Powerful Ways to Get Ahead of Challenging Student Behavior Blog Series: Part 3
A student bolts out of the classroom, pushes through the school doors, and takes off across the parking lot.
Your heart drops.
Then comes the urgent call over the walkie-talkie.
Within moments, the adults respond. One follows the student, another heads toward the parking lot, and yet another ensures the rest of the students are supervised.
Cars are coming and going, the student doesn't respond, and everyone is terrified that something terrible could happen.
After what feels like an eternity, one of the adults tries something different.
"If you come back inside, you can have some extra computer time."
The student stops.
"Really?"
"Really."
And just like that, they're walking back toward the school.
Phew.
Everyone is safe. The adults can finally breathe. Crisis averted.
Until the next day.
The student bolts out the doors again.
And now we have a pattern.
The adults are doing everything they can in a frightening situation. Their priority is getting the student back safely, and in the moment, their strategy works.
But what did the student learn?
Did we just inadvertently teach them that running away is a pretty effective way to get extra computer time?
Maybe. But before we jump to conclusions, we need to look more closely at what happened.
While this story is hypothetical, situations like this play out in schools across the country on any given Tuesday.
Sometimes, despite our very best intentions, our responses can reinforce the exact behaviors we're trying to change.
And that's where the ABCs come in.
Looking Beyond the Behavior
In Part 2 of our series, we explored the four hidden reasons behind challenging student behavior.
Understanding what a student might be communicating gives us a place to start. Examining what happens before, during, and after a behavior helps us identify patterns we might otherwise miss.
When we need to take a closer look, we focus on the ABCs: Antecedent, Behavior, and Consequence.
A: Antecedent
The antecedent is what happened right before the behavior.
This could be something the student was asked to do, a change in the environment, or a transition from one activity to another.
When thinking about the antecedent, we are looking for patterns.
Do we see a spike in behavior every time the student is asked to do a challenging task?
Does the student consistently struggle with transitions?
Perhaps the behavior happens at a particular time of day, during a specific subject, or when moving from an unstructured activity to a structured one.
If we can identify the pattern, then we have a way to anticipate and plan for challenges.
B: Behavior
Examining the behavior helps ensure we're focusing on actual facts.
Sometimes a behavior is so bothersome we exaggerate it in our own mind. Other times, we've seen it so often that we fail to notice changes over time.
That's why it's important to describe what we actually see and hear rather than how we interpret it.
For example, saying a student is "being defiant" doesn't tell us much. Did they refuse to begin an assignment? Put their head down? Walk away when given a direction?
We also want to pay attention to three things:
Intensity: How significant or disruptive is the behavior?
Duration: How long does it last?
Frequency: How often does it happen?
Tracking these helps us recognize progress that might otherwise go unnoticed.
A student might still become upset every day, but perhaps an episode that previously lasted 30 minutes now lasts five. That's meaningful progress, even if the behavior hasn't disappeared!
C: Consequence
At CTC, when we are talking about consequences, we are talking about what the student is getting out of the behavior, not what disciplinary action they might receive.
When a student tells an inappropriate joke at an inopportune time, the consequence might be that other students laugh, providing peer attention. Or perhaps the student gets sent out of class and avoids a task. It could be both!
This is where things get tricky. Sometimes, in our efforts to support students or de-escalate a situation, we inadvertently reinforce the very behavior we're trying to change.
Think back to the student who left campus.
The adults' first priority is safety, as it should be. But once everyone is safe, we need to examine what happened.
Did the student leave to escape something difficult? Were they seeking connection? Did the promise of extra computer time reinforce the behavior?
We can't know from this one incident, but these are exactly the kinds of questions the ABCs help us investigate.
There's an important distinction between rewarding a student for demonstrating a desired behavior and offering a reward to stop an unexpected one. What we reinforce matters.
The IRIS Center at Vanderbilt University explains that consequences can increase or decrease the likelihood that a behavior will happen again. Even a response intended to discourage a behavior can inadvertently reinforce it.
And we also need to consider what happens when we don't hold students accountable for their actions.
Connection and accountability are not mutually exclusive. Being compassionate doesn't mean being permissive.
We can acknowledge a student's feelings, understand the function of their behavior, and still maintain clear boundaries and expectations.
The key is finding the just-right consequence. One that is appropriate for the behavior, maintains the boundary, and helps the student learn. What works for one student may not work for another. And if our response isn't discouraging the challenging behavior, we need to examine what the student is actually getting out of it.
Of course, consequences alone don't teach new skills. Students also need opportunities to repair harm and learn more effective ways to get their needs met.
When examining consequences, ask:
What happened immediately after the behavior?
Did the student gain something or avoid something?
Could our response be reinforcing the behavior?
What consequence might help discourage the behavior while maintaining connection and teaching a more effective response?
Understanding Leads to Plans That Actually Work
Examining the ABCs helps us understand what's driving a student's behavior and focus on what we can change.
We don't have to get it exactly right the first time. We can make an educated guess, try a strategy, observe what happens, and adjust our approach.
The goal isn't simply to stop a challenging behavior. It's to help students learn a more effective way to respond.
Once we understand the patterns, we're ready to make a plan.
In Part 4, we'll explore how to Prevent, Teach, and Reinforce the behaviors we want to see more of.
Want to go deeper?
We recently hosted our training Escape the Behavior Trap, where we break down why traditional responses don’t work - and what to do instead.
