How can educators modify a student’s behavior?
Page 4: Intervention Types
Once a replacement behavior is identified, the BIP team must develop a plan for effectively teaching and reinforcing this new skill in the student’s learning environment. Although educators might assume that a BIP will primarily describe how the student will change, most of the information is guidance for educators. That is, the plan outlines exactly what educators will do to facilitate the student’s behavioral progress in the form of specific interventions. The selected interventions and their implementation procedures make up a large portion of the written BIP. Furthermore, the BIP clearly defines who will be responsible for implementing each intervention and in which contexts.
Each intervention should be purposefully chosen to address the student’s individualized needs and the function of the target behavior. BIP teams can consider three categories of function-based interventions (which are often used in combination):
- Skill-based
- Antecedent-based
- Reinforcement-based
Such interventions promote long-term behavioral success by making the target behavior inefficient, irrelevant, and ineffective compared to more desirable replacement behaviors. The table briefly describes each type of intervention. These will be further detailed on subsequent pages.
| Intervention Type | Goal | Description |
| Skill-based | Make the target behavior inefficient | Educators explicitly teach the student a replacement behavior that meets the same need as the target behavior in a faster or better way. |
| Antecedent-based | Make the target behavior irrelevant | Educators help to prevent the target behavior by changing the environment. |
| Reinforcement-based | Make the target behavior ineffective | Educators increase the payoff of the replacement behavior while reducing reinforcement of the target behavior. |
Note: Each of these intervention types will be discussed on subsequent pages.
Typically, BIPs include more than one type of intervention to fully address the target behavior’s context and function. The identified replacement behavior and the student’s proficiency with it directly relate to which types of interventions will be necessary. When considering interventions, teams should first examine the student’s current abilities to determine whether the student cannot or will not do the behavior. This distinction results in the identification of one or both of the following:
Skill deficit—This occurs when a student lacks a communication, social-emotional, or executive function skill that is necessary to engage in the identified replacement behavior (i.e., they cannot do the behavior). In this case, the team should prioritize a skill-based intervention to teach that skill (e.g., ask for a break, request attention). The team should also consider antecedent-based and reinforcement-based interventions to create the right conditions for the student to demonstrate the new skill once they have added it to their repertoire.
executive functions
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Performance deficit or motivation deficit—This occurs if the student can perform the replacement behavior but does not do so consistently (i.e., they will not do the behavior). In these cases, antecedent-based and reinforcement-based interventions are imperative for establishing conditions that make the replacement behavior more efficient and effective than the target behavior for accessing reinforcement.
For Your Information
Because interventions must be used consistently to be effective, it is essential that all staff members who work with the student are well-versed in their BIP and how to implement it. BIP teams might need to provide training to classroom teachers, special education teachers, specialty area teachers (e.g., art, music), paraeducators, administrators, or other staff.
Regardless of type, teams should ensure that all selected interventions are:
- Directly connected to the hypothesis statement generated during the FBA process
- Backed by research (e.g., evidence-based practices)
- Compatible with the personal and cultural values of the student and their family
- Feasible to implement given the resources and expertise available
evidence-based practice (EBP)
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In this interview, Michael Bruebach discusses how the student and the family can contribute to the development of a BIP. Next, Johanna Staubitz shares tips on how to balance the feasibility of implementing interventions and available resources.
Johanna Staubitz, PhD, BCBA-D
Assistant Professor
Department of Special Education
Vanderbilt University
(time: 2:26)
Transcript: Michael Bruebach
I think personal values that both the student or the parent or the guardian may have is important that we take into consideration. There are goals that we have as educators for students, and those ideally align with the families, but not always. And I think those conversations where the parent (as the expert on their child) or the child (as the expert on themselves) gets to be a major part of the decision-making process for how they want to interact with staff at school or how often the check-in will be or what their goal is.
We can have a conversation, not just what they want from the school day or what they want their academic goals to be like, but what they’re interested in outside of school. And we can incorporate those interests, or we can incorporate those goals, into an intervention plan to say, “These are the things I know are important to you, and we’re going to help you through this plan to meet those goals or to come out of school with those skills.” And so, that’s the way that personal values can help us select which intervention is most beneficial to a student. And a family can have a similar say in what they find important. My values wouldn’t always align with a family’s values, and we can find common ground in the things we do find important.
During my first year teaching, I had brought in assumptions about how much parents wanted to be part of the intervention during the school day or how much space they wanted from the school day. I had been bringing in assumptions about what my role was as a teacher, and I didn’t want to overburden parents with calling or texting. And so, I came into meetings writing BIPs, trying to take burden off parents. And I had a parent say to me, “Any time of day, whenever you need me, I will drop everything to be there for my kid.” And that was incredible for me and also eye-opening to see a parent ready to receive texts during the day and be a part of the check-in process or be sort of a reinforcer for the student to say, “You know, if we complete this class period, we’ll do a positive text home to dad.” And that was awesome. It was sort of a turning point for me where I knew I brought assumptions to the table, but I had to check in with myself and say I got to let families speak for themselves and not try to assume that I know everything that they want.
Johanna Staubitz, PhD, BCBA-D
It is a reality that schools are under resourced and teachers are asked to do things that take a lot of effort and it’s very hard, if not impossible, to find the extra effort to do that. However, a lot can be accomplished through collaboration with team members and with the student themselves. So, first off, spend ample time talking with the student about the “why” of any behavior change goal. If you’ve taken time to learn what’s important to that student, make connections between behavior change goals and the student’s values and engage them in the process as a collaborator.
In addition, there’s expertise to be had in most schools and school districts, so find out if there are district behavior analysts that you can use and involve in the process. School psychologists are also often knowledgeable about behavior intervention and are sometimes underutilized for that purpose—counselors as well. So find out what services those people may be able to offer. It may just be expertise, but it could be expertise in making the most of resources because adjusting any plan to make it feasible really depends on that plan and the situation. Use those experts as consultants and partners in deciding how to balance intervention feasibility with resources.
Also, consider whether there are other staff in the building who may not be on the team but who could help, for example, with delivering reinforcement that involves time with an adult. There may be preferred adults in the building who we don’t immediately think of that could go play basketball with a student or play a game with them.
And, most importantly, start small. Not every intervention needs to be implemented across the entire school day and every time and place and by every person. So if you can identify just one area of the day—and maybe that’s not even the most challenging time of the day, but it’s a little challenging, there’s some interfering behavior there that needs to be changed—test your intervention there and get it right. Make sure it works and make sure it’s doable before you gradually extend it to other times and places and people.
Clearly, all of this takes a lot of time and effort. Trust the process because it is the case that investing that time and effort will pay dividends later in the time and effort you get back in having a better managed classroom and a student who has new skills that you no longer have to provide such intensive supports for.
For Your Information
When a student’s behavior could potentially cause physical harm to themselves or others, the BIP should contain a crisis plan. Although not an intervention itself, a crisis plan is a preplanned and thought-out set of strategies for obtaining immediate assistance in the event of severe behavioral situations. To be effective, a crisis plan should address four questions:
- Who will seek assistance?
- Who will be notified?
- What should the rest of the students do during the crisis?
- What should the educator do once the crisis is over?
Note: Be sure to check whether your school has established procedures for addressing a crisis (e.g., who to notify, where the other students should go, guidelines for physical intervention).
Returning to the Challenge
As they begin considering possible interventions, Tasha’s team first discusses whether she is able to perform the replacement behavior (i.e., use a discrete signal to request a break during which she can access a designated reset space). The team determines that Tasha is not yet equipped with the prerequisite coping skills needed to effectively engage in this replacement behavior. Therefore, they will address her skill deficit using a skill-based intervention and supplement this with antecedent-based and reinforcement-based interventions so that the context is more supportive when Tasha engages in the replacement behavior.
Likewise, Isaiah’s team considers whether he is able to perform the replacement behavior (i.e., use a communication card to request a designated amount of time with an activity). They agree that although Isaiah has used communication cards successfully in the past and therefore could display this behavior rather than acting out physically, he currently does not do so. Consequently, the team decides to address Isaiah’s performance deficit using a combination of antecedent-based and reinforcement-based interventions.
