Do you ever ask yourself, why is my child so bad?
Can I let you in on a little secret? Your child is not “bad”. In fact, your child is trying to communicate with you.
In ABA, we decide on the “why” for a behavior that is occurring. No behavior occurs without a reason. It’s important to figure out the whys when a challenging behavior is happening.
You want to know the best part?
There are only four, yes you read that right. Four reasons, or what ABA refers to as the functions that a behavior is occurring.
So now you’re asking, “well what are the four functions?”
They are:
- Escape
- Attention
- Access
- Sensory
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Function 1: Escape
Escape is simple getting away from something (such as a demand), person, or even location. Simply put, escape maintained behaviors are when your child is just trying to get away from something they don’t like.
While escape seems easy to detect, it can sometimes be subtle. This could be from a parent simply saying, “It’s time to go. Get in the car.” Or even laying out clothes for your child to wear for the day.
Escape is a tricky function, because sometimes we have to make the decision and therefore there isn’t much room for non-demand-like statements.
Function 2: Attention
Sometimes we wonder why kids are doing something that just seems to be to get us to look at them. But that’s the thing… it can be to literally just get us to look their way.
Attention maintained behavior is tricky because it can be reinforced by eye contact, reprimanding, or even our reactions.
When it comes to attention, there is no “bad/negative” attention. What matters is that we are attending to the child.
Function 3: Access
Another reason a child may be engaging in challenging behaviors is to gain access to something, someone, or a place.
There are two sides to this coin. There is the plain and simple getting access to something. However, there can also be an instance where a child is denied access to what they want.
Denied access is the second part of the access function. When we are denying them something, this can be difficult to tolerate.
For this function, it doesn’t matter if denied access is for safety reasons. What matters is that the child wanted access and was told “no.”
Function 4: Sensory
There are some things that our children engage in that seem to have no real rhyme or reason. There could be an explanation or this… That it simply feels good to them.
Sensory based behaviors are what happens when an action feels good to them. This can be seen in hand-flapping, vocal stereotopy, or mouthing items.
Fun fact, sensory maintained behaviors are the only one that does not require another person to accomplish it!
Take Aways
While we may be focused on stopping a behavior from continuing to occur, the real obstacle we should be addressing first is understanding the “why”.
Determining the function, or why, of a behavior can aid in deciding how to address and redirect it. We need to know why a behavior is occurring in order to fully redirect and teach a new one.
When we do teach an alternative behavior, we need to ensure the new behavior has the same function as the old one. There is no reason to teach an alternative if it does not give the same effect as the original.
The good news is there is no “one true option” when it comes to changing behavior. Every child is different, including yours. This behavior journey will be different from anyone else’s.
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