1.

Child Introduction: In point form, provide an introduction to the student discussed in

the case study you selected. This will be the background information on the student.

Include the following information:

1. Student’s name: JJ

2. Gender: Male

3. Age: 9

4. Grade: 4th Grade

5. Support/additional programming: JJ talks to the social worker on the school

campus and is pulled into a different classroom for reading groups to help with his
literacy proficiency

6. Child’s interests: JJ enjoys anything involving play or socializing. Sports are

something he really enjoys as well is talking to his friends. He also likes talking to the
teacher and having one on one work time. He loves jumping around and being silly
during stretch out time. He also likes helping the teacher and answering questions,
when he is interested in the topic.

7. Other Information: JJ is currently living with his uncle, brother, multiple cousins and
sixteen cats. His little brother is in 2nd grade. His brother always waits outside of JJ’s
class for him. JJ doesn’t necessarily like this and once told me, “I don’t understand why
he stands out there everyday and waits for me. It’s so annoying.”

2. Behaviour of Concern:

JJ struggles with focusing and staying on task. When he doesn’t like what the class is
learning about or working on, he will do everything in his power to not do what has been
assigned. Behaviors to avoid work include, but are not limited to: wandering around the
classroom, talking at his table, putting his head on his desk (sometimes pretending to
sleep), completely ignoring the teacher, scribbling on his paper, “losing” the work (it is
usually found in his desk later on), staring off into space, or playing around at his desk.

3. Observation:

Complete at least two observations records on the child.

LENGTH: Will vary but should not be more than 3 pages.

Part 2: Functional Behaviour Assessment
In this section, you will do a simplified functional behaviour assessment.

Challenging Behaviour:

1. Define the undesirable behaviour so that all adults who are involved with the child
have the same concept of the behaviour. You can only work with one type of behaviour
in a PBSP. Lack of focus

2. State the appropriate behaviour you would like to see the child demonstrate. Staying
on task

3. Do you want to completely eliminate the behaviour or diminish it to a lower level?

Diminish it to a lower level

Antecedents, Consequences and Frequency/Duration of Behaviour:

1. When does the behaviour occur? During individual work time or when a lesson is
being taught. This behavior occurs consistently throughout the lesson. Losing focus
occurs ever 4-7 minutes.

2. What occurs just prior to the behaviour? Independent work or teacher instruction

3. Where does it occur? At his desk

4. To whom is the behaviour directed? The teacher and the work

5. What happens after the behaviour? The student will not complete his work. This
usually leads to the missing out on an extra recess or techie tub time.

6. How many times does the behaviour occur in a typical morning or afternoon?
How long does the behaviour last? In the morning the student gets off task around
every 5-10 minutes if they are not engaged or like the work.

Setting Events:

Are setting events influencing the student’s behaviour? Consider

physiological/biological, physical/environmental, and social/situational variables and
how these may be affecting the student’s behaviour. Discuss only those that influence
this student.
There are multiple factors that are influencing the student’s behavior. At home he is
being raised by his uncle with his cousins and brother. They also have many cats. The
teachers often talk about the younger brother and him smelling bad. Home isn’t a
comfortable place where he is getting the attention he needs. The students sit for a
majority of class time. He also was in the process of possibly getting diagnosed with
ADHD. All of these factors contributed with his struggle to focus.

Function of Behaviour:

Remember that function in this context refers to positive reinforcement, negative

reinforcement, and sensory regulation/sensory stimulation. There are only three
functions of behaviour.

1. What is the function of the student’s behaviour? Provide a rationale for the function
you selected. The function of the student’s behavior appears to be positive
reinforcement as he will do things to get attention. For example, he doesn’t mind doing
math work if I am working on it with him. He will focus after going on a walk with me. He
stops doing work to talk to somebody.

2. Explain why you eliminated the other two functions. At first I thought it may be
negative reinforcement to get out of doing work, but then I realized he would do work as
long as he was getting time with me, the teacher, or a friend. He also genuinely wanted
to get the work done, because when push came to shove, he would get it done after
attention was given. It wasn’t sensory stimulation because he wouldn’t play with objects
around him much, it was mostly getting up, walking around, talking to someone, or
laying his head down.

6. What would be an appropriate replacement behaviour that would fill the same
function? Having someone, whether it be a classmate, a teaching assistant, the teacher,
or an aide working alongside him to give him the attention and quality time he desires.

Current Strategies:

1. What strategies are currently being used to help the student manage his/her
behaviour? In other words, what are the educators currently doing to help the student
behaviour appropriately? He works one on one with the aide during reading groups for
half of the time. He also sees the social worker at least once a week.

2. What are the implications of these current methods? JJ gets the one on one time
and attention he appears to desire. It helps him talk about what is going on in his life.

3. What are the implications if the behaviour is not modified? He will continue to
struggle with focus and work ethic. This means that not only will his need for attention
on him not be met, but he will struggle to pay attention in class and complete his work
which could lead to a decrease in his grades and not grasping the material.

Conclusions and Recommendations:

1. Summarize what you have learned about this student and his/her behaviour. I have
learned that JJ genuinely wants to do well in school. Not for himself necessarily, but to
impress the teacher and those around him. He works hard when it means the focus is
on him. If it is independent work it does not matter to him. If he isn’t getting attention
from the teacher, he will attempt to get it from his peers.

2. Describe any new insights you have gained into the behaviour. I never realized until
writing this that his lack of receiving attention directly effects his giving attention. What I
mean by this is that I had figured that he wanted attention when would act out, but the
acting out was often not paying attention. I can now easily see the connection of him not
getting attention, so why should he give it to people? I also never realized how the
increase in talking when the teacher is giving instruction was a way for him to get
attention from another source.

3. Briefly describe your recommendations for positive behaviour support for this
student. Having more work time with the teacher is something he enjoys. Having more
time with the aide or more time with the social worker will allow him to get more of that
attention time. Also if he wants to stay in with the teacher during recess to work with
her, that is good too, because at least he wants to learn. So feeding that want for
knowledge will help him.

LENGTH: Will vary but will likely be between 2-4 pages.

Part 3: Positive Behaviour Support Plan (PBSP)
You are going to use the information you included in Part 2 to develop a positive
behaviour support plan. You want to create a PBSP to decrease challenging behaviour
and increase appropriate behaviour that will replace the challenging behaviour. In
developing your plan, you should consider changing the antecedents and setting events
as well as the consequences.

POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR SUPPORT PLAN

PART I: BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON STUDENT
Date:12/6/19
Name: JJ Age:9
Grade: 4 Teacher: Elise Doyle
Student’s strengths
Communicating his feelings, story
writing, and drawing

PART II: DEFINING THE PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

Current problem behaviour Lack of focus/being off task

Function of problem behaviour Positive Reinforcement

Remember that function refers to
positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement, and sensory
regulation/sensory stimulation. Use
these terms.
Student’s needs The student appears to desire more attention. He
What need is being communicated wants attention given to him. When he acts out,
through the student’s misbehaviour? interrupts or comes up to the teacher during work
In other words, what does the time, he receives attention.
student gain from the problem
behaviour.

PART III: ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECTING BEHAVIOUR

Predictors for behaviour – setting Silent work time for reading groups or math exit
events & antecedents tickets. Another time is all class instruction when
Remember that these are the the teacher is addressing the whole class.
situations where the behaviour is
most likely to occur.
Environmental supports for Reading groups are something JJ does not enjoy,
problem behaviour he prefers working with the teacher one on one
What in the environment or in the rather than independently. He also prefers to be up
curriculum supports the problem and moving and entertained so during any silent
behaviour? What is missing? work time, he talks, approaches the teacher, or
zones out.

Required environmental changes There needs to be more kinesthetically based

What needs to be changed in the activities to keep the student moving and focused.
environment to help change the There also needs to be an increase of attention
challenging behaviour? given to him.

PART IV: DEFINING THE REPLACEMENT BEHAVIOUR

Replacement behaviour If there is a student assistant, taking JJ on a walk
This is a positive or appropriate and having a genuine conversation with him.
behaviour that serves the same
function as the challenging Increase in time spent talking to the social worker
behaviour.
Increase time spent with the reading aide
Be careful here. This is not the
behaviour you want to see. Look at it When JJ wants to stay in at recess to work with the
from the student’s perspective. How teacher to finish work, allowing that time. (Staying
can the student fill their needs in an in at recess is a common thing at Grafton and is
acceptable way? allowed)

Strategies / curriculum materials Letting JJ know that if he is struggling to work,

to teach the replacement
behaviour
If you want the student to act
differently, you often have to teach
them the replacement behaviour.
communicating with the teacher. This allows for
that quick walk to reset focus and to talk. Teaching
JJ that if he wants to work with a teacher,
communicating that so they can work at recess.

Positive reinforcers for the
student
Again, this is from the student’s
perspective. What does the student
like so much that they will behave
appropriately to get it?
JJ wants to talk about what he’s feeling, doing, or
learning about. Asking the teacher to show, work,
or talk with them, will help them understand where
JJ is coming from rather than being off task until
the teacher is forced to talk to them because of the
unacceptable behavior.
PART V: BEHAVIOUR GOALS
Positive behaviour goal
Specific behavioral objectives
Strategies to help student reach
positive behavioural goal or
specific behavioural objectives.
PART VI: EFFECTIVE REACTION
Reactive strategies
Crisis intervention
PART VII: REVIEW SCHEDULE
Review schedule
Focus on work and productivity increased
Communicating the want to work with the
teacher and struggle to focus
Setting a shorter timer for the student to focus for
before they get a short break. This will help divide
class time up better. Setting an amount of work
done expected in a certain amount of time, rather
than giving him free reign over a large chunk of
work time.
If the issue returns, come up with new more
interactive reading or math activities. This could be
math games or reading games. Another idea is
adjusting the timers for breaks and work time.
Another strategy would be to talk with him or sit
with him while he does some work.
Not applicable
I would do the plan for two weeks. This would
be two cylces of reading group due dates. If
nothing changes by then I would re-evaluate if
the reason he loses focus is the reason it is.
Maybe it isn’t due to a lack of attention, but a
lack of understanding.