 When the behavior specialist when it was my turn for her to observe my class I realized my old system wasn't working. I needed a more specified plan. If a teacher has really concrete universal design for learning strategies in place, we are ready to begin looking at strategies that are individualized to a child to be supportive. After identifying the behavior, hypothesize what factors the teacher can change to help make the student's school day more successful. If it is decided that the student needs individualized behavioral supports, the development of a behavior plan may help guide classroom staff and empower them to feel confident enough to attempt to address the behavior in the current context. Using the content you collected regarding the behavior and reflecting on the student as an individual including their interests, strengths, classroom resources and a teacher's style, you can then develop an individualized behavior plan. So the first thing that we do is identify what's happening immediately before the behavior. Is the behavior usually occurring during seated desk work? Is the behavior usually occurring outside at recess? So understanding what's happening immediately before the behavior can help you pick those preventative strategies. The first component is thinking about what strategies can be put in place to prevent the behavior. These strategies can be individualized to the student and based on the behavior that is exhibited and the underlying reasons the behavior is occurring. So let's say the transition example is that a behavior is typically happening during a transition. You would want to be in proximity to the student. You would want to give the student a transition warning and you would want to give the student a clear instruction of what to do during that transition. Once you have your preventative strategy, then you'll think about what to do reactively. So let's say you're in proximity to the student. You've given your transition warning and you've given a clear instruction, but the student still exhibits a challenging behavior during the transition. You need to plan for yourself what would be appropriate to do in that moment. Are you going to consistently have the student go back and try again? Are you going to, if you have a class point system, will the student lose points? And what are you going to do if the student does the right thing? How are you going to reinforce that behavior? Are you going to praise the student? Are you going to give them a sticker? Are you going to give them a hand stamp? Are you going to give them a point student? So it's important to have a plan for how to prevent, how to respond if the target behavior or appropriate behavior happens, and then what you're going to consistently do if the undesired behavior happens. I have a hardcore behavior plan for one student, and I was kind of surprised of how catered it had to be that it wasn't, okay, this is what you do in this case. It's like, well, you've got to observe, you've got to find out the background, and then you need to make specific plans. Whenever we start targeting those more severe kiddos with a behavior plan, it's essential for a teacher or anyone else working with these kids to have a way to measure the progress or lack of progress so that you know it's time to change plans. The most helpful way to know if there's any progress is to take a baseline rate. The first thing let's do is notice what happens before the behavior is occurring, let's notice what tends to happen once the behavior occurs, and let's track how long this tantrum is occurring. So then when we go back to put something in preventative and when we go back to put something in a way to respond, it should start decreasing over time. I think, again, the input from someone like the behavior specialist and support. Once I opened up to the idea from my default philosophy, but I'm finding more and more there's kids that have no control of themselves. The intent of these strategies is to put in the level of support needed for the student to successfully participate in the classroom expectations without needing to use the maladaptive behavior to have the needs met.