In the series on developing IEPs I’ve been writing, I addressed the nuts and bolts of how functional behavioral assessments and positive behavioral interventions should be a part of a child’s IEP if the behaviors impede his learning (or the learning of other children). But there’s so much more to address when it comes to behavioral interventions at school, especially for traumatized children and/or those with a combo platter of disabilities.

The causes of our children’s behaviors are complex…the antecedents are often not clear…and what the child is “getting” from the negative behavior often doesn’t seem to make sense. So, even experienced teachers and psychologists can miss it. And parents, believing these educators are the experts, can miss it too.

I spent way too long being both embarrassed and frustrated with LuLu’s behaviors. While on one level I understood that there was much she couldn’t control…I wanted her to. It made sense to me. Parenting neurotypical children, I was of the mindset that with the right consequence, my daughter would respond by stopping the negative behavior. Problem was, I didn’t understand the causes of her behaviors and how overlapping they were.

And my old habits and beliefs died hard. If she just tried hard enough…wasn’t so willfully disobedient, she could behave. I knew she could, because I had seen periods of incredibly good behavior. But I wasn’t looking at the situations through her eyes.

Mistaking trauma triggers for something else. In theory, that’s what an FBA is supposed to do, observe a child’s behavior and start to see the underlying causes of it. However, the problem with children who have been traumatized is that generally those doing the observations have no frame of reference for trauma and its effects. This is why traumatized children are often mislabeled and the interventions attempted can often make things worse. Hypervigilance looks like hyperactivity or day dreaming or even defiance. Dissociation can either be overlooked or labeled as lazy.

Failing to recognize ALL of the child’s many disabilities. I think one that is often overlooked in terms of its impact on behavior is sensory integration dysfunction. This, coupled with processing issues (auditory or visual) can really cause behaviors. Many educators don’t recognize the cumulative effect that sensory inputs have on a child with SID. Bright lights, school bells, air brakes on the bus, noisy cafeterias, children brushing against the child in line, itchy clothes, loud toilets flushing, food smells or textures…all can contribute to a child’s dysregulation. And because the effect is cumulative, unless you’ve been observing a child for quite some time (not just a few minutes here and there) you’d never “get it” as to why a child blows at a certain activity one time, and not the next.

Last spring, I was finally starting to figure things out for myself a bit clearer than before, as far as the complexity of LuLu’s behavioral triggers. In I’m a Little Lab Rat, I really summed up the many variables that can impact my daughter’s behaviors throughout a typical school day:

LuLu gets on the bus to go to school. The bus air brakes and noisy diesel engine trigger her noise sensitivity. If she's had enough sleep that night and is feeling particularly strong, this expected noise isn't an issue - if she hasn't it is a definite irritant to her. She arrives at school irritated and is greeted by a teacher who makes some sort of dismissive or "corrective" comment about her irritated mood. This triggers her anxiety ("Oh no, the teacher's mad at me",) and further escalates her negative mood. Maybe she starts lashing out at this point, maybe she doesn't. Then she goes into the classroom to select her lunch choice. She doesn't like any of them and has the added worry, now that she's been put on a casein-free diet, of not choosing anything with dairy. So she obsesses a bit about this. She may have reached her tipping point or may not have...yet. Next they start reading, a subject that is especially difficult for her given her visual processing deficits. She's shipped off to another classroom where the teacher doesn't know her as well and all the other kids are older (since she's able to read at a higher level despite her obvious difficulties). The boys in the class begin acting up slightly and that bothers her both on a sensory level and on the level of knowing they are misbehaving , which produces anxiety in her, and then she blows! To the teacher there, it looks like a meltdown totally out of context. Which is the reason he says things to me like "I don't know what triggers her - must have been something that happens at home in the morning.”

Here are some of my favorite resources for behavioral interventions for complex kids:

Pitfalls of Behavior Modification Plans. This paper by Leslie Packer, Ph.D. is a personal favorite because I believe she is dead-on about why traditional behavioral modification plans (rewards/consequences) don’t work with many of our kids. This is a must-read if you know your IEP team will be developing a BIP.


Masssachusetts Advocates for Children. Here’s where I blogged about them last year. Their report on Helping Traumatized Children Learn is full of ideas about reaching these vulnerable children and examples of how they are being missed at school.

Suspending Disbelief. This report from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law is an awesome resource on FBAs and BIPs for children with mental illnesses.

PBS Parents website. Inclusive Communities…Challenging Behaviors.

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