FREE Behavior Management Tools
Are you working in a special education class and are noticing repeated unwanted behaviors from your students? Do you wish you knew why these behaviours are happening? The best place to start is to TRACK TRACK TRACK! Data tracking behaviours allow you to see if there are patterns in the antecedent, behaviour or consequence.
ABC Chart: The ABCs Of Behavior 
Antecedent
The antecedent is what happened BEFORE the behavior. Examples of antecedents are environmental factors, activities, who was present, times of day, specific activities, demands, and more. Knowing a pattern in antecedents before behaviour allows you to discuss what can be changed to reduce or eliminate the behaviour.
Behavior
The behavior is anything that an individual does. Typically if you want to track the behavior, it is an undesired behavior that you would like to stop. Examples of undesired behaviors could be hitting, kicking throwing items, self injurious behaviors (SIBs), etc.
Consequence
The consequence is anything that occurs directly after the behavior. Sometimes consequences could unknowingly reinforce a behavior or it could help in reducing the behavior from occurring again. Examples of consequences A good rule of thumb for consequences is to make reasonable, enforceable and leads to tension reduction.
Reasonable Consequence
A reasonable consequence is related to the behaviour. For example, if the student is trashing the classroom, you can set a reasonable consequence of asking the student to clean up their mess.
Enforceable Consequence
An enforceable consequence means you can implement the consequence immediately. Be weary of "empty threats". For example, if the student is hitting others at gym, you cannot say "You will never be allowed to go to gym again if you act like that!" Why not? Because every student has the right to participate in physical education, so removing gym from them forever isn't enforceable. Instead, you can use a contingency map to show what would happen if they have safe hands ---> fun at gym. If they are unsafe ---> they need to sit on the bench for a 5 minute break.
How to track behavior - Special education
I would always start with an ABC Chart because its simple and works for all behaviors. In our class, we were using an ABC Chart given to us from the behaviour team of the school board, but to be honest... it wasn't what we needed. It was either completely blank so we need to write paragraphs which got annoying. Or there was checkboxes but half of the boxes were irrelevant so it was harder to visually see the patterns of behavior. So, I decided to make one! And I can't make one, without sharing it with you, lovely folks!
This ABC Chart is EDITABLE! So you can swap different antecedents, behaviors or consequences that suit your students/classroom.
Everytime a behavior occurs, FILL. OUT. THE. FORM. Trust me, it will be very beneficial for you especially if your student is going to be brought to the behavior team in the future. Then they can clearly see what you have done to address the behavior already, rather than starting from the beginning all over again.
DOWNLOAD THE ABC CHART HERE FOR FREE!
How to reduce behaviors from occurring
Contigency Maps
Contigency maps are is a visual representation that shows the outcome of 2 different behaviour paths. One path is includes the undesired behaviors and the corresponding consequence of a child engaging in the behaviour. The other path includes the desired behavior, and the positive consequence that will occur. This empowers the student so the student (hopefully! :P) chooses the better path that leads to a better outcome.
Download a contingency map for just $1 here!
First Then Board or Visual Schedules
First then boards are great reinforcers and visual schedules helps give structure to the student's day. These are especially great to use for unpreferred tasks! So if the data tracking is showing that the student frequently escalates during literacy time, then you can put "First Literacy Then Lego" (or whatever their highest preferred activity is).
Download a First Then Board for FREE here!
Choice Boards
Choice boards are great for reducing power struggles by giving the students the power to choose activities or choose an activity to work for. You can allow the student to choose from an arrray of different literacy tasks, so it is a forced choice! In the end, the student is still doing a literacy task, except now they feel like they had a say in the matter lol Or you can also put an array of preferred items and student can select what their "Then" reinforcer is.
Download a FREE Choice Board here!
Token Boards
Token boards or token economy are great tools for students to earn a reinforcer. They can earn reinforcers by completing work tasks, having safe hands and feet, or anything that you would like the student to do before earning their reward. I especially LOVE creating token boards based on their interests, because it makes it that much more exciting!
If you would like a custom token board surrounding your student's interests you can contact me here! I genuinely would LOVE to make one for you :)
Modify the Activity
If your student hates worksheets, try and include hands-on work tasks! This has been a great strategy in my class! Having visually appealing activities that incorporate the student's interests can drastically reduce the resistance of doing school work. We use task cards, file folders and adapted books A LOT in our class, and the students eat it up!
Behavior could be very challenging, trust me I know :P But kuddos to you for waking up everyday ready to be there for our students! Consistency is key. So using some of these strategies consistently for a couple of weeks, you may see some behaviors starting to reduce! I'm sending you all the positive vibes your way!
Thanks for checking out my blog!
Be sure to download the FREE 5 Adapted Books before you go!
Kristi
Individualized Visuals