Behavior Management

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Behavior management for children with Down syndrome
Blue Cross
Using behavior support strategies is critical to managing challenging behaviors across various settings. Doing so requires that you are honest with yourself and have a more complete understanding of your child's needs and not just their behavior. The work of behavior management is emotionally demanding, often tiresome work that requires you to "detach" yourself from some of these feelings in order to improve the situation. Learning to trust yourself, your observations and interpretation of your child's behavior will help you to be successful.

Step 1: Describe the behavior 

  • Be specific about what behaviors
  • Focus on 1-2 of the most severe or impairing behaviors
  • Let go of the more trivial but annoying behaviors
  • Identify the circumstances, conditions or people that make the behavior most likely to occur
  • Identify the circumstances, conditions or people that make the behavior least likely to occur
  • The typical response of others (including yourself) to a behavior
  • Factors which stabilize or worsen behavior once it has occurred

Step 2: For each specific behavior

  • Ask a friend or therapist to observe and keep a checklist
  • How often does it occur (frequency)
  • How long does it last (duration)
  • What is the severity (intensity)
  • What is the trend over time (days or weeks)

Step 3: Determine by direct observation

  • The events and persons present (Setting)
  • What’s happening with events and persons just prior to the Behavior (Antecedents)
  • What’s happening with events and persons just after the Behavior occurs (Function)
  • How did you or others respond, what happened to the activity (Consequences) 

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Step 4: What do you hypothesize is the function of your child’s behavior? (Insight required!

  • Children with disruptive behavior are often motivated to escape or avoid certain tasks-demands or obtain social attention.
  • Children with and autistic-like behavior may have non-socially motivated reasons for their behavior, which is difficult to determine

Describe if the behavior is socially-motivated 
To obtain social attention, an object or non-preferred activity
To escape a demand or transition to a non-preferred activity

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Describe if the behavior is non-socially-motivated
To obtain internal stimuli (sensation)
In response to internal stimuli (pain, discomfort)
When the child is excited or overwhelmed

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Step 5: Now create a positive behavior support plan for your child

  • Once you have a hypothesis to test consider these possible Interventions
  • For socially motivated disruptive behaviors

Address setting events
Avoid the likelihood of the behavior from occurring
Develop a setting checklist, decrease or remove antecedents or triggers
Increase social attention or other available reinforcement

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Address antecedents
Provide more directed choices
Make only high-probability requests that the child will comply with and succeed


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Teach replacement behavior skills
Provide functional communication (visual support)
Provide a preferred soft object to displace aggressive behavior tendencies
Teach tolerance for delay of reinforcement (wait)

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Use consequence strategies
Selective reinforcement of alternative (desired) behavior
Token system (earned rewards)
Hands down, time out (punishment)

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Step 6: When you find an intervention that works

  • STOP yelling at your child(ren)
  • Use the intervention at home
  • Ask the school to conduct its own Functional Behavior Analysis (FBA)
  • Use the intervention at school

Go to Learn More: Maladaptive Behavior

Resources for Parents & Educators

Autism and Developmental Disability Inpatient Research Collaborative


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