that this is the time/place for specific behaviors (triggers) • Behavior – anything we say, do, think, or feel

31. Alert Terms!!! • Consequences – the events that happen after the behavior occurs. These could be reinforcing to the student and increase or decrease the likelihood that the behavior will happen again. • Functional assessment - process that not only helps to determine the purpose of the behavior, but provides information that can be used in developing interventions • Hypothesis- best guess based on information • Intervention components- parts of the plan, specific things that will be done to produce a change in behavior and surroundings

32. Alert Terms!!! • Implementation- steps to carry out a plan • Generalization- taking a new skill or set of behaviors learned in one setting to other settings and situations • Maintenance- keeping the positive outcomes of the plan over time • Monitor- assessing whether the interventions are causing the behaviors to decrease or increase

33. Functional Assessment Process • Process that not only helps to determine the purpose (function) of the behavior, but provides information that can be used in developing interventions (behavior support plan) • Sometimes this process can be simple and leads us to a simple solution • Other times, the process is more involved and it takes longer to find answers

34. Functional Assessment Process • No one way to conduct a functional assessment • Typical process may follow these steps • Identify and agree upon the behaviors that most need to be changed • Collect data on those behaviors • Look for patterns in the data collected

35. Functional Assessment Process • Develop a hypotheses (best guess) about the function(s) of the problem behavior • what happens right before the behavior • when and where does the behavior occur • what happens right after the behavior occurs • Develop interventions (a support plan) • Carry out the plan and make changes as necessary

36. How to Describe Antecedents? • Antecedents are events that happen before the behavior. • There are two types of antecedents: • Slow triggers • Fast triggers

37. Slow Triggers • May happen in or out of the classroom • Are conditions that increase the likelihood behavior will occur • Oversleeping • No breakfast • Forgotten medication • Conflict with . . .

38. Fast Triggers • Happen in the immediate environment • Happen right before the behavior occurs

39. Fast Triggers: Examples • Examples: • Non-preferred request/activity • Teasing/sarcasm • Challenged by other • May be consistent • When anyone asks him to sit down • May be unique to one situation • When child is asked to take a bath • Types of variables: • medical/health • curricular/instructional • environmental • social/emotional cultural

40. What Is the Consequenceof the Behavior? • What is the pay-off? • What does the student get? • What does the student avoid?

41. Introduction To Data Collection • Information we collect in order to determine why the behaviors are occurring • Interviews • Scatter plots • ABC data

42. Interviews • Interviews: going over a series of questions that are designed to clearly define the behavior of concern and to gather information about setting events, antecedents, behaviors, and consequences • Interviews provide us with: • Information from multiple viewpoints • Potential variables influencing behavior • A broader lifestyle perspective • An opportunity to build rapport

43. Scatter Plot Data • A method of recording occurrence and nonoccurrence of behavior across activities, routines, and time periods, providing a visual display of patterns • Identifies patterns of responding in natural settings • Suggest possible sources of environmental control

44. How Families Collect Scatter Plot Data • Make a list of the various activities that happen in your home. • Identify which behaviors you will be collecting information on. • Chart each time the behavior occurs throughout the day. • Collect this information for several days. • Begin to see patterns emerge during specific times of the day and/or during specific activities.

45. Scatter plot Data: Sample Student:JackObserver:MomDate:1/8-1/26 Target Behaviors:H= Hitting S= Screaming Dates

46. ABC Data Collection • A method of recording the antecedents and consequences of specific target behaviors. • Identify events that precipitate the behavior • Identify variables that maintain the behavior • Identify behavior X environment patterns • Setting event checklist

47. How Families Collect ABC Data • After identifying specific patterns of behavior from the scatter plot information sheet use this information to collect more intensive data. • Make sure to note the time and activity in which you are observing. • Identify what happened prior to the behavior occurring (A = antecedent). • Describe the specific behavior (B = behavior). • Describe exactly what happened after the behavior occurred (C = consequence).

48. ABC Data: Sample Student:JackObserver:MotherDate: 1/30 Time began:8:30 amTime ended:8:42 am

49. Family Members’ Role • Family members are considered a primary informant. • Families should be encouraged to share what they know about their child’s: • Strengths • Challenges • Lifestyle

50. Positive Behavior SupportStep 3: Making the Best Guess • Also referred to as “hypothesis statements” • It is an informed guess about the relationship between environmental events or conditions and individual target behavior.