How can educators modify a student’s behavior?
Page 3: Replacement Behaviors
During the FBA process, educators focus on measuring the behavior they want the student to engage in less often (i.e., target behavior). As they transition into developing and implementing a BIP, however, their attention must shift toward the more desirable behaviors they want the student to engage in more often (i.e., replacement behaviors). The goal of a BIP is to make a student not only stop displaying an interfering behavior but learn to engage in a replacement behavior—a positive alternative behavior that serves the same function as the target behavior.
A successful BIP promotes the student’s use of a replacement behavior that is functionally equivalent (i.e., serves the same function as the target behavior). A replacement behavior often involves the student communicating their needs, rather than engaging in an interfering behavior, to access reinforcement. For example, if a student’s outbursts are reinforced by receiving more computer time, the identified replacement behavior must also allow the student to access the computer—but in a more acceptable way. A functionally equivalent replacement behavior might be asking for five more minutes of computer time. Although likely not a practical long-term solution, it is important to begin with a more appropriate replacement behavior that helps the student access the preferred activity. The table below illustrates replacement behaviors commonly associated with each behavioral function.
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| Function | Possible Replacement Behaviors |
| Attention |
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| Items and Activities |
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| Escape |
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Note: Communication can take a variety of forms, both verbal and non-verbal. For example, a student might request a break by asking directly, using sign language or another hand signal, pointing to a visual cue, or placing a break card on their desk.
For Your Information
As with target behaviors, replacement behaviors should be described in terms that are:
- Observable: Details what the behavior looks and/or sounds like, not what the student might be thinking or feeling
- Measurable: Describes the behavior in such a way that it can be counted or timed
- Actively stated: Specifies what the student does, rather than what they fail to do
Educators often expect BIPs to directly result in students consistently engaging in desired behaviors that are aligned with class and school-wide expectations. These expectations usually include behaviors that support academic engagement (e.g., following directions, completing assignments) and positive social interactions (e.g., taking turns, resolving conflicts). However, it is unrealistic to expect a student to immediately replace an interfering behavior with a fully developed appropriate behavior. Typically, this is because such behaviors are not functionally equivalent to the target behavior. For instance, if a student makes jokes and comments to gain peer attention, asking them to work silently on independent assignments would not address the function of accessing peer attention.
In addition to being functionally equivalent, a replacement behavior should:
- Provide a better payoff than the target behavior—The reinforcement from the replacement behavior needs to be powerful enough to outweigh that of the target behavior. This happens when the replacement behavior results in one or more of the following:
- A greater amount of reinforcement
- More immediate reinforcement
- Higher-quality reinforcement
- Reinforcement that is easier to attain
- Be socially valued across different settings and people—Socially valued behaviors are those that are accepted and encouraged by others and are applicable to multiple real-world contexts (e.g., raising hand to speak, making polite requests). Such behaviors are more likely to be naturally reinforced, which reduces the student’s reliance on formal interventions and promotes long-term maintenance of the replacement behavior.
- Align with the student’s cultural background—The replacement behavior should be chosen carefully to ensure that it reflects the student’s cultural norms and values and is acceptable within their cultural context.
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cultural norm
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- Be informed by student input as appropriate—Educators might involve the student in brainstorming replacement behaviors (e.g., raise their hand, hold up a card, use a gesture to access teacher attention). Students might also weigh in on the age appropriateness and cultural alignment of proposed replacement behaviors.
Sometimes, teams might want to outline a series of replacement behaviors that build on each other to ultimately lead to long-term desired behavior. For instance, if a student frequently calls out in class to gain attention, the first step might be teaching them to appropriately request attention using a hand signal. During this stage, educators must reinforce communicative replacement behaviors consistently and immediately. Once the student is routinely using this replacement behavior effectively, the focus could shift to teaching the student to delay gratification by waiting for a designated time to ask questions.
In this interview, Michael Bruebach explains how outlining a series of replacement behaviors can help a student meet a long-term behavior goal (time: 2:44).
Transcript: Michael Bruebach
Something like self-regulation, or appropriately accessing attention, means a lot to educators and sometimes doesn’t mean anything at all to students who are trying to build the skills to do those things. And so when we break them down into that series of replacement behaviors, it’s a lot easier for them to see what steps they can take in order to reach those sort of “jargony” teacher goals that we want to see from them.
When they do stack in succession, it’s nice to have a box to check to say they’ve met this metric, or we’ve met this percentage and know that they have achieved mastery of this small part, so that we are ready to chain these together and ask a little bit more of them, rather than pushing them along without certainty that they have the skills to achieve these more intensive or more difficult tasks.
I had a student that was demonstrating physically aggressive behaviors when she would get frustrated or when she was overwhelmed in class, and we’d wanted her to self-regulate. And so we were able to sort of break it into these smaller, observable goals and say not that we just want physical aggression to diminish—although that was the overarching goal—but we want her to be able to say when she was dysregulated or be able to identify her feelings. And that was where we started. And we had consecutive data points where she was identifying signs of dysregulation in herself. And so we moved to then using a coping skills menu, and she would then identify those signs and pick a coping skill. And that was another step in the ladder. We’ve identified signs of dysregulation, we’ve picked a coping skill to use, and now let’s actually use that skill. And as we’re marking these items off, we see physical aggression decrease. And the whole time that’s our big goal, and these smaller replacement goals helped us get there. And that was awesome for her to see and awesome for us to see as well.
Returning to the Challenge
When Tasha’s team meets to begin developing her BIP, they start by discussing the replacement behaviors that they want to see her engage in. Because her various off-task actions interfere with her ability to learn, the team agrees that remaining on task and academically engaged will be important for her in the long term. However, the school psychologist reminds the team that Tasha’s behavior is an expression of her need to take a break from challenging academic demands, thus a replacement behavior should ensure that she can more efficiently and effectively access a break. After discussion, the team decides to prioritize the following replacement behavior:
school psychologist
DEFINITION_DEFINITION_DEFINITION_DEFINITION
Tasha will use a discrete signal to request a break to access a designated reset space.
Activity
Regarding Isaiah, his replacement behavior must address the underlying function of his target behavior (i.e., initiating forceful physical contact with inanimate objects). Remember, the hypothesized function of Isaiah’s behavior is to gain access to preferred activities. Choose the best replacement behavior for the team to focus on when developing Isaiah’s BIP:
Isaiah will keep his hands and feet to himself.
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Isaiah will appropriately transition away from preferred activities when directed.
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Isaiah will use a communication card to request a designated amount of time with an activity.
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