What is a Replacement Behavior?

- The key to effective a behavior change is the replacement behavior. If you forget that, honestly, the whole thing doesn't work, because you need to teach your child a positive pro-social communicative way to get to the same why that they were trying to get to with the negative behavior. For the replacement behavior to work, it has to be easier and more effective than the problem behavior, which is hard because negative behaviors are sometimes really easy to do, like screaming, and they work. If you have a runner, every time they run out of the classroom, they get attention. They get a break from their task. So, really look at your replacement behaviors when you're figuring out what to use for a replacement behavior. Make sure it's easy, make sure it's always accessible, and make sure it works every time. The key is getting the buy-in. I like to call this phase one and phase two. Phase one is all the good, all the time. So, you figured out a replacement behavior. You've presented it to the student. Maybe it's a break card. That means every time they use the break card, they get a break. If that means they're getting it 108 times in one day, they're getting it 108 times in one day. And you as the teacher should view that you had 108 opportunities to teach that communicative replacement behavior and get the buy-in. We don't live in phase one long enough, because it feels weird and wrong. And we're like, "We should be teaching. "We should be doing things." But, you are. You're teaching how to communicate what you want. You're not going to live there forever. Once you get that buy-in, then you want to move to phase two. Phase two is delay and denial. Now, you're going to teach that no, you have to wait when you use that replacement behavior or maybe you can't use it right now. Teachers are scared of that delay in denial phase, but I think if you really spent the time to get the buy-in, delay and denial works. (upbeat music)