Intervention strategies  

Children on the autism spectrum engage in challenging behaviors, and often have persistent communication and social differences. 80% of the children exhibit challenging behaviors that are dangerous to their self or others. It is important to identify and implement intervention strategies to manage challenging behaviors. Reducing heart rate is one proactive intervention strategy to reducing behaviors. The KeepCalm app is a great resource designed to be an interactive learning and data collection tool to facilitate a team approach to supporting emotion regulation in students. Their website also offers proactive and reactive strategies linked here (Emezie et al., 2024).

Visual activity schedules can help with transitions for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Students lose instructional time when they exhibit negative behavior, and research shows strong relationships between behavior problems and low academic achievement. Visual supports are one proactive management strategy that addresses behaviors during transitions. Other proactive strategies include clear rules and expectations, positive space, and opportunities for engagement during instruction (Milam and Sutton, 2024).

Below are two behavior charts used by our district created by Nicole Ratcliff and Megan King. They are used as a behavior management strategy used by teachers to help determine what happens before the behavior (antecedent), during the behavior (behavior), and what happens after the behavior (consequence). Our behavior intensity scale is used to determine how intense the behavior is and what it may look like.

Students with autism lack the ability to understand meaning behind peoples’ behavior. Using an augmented reality program, such as Quiver Vision, allows the creation of a social situation with visual supports in different steps.  Augmented reality use has shown some improvement in social skills in children with autism (Lorenzo et al., 2018). Quiver How To Video

Positive reinforcement and task completion are important in managing behaviors. A functional analysis can help identify functional reinforcers for problem behavior, and positive reinforcement can effectively compete against negative reinforcement. It is practical for teachers, parents, and can have immediate benefits. Access to positive reinforcers can decrease problem behavior on compliance with a task (Shieltz et al., 2016).

"Understanding WHY a kid is challenging is the first and MOST IMPORTANT part of helping them" - Dr. Ross Greene

At times, all children and youth can struggle with challenging behavior. If a challenging behavior interferes with the learner’s ability to learn, then a functional behavior assessment (FBA) is needed. FBA can be used when the intensity, duration, or type of interfering behavior creates safety concerns or impacts a child’s development. An FBA assists the IEP team in understanding the function or purpose of a specific interfering behavior. Data collection is an essential component of FBA (Afirm, 2015) AFIRM - functional behavior analysis

Attention: The best procedure for addressing attention-seeking behaviors is to completely ignore occurrences of the behavior. By ignoring the behavior, the teacher is restricting access to the reinforcement (i.e., attention) that the student is seeking. 

Escape: It is imperative to not allow the student to avoid the activity; rather, teachers should follow through and require the student to complete the original task.

Tangible: it is important to not allow the student access to the desired object or activity as a result of the inappropriate behavior. 

Sensory: To address this type of behavior, teachers may utilize a couple of strategies: (1) restrict access to the behavior or (2) teach a replacement behavior that serves the same function. 

(Alstot & Alstot, 2015)

Staff training on discrete trial training (DTT) shows success of individuals with developmental disabilities. It is effective in improving educator skill and teaching students target behaviors (Vuran and Gul, 2012).

1. Refine target objective to state the desired antecedent, behavior, and criterion for  mastery. (learning objective should clearly state desired antecedent, behavior, and criterion for mastery)

  2. Complete a task analysis to break the skill into teachable steps. (watch someone who has done it before and take notes, ask an expert in target skill to record each step, complete yourself and record each step) 

  3. Design data collection system. (trial by trial data collection is very important, so design the data sheets for the skill being taught)

  4. Select reinforcers. (helps increase likelihood the learner will use target behavior in the future). 

  5. Prepare DTT lesson (determine appropriate place for DTT lesson; multiple location are preferable to help learners generalize skills or behaviors; gather all materials before lesson) 

  DTT Step-by-Step.pdf (AFIRM module)

Teacher preparation

School teachers around the world continue to have children in their classrooms that exhibit challenging behavior. They are not being prepared on how to handle behaviors in the classroom, and don’t know how to address the behaviors to maximize educational outcomes. If behaviors aren’t addressed, they can have immediate and long term consequences. Teachers don't get proper pre-service training to address the challenging behaviors (Chitiyo et al., 2024). Autism Professional Learning has free resources that help to improve the communication, behavior, and social / emotional outcomes for students with autism in the school or home environment.

Elementary general education teachers who use evidence based behavior management strategies can help students with mental health needs/behavior needs. Preservice teachers lack knowledge, application, and self efficacy compared to third year teachers when applying evidence based management strategies, and students require teachers who are educated to provide appropriate supports. Induction programs for teachers need to focus on evidence based behavior management strategies (McGuire et al., 2024).

Teachers in high need educational settings need to be equipped with strategies and interventions that are highly effective, feasible, and efficient to implement. Behavior specific praise is one useful behavior management strategy. Preservice teachers get very limited training in behavioral management practices, and increased behavior specific praise resulted in targeted improved student behavior (Miller et al., 2025).

Preservice teachers need high quality feedback on their performance during application in the field. An advantage of virtual practice encompasses the chance for repeated practice. TeachLive provides an effective training environment for preservice practitioners in behavior management (Randolph et al., 2024). Click Here to access University of Mississippi's website about TeachLive!

Creating a behavior toolkit is another way to keep resources close and ready when they are needed after an episode. It allows to keep tracking materials and other necessary items available for quick and easy use. You can also create a behavior toolkit for students to take ownership of their behavior. Click here to access the blog post and available resources!