Student Services
Targeting Behaviour
Background Information
Effective behaviour programming starts with targeting behaviours that need to be addressed and having the team agree on which problem behaviours will be addressed first. The team, together with the child, must consider where changes should begin.
It is valuable for the team to be quite specific about the behaviours being targeted since general descriptors can sometimes lead to confusion. For example, a team may agree to eliminate disrespectful behaviours in the classroom. However, one teacher may be referring to a student's comments about the work (e.g.,"this work is stupid") while another is referring to personal attacks (e.g.,"get out of my face"). The better the team becomes at targeting behaviours and gathering data on their occurrences, the better they will become at determining the underlying functions and patterns, and at selecting effective intervention strategies.
In the description of the Behaviour Intervention Program (BIP) provided on this site, it is assumed that this information has been gathered and discussed by the team. In other words, it is assumed that there is agreement on the problem to be solved. The BIP presented here proceeds from this point with a discussion on the purpose of the plan and on developing an understanding of the function or causes of the targeted behaviours.
