Positive behaviour support Getting it right from the start

Positive behaviour support: Getting it right from the start - Facilitators reference manual 77
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2. Independence
Some people will show behaviours of concern as a means of getting an object, activity or
sensory experience. When this is the case, we can teach the person to independently, but
appropriately get these things.
Simone
Setting
(background factor)
Trigger
(setting event)
Action
(actual behaviour)
Result
(outcome achieved)
Simone disliked being in
large groups
Simone and everyone
else completed breakfast
and personal hygiene
tasks and were waiting in
the lounge room
Hitting, bitting and
scratching co residents
Staff sat outside with
Simone on the front
bench until the taxi
arrived
Function:
Simone got to go outside
Message:
Let me out, I want to be alone
Positive behaviour support strategies
Environmental change
Replacement
independence skill
All staff are made aware that Simone wants to sit outside and wait for her taxi rather
than waiting inside
Simone was taught to let herself out the front door using her own key and wait on
the front bench for her taxi
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3. Coping skills
Sometimes people show behaviours of concern because they are frustrated, disappointed,
angry or scared and this provides them with some relief. It could be that the behaviour helps
the person cope with a bad situation (others may comfort the person, give them something
else to do or speed up their access to something they have been denied). On the other hand
just performing the behaviour may help the person calm down because it allows them to vent
their feelings.
John
Setting
(background factor)
Trigger
(setting event)
Action
(actual behaviour)
Result
(outcome achieved)
John dislikes strangers in
his environment
A new maintenance
man is fixing a broken
doorhandle in John’s
room when John arrives
from work
John takes the
maintenance man’s
toolbox and throws it out
the door
The maintenance man
yells at John and tells him
he will pay for everything
that is broken
Function:
Message:
Expression of anxiety at having a stranger in the house
I don’t know who you are, ‘go away’
Positive behaviour support strategies
Environmental change
Replacement
independence skill
Staff to let John know when a stranger/or someone new is coming
Staff develop a ‘who’s here today’ board
John was taught:
- to place a picture on the who’s here today board to remind John when someone
new is coming
- to introduce himself to strangers invited into the house and to ask them their
name and purpose of being there.