5-Step Process for Managing Challenging Behaviors (2024)

It’s the middle of the year and you have that one child whois constantly hitting, throwing toys, and turning over furniture. You have tried all your traditional positiveguidance strategies, but with this child, nothing seems to work. You are starting to be concerned for thesafety of the other children in your room and are considering whether thischild needs to be removed from your classroom.

While challenging behaviors are common (everyone seems tohave them), knowing what to do when you are faced with these behaviors isnot. In fact, there are few, if any,courses, tutorials, or resources that specifically tell you what to do. In this article, I am going to break down a 5-step process for managing challenging behaviors that will help you shift yourfocus from “controlling the behavior” to “teaching” the necessary social-emotionalskills the child needs to successfully participate in your classroom routines.

Before I introduce the 5-step process, I want to take amoment to discuss what “behavior” is. Behavior is like an “iceberg”. Whatyou see is only the “tip”. The hitting,throwing toys, and turning over furniture are actually a symptom of somethingdeeper. The challenge is to find outwhat is underneath the behavior that you are missing (see image below), as this is the reason forthe behaviors you are seeing. The key to addressing challenging behaviors is to focus your strategies on the reason for the behavior - the bottom of the iceberg. By doing this, you are able to change or reduce the behaviors that you see - the tip of the iceberg.

The 5 steps that help you target the reason for thechallenging behavior are:

1. Observe & trackbehavior,
   
2. Identify function of behavior (reason)
   
3. Create BehaviorSupport Plan
4. Implement plan & track strategies
   
5. Review planand adjust, when needed.

Let’s look at the 5 steps in action with the followingscenario:

Dariusis a child who is three-years-old and prefers to play alone. During choice time, he will hit and scratchchildren who are playing in the same area with him. When teachers try to talk with him, he yellsat them and hits them, saying, “I don’t like you!” Darius has at least 3 outbursts each day andit takes 20 – 30 minutes for Darius to calm down. The teachers are frustrated and want supportfrom management and the parents to get Darius’s behavior under control.

The tip of Darius’s iceberg is hitting, scratching, andyelling. These are the observablebehaviors the teacher sees. Thechallenge is to find out the reason for these behaviors - the bottom of theiceberg. The teacher uses the 5 steps as follows:

It is important to track behavior in order to obtain anobjective factual record of when, with whom, and how behaviors areoccurring. A simpleAntecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) chart is used to log each incident whenDarius displays hitting, scratching, and yelling. The teacher documents what happens before theincident - the antecedent, what happens during the incident - the behavior, and what happens afterthe incident - the consequence. An entry inthe ABC chart would read:

As the teacher continues to document the incidents ofDarius’s behavior over a course of 2-3 weeks, a pattern in Darius’s behaviorbegins to emerge.

The reason for behaviors is the base of the iceberg that isfrequently not “seen” by teachers. However, the reasons for behavior become visible in the patterns of the behavior whenteachers track incidents.

The consequence - or reward - tells you what the child isgetting out of the behavior. Forexample, the “reward” for Darius’s behavior was children left the area orstopped playing with his toys when he hit or scratched them. Additionally, teachers stopped talking toDarius about what happened when he yelled at or hit them. These behaviors became the way Darius goteveryone in his environment to leave him alone. Triggers for Darius was anytime another child entered his space orplayed with toys in his area.

Any triggers or rewards discovered should be shared withfamilies to see if parents notice similar trends at home. Click here to learn strategies for building strong partnerships with families. Parents may not see the behaviors at home, ifthe triggers for the behavior are not present in the home environment. For example, Darius is an only child whoplays well with his toys at home. Thereare not any children entering his space. Thus, the need for hitting and scratching does not exist at home. This information is important to considerbecause we know that Darius does not have the opportunity to practice sharing athome. Thus, this is a skill he will haveto learn at school.

Once the teacher identifies possible triggers and rewards,the next step is to identify any missing social skills related to the reasonfor the behavior. For Darius, a missingsocial skill was sharing toys and using words to communicate his need forspace. These missing skills should beincluded in the behavior support plan created for Darius.

Once you know the triggers, the next step is to create abehavior support plan to proactively address the triggers before thechallenging behavior is needed. Asupport plan is a plan of action with specific strategies, tools, andresponsibilities for the teaching team, parents, and administration. The support plan should be focused on teachingthe child the missing social skill (calming down when angry, sharing, usingwords to communicate needs, etc.) or adapting the environment, if the neededsocial skills are not age appropriate. The sections of the support plan include the goal, the strategies, theperson responsible, time frame for implementing, and resources or toolsneeded. The support plan should alsolist a date to review the plan.

For Darius, a goal for him was to learn to communicate hisneed for space to his peers using words. His behavior support plan would look like this:

This plan is shared with the families so that they cansupport Darius learning the skills at home. In this example, the parents are encouraged to enroll Darius inplaygroups or take him to social play spaces, such as the park, where they willencourage the use of the same “words” at home. Parents are more likely to support the plan if they are given specificstrategies to try at home. Remember,parents often do not have the training and experience that teachers have andmay rely on the teacher for guidance with managing the behavior and learningnew skills.

A support plan should include strategies for prevention(managing triggers), teaching (learning a new skill), minimizing the reward(extinction), and rewards for desired behavior (reinforcement). There should also be a plan for what to dowhen the behavior becomes unsafe (move to cozy area, take balloon breathes tocalm, etc.). Remember, these strategiesneed to be taught to the child when they are calm. Social stories are a great way to dothis.

Now that a plan of action is in place, it is necessary toimplement the plan. Remember, change isa slow process and, if the behavior has been reinforced for months, it may takea few months for the child to learn the new skill and “see” its benefit. Therefore, the plan needs to be consistentlyimplemented for it to be successful.

The use of strategies should be documented and tracked on asupport tracker. The support tracker isused to objectively assess whether a strategy/tool is working over time. When reviewing the support tracker, you arelooking for times when strategies are working, the child’s response, teacher’srole, and the environment. Darius’ssupport tracker may look like this:

The last step in the process is to review the behaviorsupport plan and make adjustments to strategies, as needed. The review date should be scheduled when theplan is put in place. Teachers, parents,and administrators should all review the support tracker and identifystrategies that are working well and strategies that need to be adjusted. Any adjustments need to be documented on anupdated behavior support plan and be implemented for at least 3 weeks todetermine effectiveness.

By following this 5-step process, you will produce allthe documentation needed of what you did to try to support and assist thechild. When you run out of strategies,the next step may be to refer the child for a behavioral evaluation with anearly intervention specialist.

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I look forward to reading your comments about the processbelow. Have you tried any of thesesteps? What are the challenges youforesee or have faced? How mightfollowing this process help you better manage the behaviors in your room?