Ep. 29: Functions of Behavior: The WHY more than the WHAT

In this episode, we highlight why knowing the function of behavior is crucial for effective management:

• Function vs. Form: The form of behavior (e.g., yelling) is different from its function (e.g., seeking attention or avoiding a task).
• Four Main Functions:
  • Attention: Behaviors aimed at getting someone’s attention (e.g., a child jumping up and down).
  • Escape/Avoidance: Behaviors to avoid or escape undesirable tasks (e.g., hitting the snooze button).
  • Access to Tangibles: Behaviors to obtain desired items or activities (e.g., asking for a cookie).
  • Sensory Stimulation/Automatic Reinforcement: Behaviors providing sensory satisfaction (e.g., self-soothing actions like rocking).

Key Takeaway: Identify the underlying function of a behavior to address it effectively and improve future interactions. Stay tuned for strategies in our upcoming course!

FREEBIE this week: Some visuals to share with your staff about the functions of behavior. Also check out my bundle of Functions of Behavior social story here: https://abainschool.com/fxbx

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Transcript

Caitlin Beltran: so many times like in our discrete trial sessions, it's like you're putting out the letter cards and the number cards and boom, they're on the floor because it's just the easiest way to not do that for that learner.

Welcome to the Misfit Behaviorists Podcast. Join your hosts, Audra Jensen and Caitlin Beltran, here to bring you evidence based strategies with a student centered focus. Let's get started. 

Caitlin Beltran: Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of The Misfit Behaviorists. I'm Caitlin and Audra, before we jump in, I just want to remind everyone to find us on Instagram at The Misfit Behaviorists podcast and also join our Facebook group of the same name where we are putting in a ton of freebies each week that go along with each episode. So Audra, what are we talking about tonight? 

Audra Jensen: So, I was thinking, because We're at like the six month mark where we've been doing this for about six months and we're starting to round out what we're going to call the season one and Caitlin will talk about that a little bit more next week. But one of the things that I've done is I sent out a survey to everybody, both on my in email group and then I think of the Facebook group too to start to ask people what they're interested in learning about because we're thinking about going to, A different or an additional direction. So one of the things that's coming back as people are filling that out is all about behavior. I mean, big surprise, you know, people want to talk more about behavior in the classrooms and behavior reduction skill sets.

And so I thought today we'd touch on a little bit. Most people know what the four functions of behavior are, but I thought we'd talk about that a little bit more for those who don't know, and I've got some short little video examples. If you're not watching on YouTube, that's okay, we'll talk through it, but it would be fun because there's some really funny, cute ones. So, if you want to go check us out on YouTube, you can do that. So we're going to talk about the four functions of behavior. 

So my first question is to you, have you experienced kind of what, how it's important to know what those functions of behavior are in the work that you've been doing?

Caitlin Beltran: Oh yeah, I mean, in a huge way, because, Often, I would say all the time, like people will just say Oh, I have this kid and he's, you know, spitting or kicking or six. What should I do? And so we kind of all know, like you mentioned, hopefully, most of us have some idea that we should get to the bottom of why that learner is doing that before we just dive in with strategies.

That being said, I do have you know, we have our best practice strategies more like what not to do with any behaviors, draw more attention to it or You know, remove demands and make it like a free break pass. But if you have a learner who, you know, let's say is spitting, you could have two learners who are spitting for two totally different reasons.

So if one of them is spitting to get my attention, and one of them is spitting to get out of what they're doing right now, and no one's saying they can't do both of those, you know, do that behavior for two different reasons. But typically, in my experience, at least, we do see a lot of the times where learners are engaging in a behavior or a set of behaviors for really one overall driving force. And so if you're not understanding that driving force, you're probably treating it in a way that just doesn't make sense. 

Audra Jensen: Yep. And I've seen over the years, a lot of times when we get called in, we're called in for behaviors. And so, you know, he's throwing books, he's, you know, yelling, he's under the table.

Those are the things that, that teachers need help with, you know. And then I have to kind of get them to understand that it really doesn't matter what he's doing. It matters why he's doing it. And it's kind of a paradigm shift for them to realize. You know, they're like, I just want him to stop hiding under the table.

Well, let's figure out why he's doing it. So I've always used kind of, we call function over form. Like the, the why is so much more important than what it's looking like. In fact, when we do our, our, BIPs, our FBAs and BIPs, we almost always, there's almost always more than one behavior that goes with a certain function.

It's rarely you're going to have a student engaging in challenging behavior, just one behavior. It's usually a class of behaviors or multiple things, and it's not as simple as they're just doing it for attention, too. It's you know, they may, this is what I found the most, is they may engage in a behavior because they want to escape a demand, and then they start getting an attention for that behavior.

So then the behavior kind of, morphs into now it's being maintained by the attention I'm getting from peers. And so we have to kind of figure out how do we address different functions of behaviors. But I think the biggest thing is just it's not as important what they're doing as it is why. 

Caitlin Beltran: A hundred percent. And that's the exact scenario that you were mentioning that was going through my head. Like when teachers or anyone asks me like, okay, so what do I do though? I understand I want to know why he's doing it, but what do I do when he's doing this? And it's not a bad question. It's just sometimes not the right question because overall, I could tell you what to do in that moment to maybe minimize or deescalate, but it's just always going to happen again unless you figure out that, unless you pull back and figure out earlier in that sequence of events,like, why are they, I think of it like, you know, you push the button and the light comes on, or you push the button and the elevator comes on.

what's happening when they're pushing that button that they want to get, and how can we teach them, a different thing to do than push our buttons? Not literally, but figuratively. 

Audra Jensen: Well, they do that too. No, and I think that's the biggest thing is why it's important to figure out what the function is, because once you figure out the function, then You step back just like he said and figure out how can we manipulate everything that's going on before and fill their bucket with whatever they're needing so we don't even get to the behavior because that's the whole point.

I mean, the behaviors are going to happen and we do have to talk about consequence management and stuff. But it's really if we can catch these things that we can take enough data and observation, we can say, hey, he's engaged in these behaviors because he needs more attention earlier in the day. So now let's go back earlier in the day.

What can we do to build up his attention bucket? You know, what,does he need more time with the teacher? Does he need time with his peers? Does he need to go get a sticker from the principal? What is it that we can fill him up so that he's not then engaged in that behavior later on to get his bucket filled?

Caitlin Beltran: Exactly. 

I feel like it makes sense when we kind of correlate it to our own lives, like as, you know, functioning adults, if we arrange our own environment for success, we can do that. But oftentimes we're dealing, we're working with, you know, little tiny human beings, or even if they're big human beings, so they just don't have the tools yet to figure out how to do that.

And so that's our job. It's not what, you know, when we write the behavior plan, we always say we're not giving it to the learner and being like, good luck, we are figuring out how to arrange all those environmental modifications so that we're filling their bucket. We're giving them what they need to prevent the behavior, but if it does happen, how to deescalate it in that right way. And then just see less and less of that behavior over time and replace it with a functional skill. 

Audra Jensen: Yeah, and it's the same way, everybody knows the book, The Five Love Languages or whatever, and it works really well for an adult, for adults, you know, we figure out what is it that we need, we need to fill up.

What is it that our partner needs to fill up? How do we show love? It's the same thing with kids. We need to figure out what their love language is, which is basically what we're doing with this. You know, if they need that connection with, you know, people or certain people or whatever, we want to fill that bucket.

So yeah, so that's exactly it. So there are the four common, most common functions that we're going to go over really quickly. And for each one, I got a little video or two that I'll talk through. and so the first one we used to just call it attention seeking. And I like the, that we're using more, but term now connection, because it's not just, I want your attention on me.

It's really, I'm looking for a connection with somebody, something, which is I need that connection with somebody. So I like that attention connection, function.

So, this first short little video is a commonly used one. Tell me if you've seen this one, Caitlin. I love this one so much because it is a toddler, have you seen this? No. Oh, this is so good. Okay, so for those who can't see, it's, it's, it's a toddler who's engaging in a challenged behavior, in this case, having a tantrum, throwing himself on the floor, and he's got to be, you know, maybe two years old, and throughout the video, you're going to see or hear kind of the, the dad sort of moves his body out of sight, so the toddler can't see him, and you'll hear what happens, and as it happens, I'll describe it. But it's really cute.

So dad is now out of sight. The crying has stopped. So now the toddler sees dad. Dad is moving out of the way. Now, can't be seen again. And the crying stops. He sees dad. What's funny when you don't get hearing is the toddler sees dad and then he drops to the floor and starts crying again. 

Caitlin Beltran: And it does make sense, like, when you think of it, oh, he's just, I hate when people say, oh, they're just doing it for attention. But when you reframe it as, well, he's looking for a connection, right?

Well, he's upset, so of course he's looking for a connection. I mean, it's just not always a bad thing. I think sometimes we have a tendency to write that one off, they're just looking for attention. Well, when I'm upset, sometimes I want attention, too. I want to connect. Yeah. 

Audra Jensen: Okay, so the second, video is, and if you're not seeing it, there's no real words for this. You're gonna hear or see, if you're watching it, a little boy. It's obviously free play. They're playing with blocks. He has a truck. And then he has some friends off in the corner that he obviously wants to get a connection with. And so I'll play it and then I'll tell for those who aren't seeing it exactly what happened. 

Audra Jensen: So that's a really good one too because this is what we see a lot in preschool. So the first little boy rams his, takes his truck over to where the other kids are playing. And then at first he starts making raspberry sounds, so he's trying to get the attention of a boy who's facing the other way, and then that doesn't get him the attention, so he gets closer, and then he, I think he hits first, and he still doesn't get the attention, so he ups it a little bit more, and this time he scratches, and in this case, the second little boy did turn around and cry, so he got exactly what he was looking for, which was that attention.

Caitlin Beltran: Right. And I think it, it does remind me of so many classic examples in school settings, like whether it's play or as they get older, maybe just unstructured downtime where kids are chatting and talking and that one kid, it's that time where they always find themselves, you know, getting in trouble because they want to be involved with that too, but they don't have the skills to know how to appropriately like navigate that.

Or maybe they want in some way that kind of like sneaky attention, but rather than tell, you know, a funny joke, they're doing something to kind of get like that negative attention on them. And one thing that drives me crazy is when people are like, but they know how to get attention.

They could, you can see in this video, even that boy had a lot of nice skills, like he knew where to drive the truck. He knew to stop. He knew. So I'm guessing he maybe even had words to say Hey, how are you? And so then it becomes like, why couldn't he just ask to play? Or why didn't he do that?

But maybe. He has skills to do those things, but not in that moment. And that happens to us, too. I can do a lot of things, but not on command immediately in every setting until I become really fluent with them. So I think really important to consider, too, as we think about learners using the skills they have, but in all of these generalized contexts.

Audra Jensen: I would also think A lot of the students that I see that are engaging in these behaviors looking for that negative attention, I like to find out what their home life is, because I often find that a lot of these behaviors, they're getting attention for negative behaviors at home, which is how they've learned to communicate, and they come to school, and they're like, well, this is what we do, and so it takes some time for them to realize that, okay, you can't really fix that home environment, but here, these are our expectations and this is how you get attention here.

And in that case, when you're looking at kind of strategies, you're teaching him, you want to teach the learner how to access that attention in a quicker and easier and faster, happier way than the negative attention. That does take some time. 

Caitlin Beltran: And we want to also learn exactly what kind of attention they do want, because if they, maybe they do come from a really loud, boisterous family and the attention is way different than me being like, nice job. I like how you're stacking. Like, I, we used to have this learner and he, I could say great job, awesome working all day long. And he'd be like, okay. Yeah. Okay. But if I was like, what are you doing? You're doing amazing. Like he would just light up. And so he would do these like bad behaviors because someone would go, what's going on over here.

Audra Jensen: But then we realized over time that we could just use that level, that tone of voice when he was doing good things, and kind of flip it. and everybody's different, so we don't always know that right away until we dig a little deeper.I have a learner in mind as you say that, that had the opposite. If you had any sort of clap or high volume, he was so sensory overloaded so easily.

That when he did something right, it had to be like, good job, you know, and then just maintain. And if you made a big deal about it, he would undo it. So yeah, it's just knowing that learner. Okay. 

So the second function of behavior I want to talk about is access to tangibles. So that's when a behavior is aimed at getting something that the child wants. You know, asking for a cookie, or engaging in a behavior to get the cookie. And I like to say, you know, asking the husband to go out to dinner because I know I can order the chocolate cake there that I'm craving.

So, you know, we all engage in these behaviors as well to access something. So, access to tangibles and escape are probably the two that I see the most. But so I have a video for this one. 

 right, so those not watching, just listening, this is going to be a little girl and her dad having a conversation, and well, I'll explain what she says after. There's captions, so if you're watching, you can hear it easily.

video: what diarrhea is? Diarrhea Why do you I can't give you diarrhea. Why do you want diarrhea?

Audra Jensen: Oh, maybe you can't understand what she said. I think that's hilarious. I want diarrhea. Okay, so that's just a silly little video. Obviously, we all know what access looks like, especially in a school environment. So, preschool in particular, they want what they want when they want it, and it's really hard for them to understand either waiting longer, or not getting something they want, or more fruit snacks, you know, that's a really, really tough one for that age group.

Caitlin Beltran: For sure. I was just in a classroom today and we were talking about using for a really early, early learner some of her chips or extra chips or something for one of her rewards and I was like don't even bring the bag out because this is a really early learner and she's going to think bag of chips, all of them, snack. Like she's historically, when has anyone ever given you like one chip at a time? It can be kind of triggering when you see the bag and then all of a sudden, no, you can't have the bag. You're just getting one. So I was like, just show the one chip and then give it. So she's getting all the chips she sees, which is the one.

But just a reminder that again, knowing the context, like we think maybe a chip being is a nice reward, but it's They want what they want when they want it. So they see a bag of chips, they want that whole bag of chips now. 

Audra Jensen: This totally makes me think of, I love those organic blue tortilla chips. And when I'm working, because I do a lot of computer work, and I find that, you know, I'm just snacking on those because it gives me something to do.

And then before I know it, there's, you know, half the bag is gone. Right. So that's a really good lead into, what the strategy is. So as soon as I'm aware of what's going on, I move the bag. I'm like, okay, this needs to get out of here. 

 Audra Jensen: Okay, the third function of behavior is escape or avoid. So that's when a behavior is helping someone avoid something they don't want to do.

And there is a kind of a subtle difference between escape and avoid. So escaping is, you know, a task or something is happening in the moment. They have a behavior because they want out of it, and then avoiding is obviously they, they can see or know that something's coming, and so they're engaging in behavior to avoid it ever beginning, and there's just a very subtle difference to just being aware of it.

So there's like a student throwing a pencil, and when you give them a math worksheet, a preschooler running across the field when the bell rings, we get this a lot, and then like for us, it's like hitting the snooze button to avoid getting up, and that just gives it longer. 

Caitlin Beltran: Yeah, so many times like in our discrete trial sessions, it's like you're putting out the letter cards and the number cards and boom, they're on the floor because it's just the easiest way to not do that for that learner.

Audra Jensen: Alright, so in this video, those of you are watching, you're going to see the text of what's going on. And the little girl, it looks like, it's a conversation between a girl and a dad. It looks like she's been asked to put her empty bowl in the sink. And you'll see that, she asserts that it's too heavy.

video: What's the problem? can't lift Come back and try I think you can And you can help That's good. 

Caitlin Beltran: That was awesome. So much of my own son, he's seven and if we're coming in from the car and he asked me to carry something, I'll be like, look, my hands are full. So now he'll have one thing in his hand, but my hands are full.

I can't, my hands are so full. I'm like, you're not using this right. But he's trying to get out of doing something 

Audra Jensen: So I love that too, because she's very creative, you know, her, her bowl is obviously empty. And it doesn't make her think it's too heavy. So for those who couldn't see it, she was asserting that her tiny little plastic bowl was too heavy and the grunting was her trying to pick up the bowl. And what I really like is that dad was doing a really good job of addressing behavior, not making a big deal about it, not getting all mad, just sort of talking it through.

It's I know you can do it. So that's a really good strategy. Go dad. so then the fourth function is sensory or automatic reinforcement. And this is when a behavior provides some sort of sensory input. It's an internal need. And this is often I found over the years that a lot of times we have a lot of staff that don't understand kind of what sensory is and they'll think every behavior is sensory related.

And so it's, this is really, it's, it's when you think about it, I can almost always Pinpoint some other function that's going on that may look like a sensory thing. So, this is really where you have your behavior team, Somebody who really specializes in ironing out what these are. but I will show two short little videos.

The first one is kind of your classic autism, self soothing behaviors like rocking, hand flapping, ringing, vocalizations. And these almost always, unless these behaviors are really doing harm to the student or to anybody else, I mean really doing harm, we don't want to address these behaviors. If you have a student who happens to be in your class, Who's engaging in autism self soothing behaviors like this, who cares?

It's fine. Kids will get over it. It's just don't worry about this one. So I'm going to show you kind of an example of this one. Most of you will have recognized this. So just classic, uh, self stimulatory behaviors. I don't know. Caitlin, if you've seen this new guy who's going around, I just love following him. This name's Torin. I don't think so. He's 16 years old. He's very verbal, but he's kind of classically autistic too. And so he's able to talk about some of these behaviors that he engages in just like this.

And to describe it, I think you need to look him up. It's T O R E N. I don't remember his last name is, but he's really good. Because he, it's like being able to get into the mind of somebody who, you know, I'm not in that mind. And so he describes kind of how this is a self soothing, you know, and I remember my son had lots of these behaviors, especially earlier on when he had to kind of regulate. And we had to learn that these are not behaviors that we need to address, you know, he's just, he's regulated himself. 

Caitlin Beltran: It reminds me of, Temple Grandin when she talks about, needing the squeezes and wanting that really deep pressure, and it's if you didn't see, if you didn't understand that and just saw someone, because a lot of our kids will, scrunch themselves up into a ball or, go, underneath something, not in a defiant way, but more just stimulatory way. You see those mats that like go together and it doesn't look like you could fit through it, but like you can fit through it like a squeeze machine. Yes. I love those because they get that sensation of being squeezed and that might not be comfortable or pleasant at all to another person, but to them it is.

Audra Jensen: Yeah. 

Caitlin Beltran: Yeah. But you were mentioning like some of the behaviors, like the flapping or the squeezing, like absolutely. that's, a regulatory method, like I wouldn't interfere with it. But sometimes we have a lot of learners who like chew things with their, well, I know you have a story, but, like chewing their shirt or their pencil, and then it becomes a hygiene or germs, or like I've had some learners who, will pick or chew their fingernails like until they bleed.

So those are the times where it's okay, we're trying to teach you some other way to regulate yourself. And I like that I'm seeing a lot of the newer fidgets coming out where. It's okay, this one's really matches the like form of a function or form of mixing it up, like picking, or this one is like a rubbing or something like that.

Audra Jensen: I think you've touched on it. Super important, like finding, and that's kind of when you think about if you have to address some of these self stimulatory behaviors or the self soothing is to find something that can replace that same need. So, I mean, I, I think I've told you before that my son used to chew because he was a chewer and he chewed through Xbox controllers like crazy, which is so weird.

He chewed through zippers and all sorts of things. So we finally, we taught him to chew gum. And so for a long time, and it took a number of years and now he doesn't need it anymore, but a number of years that he had, he was constantly chewing gum. So to get that feedback that he was looking for. So we weren't just telling him to stop it.

You know, I didn't want him chewing up xbox controllers. Those are expensive. So we did have to teach him a skill in order to kind of replace that need that he was seeking. 

Caitlin Beltran: Right. And you hear the example all the time, and I'm sure this was true for your son. If you're just telling him like, just stop chewing, stop chewing, stop chewing, it's like kind of like that whack a mole where it's like, all right, I'll stop chewing this, but I will start chewing this.

Audra Jensen: And that's going to be worse. 

Caitlin Beltran: Rotate to another item, which is not what we want, unless it's something appropriate like gum, or could find another outlet. Like tacky works well, because it's like the resistance sometimes. 

Audra Jensen: Yeah. So here's the other short video of this one.

So in this one, you're going to see a, you know, three year old. She, they're lighting a candle for her birthday, and then they're going to sing a song. And I really like this example, because you can see, initially, she looks like she's, she's cool with everything.

Okay. And then one thing is they, they start the sparklers on the cake and that overwhelms her.

And then when they start singing the birthday song, that's too much. So this is one of those cases where you may have triggered an additional behavior happening because she got initially overstimulated. And so here, I'll show this for those who are watching. 

She's covering her ears. You can see she's on that edge.

So, I think it's a really good example of where you might have seen, her, maybe she would have been able to handle the happy birthday song. You know, had they not, it should not be overwhelmed initially, or maybe they needed to sing it quieter, or maybe have her sing it, you know, there's other things that maybe wouldn't have triggered that response.

Caitlin Beltran: I know a lot of kids who do not like being sung to. And you know what? I don't really like it either because nobody knows what you're supposed to do. It's really awkward. It's very awkward. But that can be so overwhelming in a lot of sensory stimulation ways. 

Audra Jensen: Right. So those are the four functions. I thought it would just be fun to show videos and kind of talk about them.

We're not going to kind of go into strategies at this point because I think we are interested in doing something kind of more targeted to behaviors and stuff that we're going to create for everybody. so we'll do part of that and Caitlin will talk about that a little bit more next week. I will put the survey that I've been collecting your interest in into the show notes as well.

So please chime in what you're interested in hearing about and learning about. I think the biggest thing, the most important thing is that when a learner is engaged in disruptive or challenging behaviors, think to yourself, what are they trying to communicate? You know, what's the need, and then Talk about that.

Think about that. You know, think about like we talked about beforehand. What can we do to fill that need to fill that bucket for them so that that behavior doesn't have to happen at all in the first place? 

Caitlin Beltran: Right. What are they trying to get and how can I teach them to get an appropriate, you know, to get that appropriately if possible.

Okay. So that was awesome. I think this was a really cool review, especially as we're thinking of back to school season, which is upon us for some of us and around the corner for some others. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook group, and definitely check out that survey in our show notes so you can have input into kind of what direction we're going next and what topics you want to see covered. I think that's it for this week. Join us next week. See ya! 

Thanks for listening to the Misfit Behaviorists. And be sure to tune in next week for more tips and tricks. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode.