Positive Behaviour Support

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Positive Behaviour Support

• Theory to Practice

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Kim A. Meyer, Ph.D.
• Director of Research in Behaviour Support
• Department of Community/University of Queensland
• Building 28, Ipswich Campus
• Email k.meyer_at_uq.edu.au
• 07.3381.1525

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• What is positive behaviour support?
• A strategy that uses educational methods to
  expand an individuals behavioural repertoire and
  systems change methods to redesign an
  individuals living environment to first enhance
  the individuals quality of life and second to
  minimize his or her problem behaviour.

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Positive behaviour includes all those skills that
  increase the likelihood of success at home,
  school, work, play, and in the community
• Supports are all of those strategies that are
  used to teach skills and all of the systems
  changed to increase opportunities for engaging in
  positive behaviour

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Behaviour support or supportive behaviour?
• We all receive support in our lives
• The support of society
• The support of family
• The support of friends
• The support of people we dont even know

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• In other words
• We help teach people new skills
• We help change the world they live in
• As a result
• Their quality of life improves
• Challenging behaviour decreases (or stops!)

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• What do we mean when we say a persons quality of
  life improves?
• How do you assess your own quality of life?
• How do you decide if its improving or getting
  worse?

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Our relationships with other people
• The activities we participate in
• Having choices
• Where we live

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Domains - Quality of Life (Carr et al. 1999)
• Social relationships
• Personal satisfaction
• Employment
• Self-determination
• Recreation and leisure
• Community integration

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• How is the person doing?
• Is she or he happy, satisfied and safe?
• Does the person have a stable home?
• Does the person have family and friends on which
  to base his or her life?
• Is she or he practicing independence,
  productivity, and integration?
• Is the person continuing to develop new
  interests, new friends, and new skills?

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Person-Centred Planning is a process for learning
  how a person wants to live and then describing
  what needs to be done to help that person move
  toward that life (Smull Burke Harrison, 1992)

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Developing the person-centred plan.
• Participants should include stakeholders
• The person
• Family members
• Friends and neighbours
• Community members
• Support staff
• Administrators

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Goals of person-centred planning
• Be a part of and participate in community life
• Gain and maintain satisfying relationships
• Express preferences and make choices in everyday
  life
• Have opportunities to fulfill respected roles and
  to live with dignity
• Continue to develop personal competencies

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Positive behaviour
• All those skills that increase the likelihood of
  success and personal satisfaction
• Challenging behaviour
• Emerson et al. (1988) define challenging
  behaviours as behaviour of such intensity,
  frequency, or duration that the physical safety
  of the person or others is likely to be placed in
  serious jeopardy, or behaviour which is likely to
  seriously limit or delay access to and use of
  ordinary community facilities.

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Risley (1996)
• Behaviors that are seen as dangerous,
  disgusting, or disruptive by those who live and
  work with the individual. Because consumers who
  develop challenging behaviors are usually
  dependent and often considered otherwise
  unimportant, little else they do is unfailingly
  responded to by others. Challenging behaviors
  are therefore sustained, partially or wholly, by
  the reactions of the very people for whom they
  are a problem.

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Behaviour makes sense
• Sometimes it results in social interactions
• Sometimes it results in avoiding social
  interactions
• Sometimes it results in participating in
  activities
• Sometimes it results in avoiding participation in
  activities
• Sometimes it results in getting something
  important
• Sometimes it results in getting something
  unpleasant removed.

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• The consequences of our behaviour determine
  whether we will do similar things in the future.
• How did the environment change as a result of the
  behaviour?
• Function typically refers to how the environment
  changed.

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Different behaviours can serve a similar function
• Stopping a car
• Starting/maintaining a conversation
• Getting a preferred item
• Taking a break in a boring meeting
• Avoiding something you dont want to do because
  you dont know how

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Similar behaviours can mean different things.
  When a baby cries
• It might mean shes hungry
• It might mean she needs her diaper changed
• It might mean she wants to be held
• It might mean she wants to exercise her vocal
  cords!

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Typical functions of challenging behaviour
• Access to social interactions
• Escape/avoid something unpleasant
• Access a preferred item
• Automatic reinforcement?

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• At the most basic level, behaviour occurs because
  of the consequences that follow. In other words,
  it occurs because it is effective. Whether it is
  labeled socially appropriate, socially
  inappropriate or challenging has very little
  significance.

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• The challenge
• Teaching new skills that can access the same
  critical outcomes (reinforcers)
• First, changing the environment so that when the
  new skills (or approximations) are displayed, the
  reinforcers are provided
• Second, changing the environment so that when the
  challenging behaviours are displayed, the
  reinforcers are not provided

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Examples of skill sets
• Daily living skills
• Toileting
• Dressing
• Eating
• Communication skills
• Augmentative
• Vocal
• Academic skills
• Vocational skills
• Social skills

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Specific examples
• Learning Spanish and English simultaneously
• Correct use of pronouns
• Improve bilateral coordination and play skills
• Imitation to improve showering skills
• Teaching a nonverbal child to read
• Social initiation
• Attending skills (paying attention

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Organization for Research and Learning
• www.o4rl.com

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Positive Behaviour Support is relatively young
• A journal (The Journal of Positive Behavioral
  Interventions) started in 1999.
• The Association for Positive Behavior Support
  founded in 2003 (www.apbs.org)

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• Positive behaviour support is a result of a
  combination of three influences
• Applied behaviour analysis
• Person-centred planning
• Normalization/inclusion

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PBS (Autism Queensland)

• The practice of Positive Behaviour Support
• Develop a person-centred plan
• Conduct a functional assessment
• Change the environment to support the findings
• Train parents and staff
• Change the schedule
• Change the setting
• Teach the necessary skills to participate in the
  person centred plan