Re: Behavior plan

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 6/2/03 1:35:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

mlndhall@... writes:

> Would some of you mind giving me examples of some

> behavior plans you have implemented into your child's

> IEP's?

Melinda,

Shame on you for apologizing! You should know better!

You have to judge this for yourself but I personally do not like the

" consequences " way of doing this. Remember that behavior plans should be

" positive

behavior plans " and in that vein, I would prefer to see a focus on good behavio

rs and not a focus on bad behaviors.

This happens when you switch the focus from, " What ways are we going to

punish him when he's bad? " to " Why is he behaving this way? " As you can see, my

way would take more time because you would zero in on each behavior problem,

figure out why he is doing it and come up with an alternative way to teach him

to

express himself. This is not to say that there will not be times he is just

being obnoxious! Our kids are kids, after all! But even obnoxious is a

behavior that can be looked at and analyzed to find out what is going on and

better

ways to cut it off.

With us, the teachers always wanted to have consequences or how else will he

learn? But I never trusted them to know the difference between autism and a

real behavior problem. So this is where you have to use your best judgement.

My older ds has had a few behavior plans. The first one was done by an

autism " expert " and she listed all the behaviors my ds did when he was starting

to

stress out. She listed things like, " head down, pulling hair out, spinning

coins, ripping paper... " etc. Then she listed things they could do to help him

destress like, " take a walk, use stress ball, etc. "

This covers the meltdown but IMO, it never covered the cause. The next BP

was written by a professor at a college and she felt he didn't need a BP! lol.

She realized that his problems were staff ignorance causing him to fall

apart.

The sped teacher he had didn't appreciate this and so she came prepared with

a behavior plan of her own, all consequences and ways to punish him. ugh, had

to request a new teacher!!

The actual behavior plan was to build in special treats for Royce throughout

the day such as helping the principal to deliver papers during study hall. If

Royce had his work done and had behaved, he got to go to the office and do

this. If he didn't, he stayed in study hall. This kind of set up is a positive

behavior plan because it rewards him for being good and when he's not, he

isn't punished except that he doesn't get his special thing.

If consequences work with , then by all means use them. I'm not saying

my way is " the " way, just that this is what worked for us best and I really

liked how we did it.

I would definately request an expert to come in and do a behavior assessment

if starts having a lot of trouble at school. Don't wait and hope it

gets better! Meanwhile, talk to his teacher this year or use your own knowledge

of the things he does in school that are considered " bad " behavior. Think

about why he does what he does and then you can find solutions that will work

for him. Think solution and not punishment as often as possible. Also, see if

he could have special jobs at school. Roy did errands for the

office/principal, he put pepsi cans in the machine, he ran around distributing

papers to

classes, etc. This would be an excellent way to encourage to want to do

better if they would go along with it.

But if doesn't turn his work in, for instance, you need to find a

strategy that will work for him. Giving him a consequence for not doing it

probably won't work because this is an aspie issue. You can slowly give him

more

responsibility for his own things as you go and as he shows the ability. If you

know he can but he won't, then you'll know the difference. For those kinds

of problems, I would reward him at home instead of letting them punish him at

school - tell him every time he does what you know he can do, you'll give him

a ticket - 4 tickets = a video rental.

Well, you get the idea. Remember the link I always give out for FBA's if you

want to read some of it. I printed it out before they did Royce's FBA so I

could understand what should be happening. --> <A

HREF= " http://www.air.org/cecp/fba/Default.htm " >Functional Behavioral

Assessment</A>

1.) In a nutshell, diagnose the behavior first to find a solution, not a

punishment.

2) Write down the things does to show he is stressing out so that

teachers will be able to recognize a problem is coming. List the things

can do that will destress him.

3) Be very careful with punishment because it can backfire - having teachers

punish him for doing things that are autistic. That's why it's always ideal

to have them ask, " why? " for every behavior.

It takes longer and most people want punishment! It's the easy way out. But

the better way is to teach better behaviors and responses to so that

the problems get solved rather than just squelched.

Roxanna ôô

What doesn't kill us

Makes us really mean.

[Guest guest]

Melinda...the behavior plan I have written into Conor's IEP is more of a

" what to do when behavior escalates " type thing versus specific behaviors being

targeted. I had this implemented when he was mishandled...I didn't want

anything like that to happen again. I am going to send you some links that

might

help out with ideas. Pam

<A HREF= " http://www.netrover.com/~southgve/overcomi.htm " >Overcoming

Challenges</A>

<A HREF= " http://members.tripod.com/autism4dads/iep_goals.htm " >Suggestions for

IEP goals for students with Autism Spectrum Disorders</A> <A

HREF= " http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/IEP_Behav_Forms.html " >

Asperger Info: Behaviors that May Challenge ASD Students</A>

[Guest guest]

I am working on a behavior plan for my 9 yo this weekend. My manifestation

determination

is Monday morning. The plan will go into effect the minute it's finished and

signed as we are

in emotional crisis mode right now. Next year we'll start it from day one.

My friend and I are working on it, and it will concentrate on positive

statements, and real

choices. She has some GREAT ideas for me, even though her son is not ASD. He

has similar

language processing issues, though.

We are also focusing on keeping him feeling emotionally secure at school, and

doing LRE. If

LRE means he's drawing pictures of penguins in his Cool Zone for half the day,

so be it.

Being at home is not LRE, especially when they don't send home any work.

Jackie

[Guest guest]

We are having our son undergo an FBA, at our request in order to have

something on his IEP. Our school is also putting a picture schedule in

place too, but I don't think will need it...It sounds like the

school is being proactive in case of a situation where

acts " inappropriately. " There is a lot of information on the web

regarding FBA and if you go to slaw website then you should be

able to get information regarding behavior plans. " PECS " is Picture

Exchange Communication System " where he is/will be shown a picture

schedule etc. of what is going to happen next in school. I would like

to think that since full-time school is such a huge difference from

Kindergarten that they are looking out for his best interest.

>

> What exactly does a behavior plan do? My school is putting

> (already on IEP) on a behavior plan for 1st grade. We only have 7

days

> left of school, so it will start when school starts again. They are

> getting pecs ready for him too. is verbal so I am not sure what

> this is. Any ideas?

>

> Cori

>

[Guest guest]

THANKS SO MUCH for sharing that! I have printed it!

I am definitely going to pass that one on:)

*smiles*

B

>

> Here is an example of what a Positive Behavior Plan should look

like. Pam

>

> _Positive Behavior Support Plan - Autism1_

> (http://www.advocatesforspecialkids.org/pb_plan_aut_1p.htm)

>

>

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