This week, we're talking about High-Leverage Practice number 10, conducting functional behavioral assessments to develop individual student behavior support plans. Lathyrelle, I know you and I had this conversation last season, and this season I'm really curious to see where we can kind of take this conversation to the next level. So all about students with emotional behavioral challenges. A lot of times, this can get really messy.

So, for you, when you're running FBAs and are doing behavior planning specifically with students with emotional behavioral challenges. What does this practice look like for you?

Well, when I conduct FBA for children who have the emotional behavioral component, it is really important to do a lot of research. And when I say research, it's like going in and seeing the kid in different areas. That means you have to leave your office. So, you know, it's one of those things where you're going to have to go to the gym, you're going to have to go to the cafeteria, you're going to go to the computer lab, you're going to go to all these different places, the playground. If you're lucky, you can get on a trip. I mean, you can try those different things, but you really want to look at the kids in different areas at different times of the day and different parts of their lives to see how they are really functioning in the day-to-day. You want to see certain things. You want to see their relationships with other teachers, other kids, unstructured versus structured areas, classes that the student always seems to have a problem with, versus classes they don't seem to ever have a problem in. Their good days versus their bad days, the afternoon versus morning, when they come off the bus, or when they get dropped off at school. You just want to look at all these different components.

And sometimes, realistically, there may not be time to do all those things, but you want to do them as much as possible. And if you really are in the setting I'm in, I have a classroom within a general population school. So they are integrated into regular classrooms. And you have to really go into those classrooms and see. You have to talk to the different teachers. You also have to know the personality of the teachers you're dealing with as well. So you can see what those real interactions are. Is it really the child, or might it be an adult issue? You never know. So you really want to do a lot of research in regards to how this child is functioning across different areas, areas and in different contexts, and see how they are. And he wants to see if there are any trends in the behavior in regards to how they're acting.

One time, I remember watching a child, and every time she had her cycle, she would get suspended from school. And it really took some deep diving because one, they didn't bring it up to me that this child was being suspended out or she was in detention in the afternoon, and I was like, okay, so why is she in detention again? And what's going on? And then I started noticing the trend that she was having. It was always the same time of the month. It always seemed to be the same teachers who would seem to kind of pick at her. It was very interesting to see how it played out. And it's really, she was just moody. It was just that time of the month for her. And it became a thing of, well, is this really something that we need a behavior plan, or do we just need to get her a little bit of medicine to offset what's going on? So when you have experiences like that, that's when you know that your observation as well as data collection, looking for trends, looking for patterns of behavior, and trying to really figure out what's going on, on top of the research you've done in the paperwork to develop the FBA.

So when you know, you're working with that type of population where they have that type of behavior and emotional components that's mixed together, you really just need to put all that energy and effort into making sure you have as much information so you can come to a good conclusion. I won't say the best conclusion, but a good conclusion of why this child is acting this way.

I love that example that you're sharing though, because I think so often I run into scenarios where like, oh, well, they're, they're just acting a fool or, oh, they, they just want, they just want attention or they just don't want to do their work. Or they like there are these easy functions that are tossed out pretty frequently. But that example shows that it was not just that there were some other things that were going on, that you met those needs, and all of a sudden, the behavior is no longer there.

How do you hold that perspective? Or how do you see more than just, oh, they're just attention-seeking. Oh, they just want power. How do you kind of push beyond that, functionally speaking?

Well, you have to kind of check yourself because they, especially with this, that particular population, they will emotionally get to you. They will find your weaknesses, and they'll get on everything that irritates you about how things shouldn't be. They will find a way to touch on that with you. So you have to kind of remove your personal feelings and really look through it through a professional eye.

You have to say, and really remind yourself, they're communicating something to you. What are they communicating? Again, what is the trend? Is it because they didn't sleep last night? Is it because mom and dad were fighting at home, or was there something going on locally that was upsetting them? Their friend didn't talk to them. Like I said, I'm in a middle school. There are a lot of relationship issues that are going on that it's just like, are y'all serious?

Today, y'all all not friends, but tomorrow y'all will be? Or this morning, y'all not friends? This afternoon, after lunch, after everybody has eaten, everybody's good again. So you have to, like, really put that professional lens on to really look at what's going on with the kids and, you know, really take a step back and take out the emotional piece to it. Yes, you want to care about the kids, but you also want to make sure that you are looking at it in the most concrete, and, I'm sorry to say, lack of a better word, sane way of looking at them and really say, okay, what are they really trying to tell me?

So you just have to take that step back and just kind of remove the emotional piece from it, because, again, they would draw you in. But they're communicating something, you know, so you try to get all the bare minimum things out of the way, things that you could easily fix. Things like, Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Are you tired? Do you not feel well? And we do things like, if they don't feel well, is that a part of their trend? Is that part of their pattern? Do they always get headaches before math? Do they always get, you know, they don't feel well because of, you know, right before gym or. But recess comes and they're great, you know, that type of thing.

Are you seeing those types of patterns? And then you can kind of dig a little bit more to figure out. Oh, is it something with the teachers? Something with the class? They don't like that particular activity they're doing in gym, but, you know, at recess, they get to see that friend and just sit back and talk. If they're not really a sports person or they really like athletics or, you know, doing those types of physical activities, you're going to see some behaviors because of that. Especially when you have teachers who are really like, you have to do A, B, C, and D in order to get, you know, get a grade in this class. So again, you're looking at and observing in different areas to find out what the patterns are, what the trends are, and just kind of taking it from there.

Well, I appreciate how you're saying actually look at the kid, their situation, everything that's going on with them, that's really what's informing us what's going on. It's not just what we see kind of at face value, which I know is what a lot of us, you know, especially when we're just coming up against it, and especially when they are finding every potential button of ours to push. We are just going to take what we're seeing, and that's going to be our assumption, and we're just going to run with that.

But I think even within behavior planning, a lot of times I'll come across behavior plans that are really written more with a compliance bent or if this kid did this, then my life as an adult or as a staff member would be easier. And they're not necessarily always written for like, but what skills does this kid need? So I'm curious if you're holding that perspective, which I know you always do, around what's really going on with this student? I mean, I think the natural next step is, so then what do they need so that they can show up successfully, confidently? You know, all of those, those student things like how do you drive your, your behavior planning to make sure that it really is student aligned and not just like compliance or staff aligned.

Well, I know, like years ago, a long time ago, a lot of behavior players did not have a skill set goal in it. But now that seems to be more of a trend now. And so basically, but pretty much for every goal they have, they have a skill set they have to learn that's implemented in there. And I think that's a very good trend because a lot of times we're stopping the behavior, even though we know what the reasons for the behavior are, we're not addressing that.

One of the things that I usually try to encourage other people to really focus on is communication, because their behavior is telling us something. They need to verbally, if they can or some way somehow communicate to us what's going on. And especially as the kid gets older, they need to be able to express themselves. That's the first step going into being able to self-express. So, having a skill set to teach them how to address their needs and things like that, talk to people about what's going on, and actually reminding the adults who are implementing these plans, you need to listen.

It's very important. They're communicating to us. And they might have. I've seen where a child, actually, a student, has said, I told them this, they weren't listening. So they are communicating. But because no one was listening, no one was taking them seriously, and nobody took that into account, it resulted in behaviors. And so when you start looking at what the child is telling you or the student is telling you, you need to take that to account and make sure that they have a way to communicate, that they have a way of addressing that need independently. Even if you have to teach them the skill set prior, if they get to a point where they can do it independently, that's where you want them to go.

So, like I said, a lot of FBA behavior plans now incorporate that skill set of teaching them a new skill to address that behavior so that we can lessen that behavior or even get rid of it altogether. So I think that's moving in a good direction. And as long as people are implementing it and implementing it consistently, you will see a change in behaviors.

Well, you're talking about, I mean, self-expression. In order to do that, there's an aspect of functional communication that is so necessary. But this is also a population that tends to maybe speak their mind in ways that people don't always want to hear. So for you, when you're looking at like, how do I help students build skills in self expression when maybe they are standing up for themselves in ways that people just don't want to hear, how do you walk teams through maybe kind of putting some of their own things aside so that they can actually receive what's being communicated, and then we can sort of like, shape that self advocacy into something that then adults are maybe more able to hear?

Because I, yeah, I run into that quite a bit with this population, where they're very vocal and they will let you know where you stand and what they think. But it isn't always received from staff, sometimes just because of how it's communicated. And so how do you walk teams through being able to actually listen to what's being communicated and then continue to partner with that student through developing that skill into a way that then anyone would be able to hear, understand, and then really meet their needs?

Well, part of, for me, part of teaching a skill set is that you have to model it. So if you are one of those people who do as I say, not as I do. This is going to be a very hard population to work with because they're watching you more than you're watching them. So you have to be mindful that you're at work, you're there to do a job, and you are there to also model how to interact with people. And even if you have a bad day, you can explain that to a student. Yeah, I was having a bad day. I was not my best self. I'm going to come back and do better. And this is what I need you to do. Yes, you had a bad day yesterday, and you had a bad morning. But you could turn that around. You saw how I did this yesterday. You saw how I turned it around. So again, you have to do some of that modeling for them. You also have to remember this is your job. You know, this is part of your job. This is what you signed up for. So you need to do some self-reflection on the skill sets that you might be lacking as an adult, as a professional, and work on those so you can actually teach someone else how to do it.

And then, as you're teaching yourself, you could teach that skill set to that student. A lot of students like to curse. I like to use colorful language or sentence enhancers myself, but I know I'm in a professional setting and I can't use that language. So if I'm talking to a student, that's cursing. One of the things I tell them is ‘how would you like it if I cursed at you? You'll be upset, you'll be mad. You wouldn't want to listen. So I need you to tell me what's going on in a calm voice without cursing at me.’ And you have to kind of appeal to some of that logic. And you also need. Timing is very important with this population, too. So just be honest. You can't have this type of conversation with them when they're upset in the moment of being enraged with whatever happened. So you may just need to de-escalate in that moment and then have that conversation when they're in a calmer state, where you can actually kind of get through to them and have them understand what's going on.

But again, this is another skill set that they need. What do you need to do before becoming so heightened that you cannot communicate properly? So again, all these are skill sets that you need to teach. They come at different times. When you're teaching them, they're not going to get it within two weeks. They're not going to get it within a day. It might take them a year or two to even get some of these skill sets down. So we have to remember we are professionals. They just got here. They're learning. They don't have a whole lot of life experience, at least usually they do, but it's usually not a positive life experience. So we're trying to show them something different, and we're trying to show them a better way to have their needs met. And that's the kind of mindset you have to go in, even if you have to take time out for yourself and take a step back to regroup and then come back and address the issue. So those are some of the strategies I would use. To talk to the staff about.

Yeah, I mean, thank you for showing just how complex this is. No human wants to ever just be boiled down to that thing you caught from me, that one moment in passing, and all of a sudden that has defined who I am or why I'm acting the way I'm acting. But it is also so collaborative, like we are in a local network. It doesn't matter if you're holding positions of authority or not; we are still having a collaborative collective experience. And what I'm doing is impacting you, what you're doing is impacting me. And just calling that forward, especially through behavior planning, just makes so much sense and works so incredibly well with this population.

So thank you. Thank you for showing that it's more than just what you're catching at face value, function is a lot deeper and based on a whole bunch of different things. And then behavior planning is a lot of practice what we preach; whatever we're asking from them, we should be showing them as well. And we can walk that through as the adults in the room, as they're trying to figure it out as well. So thank you so much for sharing all of your expertise on this topic this week.

You're very welcome. Thank you.