The ABCs of behavior are Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence. Antecedent is what happens before the behavior. Maybe it’s you giving out a mathematics worksheet. Maybe it’s a cutie of the preferred gender smiling. Maybe it’s a really spicy lunch. Every behavior has an antecedent. A lot of times, a behavior will have the proximate antecedent– what happened right before– and a more attenuated antecedent– what happened last night or earlier– and it’s a combination that is triggering the behavior. But by closely watching the student’s behavior you can start to get a sense of what the A is.

Then there’s the B, the behavior. That’s what the kiddo does. Is it tear up the math sheet? Cuss out the cutie? Throw something? What is the behavior that you want to work on?

Finally, you get the C, the consequence. That’s where the money is. What happens after the behavior? Does the student get to avoid the math worksheet because they get kicked out of class? Do they get attention from the cutie? Both of those consequences would reinforce the behavior– the kiddo is more likely to continue the behavior because the consequence is getting them something they want. Or is it instead that the student has to do more math? Or gets ignored by the cutie? A lot of times, we think we are being strict with a kiddo and instead we are creating a consequence that actually increases the likelihood of the behavior repeating because the student is getting what they want! 

Once you know the ABCs of the student’s behavior, you are much better positioned to start tackling the behaviors! 

This handout on the ABCs from Vanderbilt has a pretty nice overview.

Behavior is a language. Every time a student engages in a behavior, they are telling you something. One of the challenges is learning to speak that language. When you learn the function of the behavior, you are starting to speak the student’s language– and you can communicate right back. 

You would think that behaviors would have a lot of functions but in reality folks think of behavior as having one of four functions. 

1. A student might be seeking attention. That could be your attention. Even you yelling is a form of attention. It could also be attention from a peer.
2. A student might be trying to escape something. If the student rips up the math sheet because they don’t want to do math, they are trying to escape the work.
3. A student might be trying to get something tangible, like a toy.
4. The student might be trying to gain or avoid a sensory stimuli. A student might start yelling if the music is too loud to cope with it or hit someone who brushes by them because the person was too close.

If you can figure out the why of the behavior– the function that it is serving for a student– you can start to figure out how to offer replacement behaviors that meet the same need but are less destructive. Maybe they could take a lap before trying the math assignment and avoid it a little or get their peer’s attention by asking to work with a partner. The functions give you levers to use in your behavior management.

To learn more about the functions of behavior, check out this handout. 

Once you know the function of behavior, you can be smart about your interventions. This handout from PBIS Missouri maps interventions onto behavior functions really nicely.