What drives a behavior

Why Do Children Behave the Way They Do?

There are different behavioral functions and behavioral drives behind every action. If you want to resolve or put an end to a certain behavior you need to first understand why it is happening. To change undesirable behaviors you must help your child learn how to act appropriately and how to make good behavioral choices. The first step to change a behavior is to determine its drive or function. Different drives for negative behaviors include: anger, frustration, attention seeking, poor impulse control, task avoidance, self stimulation, access to tangibles, perseveration and  transition difficulties. Each behavior will be treated differently according to its drive.

Parents of children with autism will face many challenges.  Stress is common amongst all families even more so with families that include children with special needs.  Information is available but few parents know where to start.  Socially  unacceptable behaviors are common with children with autism, but with discipline they can be kept under control. It takes work and patience, remember your child with special needs requires far more structure and discipline than a typical child. Determining the drive or function will aid in changing undesirable behaviors, sensory diets will help with self stimulation or stimming (rocking, flapping of arms, biting, grinding of teeth, etc) and reward systems such as Behavior Wheels  and behavior bucks will help you and your child progress together.
 In order to determine a behavior's drive or function data needs to be collected and analyzed. Click here to see a sample data sheet. After data has been collected for a month or two, you will begin to notice behavioral trends.   (example:  If Johnny starts screaming because you have run out of cheerios and must now eat corn flakes make a note of this on the data sheet.  If screaming usually happens when he can't get what he wants,  it will be concluded that screaming's drive is access to tangibles and methods for flexibility will need to be learned and practiced.)  A behavior specialist may be necessary to further document behaviors and to devise a behavior plan if the situation seems unmanageable.  Offer the data you have collected to get started in helping your child,  parents should always be heavily involved in order for any plan to be effective.  It is best to act proactively instead of reactively, so it is a great idea to set up a reward system.
 
Once you have a behavioral plan set up at home, both parents need to follow it and you should let your child's teacher know how you handle different situations so when they occur at school they can be handled in the same manner. The consistency will help your child learn how to make the right choices faster. Some of these behavior suggestions might sound cold or uncaring, but it does your child more harm to not discipline them and not teach them how to make good choices. They already have a disadvantage socially, you need to help them understand how to behave so other children will be able to play with them and enjoy their company.