The ABCs of behaviour

Every day a student in grade two gets out of his chair and walks around the classroom during the teacher’s instruction.

The student continuously interrupts the teacher and distracts his classmates by leaving his seat at inappropriate times. The teacher must stop the lesson daily to remind the student that it is not appropriate to be out of his chair at that moment. After a few weeks of this behaviour, the teacher and the student’s parents decide to reach out to a therapist to understand why the student keeps getting out of his chair during class.

Working together, the teacher, the parents and the therapist talk over what is happening in the environment before, during and after the student escapes from his seat. By shifting the focus from the student’s escaping behaviour to the environment the behaviour takes place in, it was discovered how the chair had been digging into his calves and his back. The student would squirm in his chair before getting up because he felt uncomfortable in a seat that was too small for him. His behaviour to escape from his seat helped him to avoid the unpleasant feeling of being in a chair that did not completely fit him. The teacher, therefore, learned the role the environment played in causing the student’s behaviour, which allowed him to understand what he could do to support the student.

The teacher was able to get him a different chair in the classroom, which resulted in the student being able to sit comfortably through the teacher’s whole lessons and complete all his work. In this case, the focus on adjusting the environment rather than the behaviour itself worked to support the student’s success in the classroom.