Overview of Behavior Support

Owned by Jennifer Macdonald (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Mar 03, 2021 by Brittney Kalicki
19 min read

I. General Overview

Rethink’s Behavior Support offers training on research-based best practices for creating and implementing behavior support plans, a step-by-step behavior support plan builder featuring function-based recommendations from the Rethink curriculum to help effectively address problem behaviors and build replacement skills, a quick and easy way to share and print your students’ behavior plans, and a library of printable materials and resources to assist in implementing your plan.

Rethink’s Behavior Support is fully integrated with the rest of the Rethink system, including Data Entry, Progress Reporting, and the Learning Plans you create for your child or student.

II. Learn Tab

When navigating to Behavior Support, you will be taken directly to Step 1 of the Learn area. This area is designed as a place for you to learn more about how to use research-based best practice steps for creating an effective behavior support plan.




Learn is divided into three sections:

  • Watch: where you can view short training videos
  • Read: where you can read informative articles, and
  • Explore: where you can see related examples and case studies.

a. The 6 Steps
  

The 6 steps in Learn: Define Behavior, Determine Function, Antecedent Strategies, Consequence Strategies, Track Effectiveness, and Evaluate Plan, correspond directly with the steps you will go through in the Create Plan Tab. You can select any of these buttons to learn more about each step

b. Watch, Read, Explore

Each step will include:

  •  WATCH: a short video clip about the selected step

  • READ: a selection of reading topics relevant to the selected step
  • EXPLORE: and a section where you can explore different case studies, tips, and examples of what the completed steps may look like or include

III. Create Plan

a. Completing the Steps

Just like the Learn section, the Create Plan section is divided into 6 steps.

 

    • To set up a behavior, and access Data Entry to record ABC and Baseline data for that behavior, complete Step 1.
    • To set up a behavior, and access Data Entry to record ABC, Baseline and Intervention data, complete Steps 1 and 5
    • To create a Comprehensive Behavior Support Plan, set Plan Review Dates, link Rethink curriculum to your plan, and record Baseline, ABC, and Intervention data in Data Entry, complete all Steps, 1 through 6.
    • Until you have completed Step 1 for your first behavior, all other steps will be disabled. To enable these steps, you must create a new plan for at least one behavior.

b. Step 1:  Define Behavior

The first step to creating your behavior support plan is adding a new behavior. To do so select the tab “Create Plan”.  Then click on “Add behavior +” at the left side of the screen.


    • Selecting this button will open a fillable form. Behavior Name and Definition are required Once you have filled in all required fields select the “Create Plan” button


    • You have now set up your new behavior and begun creating your behavior plan


    • Now that you have started creating your first plan, you can:

      1)    Go to Data Entry to begin recording Baseline/ABC data

      2)    If you have already collected Baseline and/or ABC data, you can go the next step by selecting Step 2 for this behavior.


c. Step 2: Determine Function

When you arrive at Step 2 you will find a fillable form asking you three questions:

      • Have you already conducted an assessment for this behavior?
      • Have you already determined the function of this behavior?
      • Have you already recorded baseline data for this behavior?


 


      • If you have already recorded Baseline or ABC data in our system, these fields will be pre-populated for you using the information you entered in Data Entry and will already be a part of your plan.
      • If you have recorded Baseline or ABC, but did not record this data in our system, you can type in this information in the fillable fields.  Click “Edit” to record ABC, Function of Behavior, and Baseline data.
      • You can also record information about any other assessment/s you conducted for the student by selecting the “Add Assessment +” button.
      • Use the ABC and/or assessment data you collected to help determine the function/s of the behavior. If you have recorded ABC data on our system, you can access the ABC graphs by clicking “View ABC Graph”.
      • Function will not be pre-selected for you. You can select the Function (or functions) of Behavior by choosing one or more options from the drop down menu:
        • Escape
        • Sensory
        • Tangible
        • Attention
        • Other


If other is selected, we recommend using the notes field to specify            


Once you have made your selections and filled in the pertinent fields, you can select “Save Edits” to complete Step 2.

d. Step 3: Adding Antecedent Strategies

Step 3 is divided into three sections:

Replacement Skills, Adaptive Skills, and Other Proactive Strategies

    • To access any of these sections, function of behavior must first be determined and saved as part of your behavior plan. If you did not determine the function in Step 2, you will be prompted to so in this step.

Function selected will be auto-populated into the relevant section in Step 2. Once a strategy has been added to the behavior plan, you will no longer be able to edit the function(s) selected.

Arrows can be used to see antecedent strategies within each of the categories. Only one category can be expanded at a time:

      • Replacement Skills:
        • Suggestions for possible function-based replacement skills or lessons to teach will be listed in the drop-down menu.
        • You can select one or more lessons by checking the box next to each lesson title/skill.
        • All replacement skills suggested are lessons that are available in Rethink’s Lesson Library, under the Abilities and Inclusion curriculum. 
        • Adding a skill to your behavior plan will also add the lesson to your student’s learning plan.
        • Data can be collected on these individual lessons in Data Entry.
        • You can also add a custom strategy by clicking on the “add custom skill” box.
        • Finally, in addition to selecting from the dropdown or adding custom skill, you can also search Rethink’s Lesson Library for other skills to teach, by clicking “search lesson library” box.
        • Add antecedent strategies for replacement skills, adaptive skills, and proactive strategies by following the same steps (see details below).




      • Once you have made your selections in each, click “add to plan” button will add these strategies to the plan. 
      • Added strategies will then be listed beneath category by function.

        Adaptive Skills:

Adding strategies for teaching Adaptive Skills to your plan will function in exactly the same way that adding strategies to teach Replacement Skills does. All strategies are function based and can be selected from the dropdown. Adding skills or lessons from the dropdown will also add these lessons to your student’s behavior plan AND their learning plan. Custom strategies can be added as well as other lessons searched from the Lesson Library.


Other Proactive Strategies:

Unlike Replacement and Adaptive Skills, the strategies found in the “Other Proactive Strategies” category are not function based, thus they will not be listed by function.


To select the strategies you’d like to add, select the checkbox next to the strategy name. You can also type in notes about each strategy to further describe details about the strategy.

Custom strategies can also be added by typing in the fillable field under custom strategy. Once you have made your selections, selecting the “add to plan” button will add all selections to your behavior plan.

 

e. Step 4: Adding Consequence Strategies

Step 4 is divided into 2 sections: Problem behaviors and Appropriate behaviors. To access any of these sections, function of behavior must first be determined and saved as part of your behavior plan. If you did not determine the function in Step 2 or 3, you will be prompted to do so in this step.

The function selected will auto-populate the relevant section in Steps 2 and 3. Once a strategy has been added to the behavior plan, you will no longer be able to edit the functions selected.


Problem Behaviors

Consequence strategies for Problem Behaviors are function-based, and suggestions for possible strategies to use are listed by selected function(s). Please note that unlike the suggestion list of lessons from Step 3 Antecedent Strategies, consequence strategies are Not lessons, and therefore not pulled from the Lesson Library. To add listed strategies to your behavior plan, select the checkbox next to the strategy title.  You can also further specify this strategy by typing in the notes box beneath the strategy name.


Once you have made your selections, selecting the “add to plan” button will add selections to your behavior support plan.

Appropriate Behaviors

Consequence strategies for Appropriate Behavior are not function based and therefore not listed by function. Please note that unlike the suggested list of lessons from Step 3: Antecedent Strategies, Consequence Strategies are not lessons, and therefore not pulled from the Lesson Library. To add suggested strategies to your behavior plan, select the checkbox next to the strategy title. You can also further specify this strategy by typing in the notes box beneath the strategy name.

 

Once you have made your selections, selecting the “add to plan” button will add selections to your behavior support plan.

f. Step 5: Track Effectiveness- Adding Goals and Objectives

In order to begin recording intervention data for your behavior, you will need to complete Step 5. When arriving at Step 5 you will have the option to either record data by Goal or by Goals and Objectives. By default, Goals and Objectives will be selected.

Goals and Objectives

The language of the goal will be based upon the information entered in step 1 (i.e. whether the behavior is to decrease/increase, where and when this will occur, the behavior name, etc).

You will need to type in the fillable fields in goal. For instance, you will need to fill in the current level (the from field) the goal (the to field), time period (e.g. per day, per hour, etc.), as well as the number of consecutive days. If you have already recorded baseline data, field for current level (the from field) will be pre-populated with this data, but can be changed. Based upon the numbers typed into these fields, the system will calculate your objectives, by dividing the distance between the current level and the goal into 3 benchmarks. While these will be populated for you, they can also be edited. As you are creating your goal, if you need to access the ABC graph, click on “View ABC graph”.  Once you have customized the goal and objectives, selecting the “add to plan” button will enable intervention data collection in Data Entry    

When you begin collecting data, what is typed in these fields will function as the mastery criteria for the behavior plan. Once you meet each objective, the system will track progress against the next objective until all objectives have been met.

Goals

You can also select to track progress by just the goal, without setting up objectives.

The same idea applies as when setting up goals and objectives, in that you will be asked to fill in the empty fields, which will then function as the mastery criteria for the behavior. Similar to goals and objectives, you can view the ABC graph to assist with creating the goal.  Unlike tracking progress by goals and objectives, when tracking progress only by a goal, the data you record will not be measured against interim benchmarks. Instead, the system will only prompt mastery once your student has reached the goal set up in step 5.

Once you have customized the goal, selecting the “add to plan” button will enable intervention data collection in Data Entry.

g. Step 6: Evaluate Plan – Set a Plan Review Date and Review Your Plan

When you are first creating your plan, you will be asked to identify team members responsible for implementing the plan. You will also be asked to set a plan review date. Automated messaging will alert you when your plan is up for evaluation on, and/or past the set review date. At that time, you will also be prompted to return to step 6 to fill in information about the results of the plan evaluation

  • Set a Plan Review Date and Identify Responsible Team Members

The last step to creating your behavior support intervention plan is to complete Step 6 and set a plan review date. The system will ask you to select from a dropdown of team members linked to the student who is responsible for implementing the plan and for recording data. You can select multiple team members from the drop-down and can also select “other” to type in a team member not in the Rethink system.

You can also add notes about the behavior plan. Finally, you will be asked to set a plan review date. By default, the plan review data is set at 30 days from the start date of the behavior plan. Upon the plan-review-date you set, the system will prompt you to evaluate the plan and either start a new plan if changes need to be made, or set a new plan review date in the future.

Once you have made your selections and typed in your plan review date, you can select “add to plan” to complete setting up your behavior support plan! You can navigate to the View Plan tab to see and print your entire plan

    • Review Your Plan

Upon the plan review date set when first creating your behavior support plan, when you navigate to the Rethink’s Behavior Support, you will be asked to either review your plan or set a plan review date.  Click “Go to Evaluate Plan”.

When you select Go to Evaluate Plan, go to Step 6 of this behavior support plan to fill in information about the results of the evaluation. If you have not yet evaluated your plan, we recommend going through each step of the plan and reviewing your student’s data to determine whether changes need to be made to the plan.

Upon plan review date, Step 6 will ask you whether your plan was reviewed. You will also be able to edit any information previously entered such as people responsible for implementing and recording data.  In addition, you are able to view the ABC graph if needed.

If you select no, system will ask you to set a new plan review date, at which point you can then Save. You will then be able to continue, and come back to review your plan on the new date set.  Click “Save Edits” for any changes made to this page.    

If you select “yes” to indicate that the plan was reviewed, you will then be asked if any changes need to be made to the plan.

          • If you select “yes” to indicate that changes do need to be made to the plan, a fillable box will appear asking you to specify changes. This field is not compulsory, but is recommended.
          • Once you have specified your changes and selected to update plan, this behavior plan will be closed and a new plan will be automatically created for you in Step 1. You can access all your inactive plans from the view tab and reactivate as needed
          • If you select “no” to indicate that no changes need to be made to the plan, you can continue working on your plan and will be asked to set a new plan review date, and can then select “update.” The system will keep a record of all reviews made to the plan.

IV. Collecting Data

Rethink’s Data Entry and Behavior Support are fully integrated. Creating a Behavior Support Plan gives you the ability to collect data fort the behavior in Data Entry. Any ABC, Baseline, or Intervention Data you record in Data Entry will sync with your behavior support plan and will help you evaluate its effectiveness. In addition to behavior data, you can also collect lesson data in Data Entry for skills that have been added to your behavior support plan.

a. Getting Started

Once you have completed Step 1 in Create Plan, you can begin recording ABC and Baseline Data. You can navigate to Data Entry by selecting the “Data Entry” tab at the top of your screen by selecting Data Entry from the top navigation.

Any behavior set up when creating the plan will appear under the Behavior section of Data Entry. To record Intervention data, you will need to also complete Step 5 of Create Plan.

b. ABC Data

ABC Data will help you determine the function of the behavior, which will then help you select the appropriate interventions.

To enter ABC Data, Click on the ABC LOG button in Data Entry on the left hand side of the screen.   Then enter the basic information about the start and end time of the behavior. Complete your ABC data by using the dropdowns to select information about the behavior, the context, antecedent, consequence and possible reason or function about the behavior.  In addition, you can add any additional notes about each ABC data point.


ABC Data will help you determine the function of the behavior, which will then help you select the appropriate interventions.

To enter ABC Data, enter the basic information about the start and end time of the behavior. Complete your ABC data by using the dropdowns to select information about the context, antecedent, consequence and possible reason or function about the behavior. In addition, you can include additional notes about the ABC data point.

Once you have entered data, ABC Graphs will be automatically generated for you in View Progress.

If you have collected ABC data prior to using Rethink, and /or you are using another assessment, you can manually enter that information into Step 2 of Create Plan. If you are recording the data on Rethink, the information will automatically populate into Step 2 for you.

c. Baseline Data

Baseline data shows you the rate in which a behavior is occurring prior to the implementation of teaching and/or intervention plans. It forms the basis for comparison with the data that is taken once the teaching and/or intervention phase has begun, and is crucial in determining the effectiveness of the intervention.

You can enter a summary of the baseline data by filling up the open fields in the Data Entry panel or you can enter more in depth baseline data by clicking on the Record Details button and filling in the relevant information.  When you Record Details on a specific behavior, this can be used to create a Scatter Plot Graph.

If you have collected Baseline data prior to using Rethink, you can manually enter that information into Step 2 of Create Plan. If you are recording the data on Rethink, the information will automatically populate into Step 2.

d. Intervention Data

Once Step 5 of Create Plan has been completed, you will be able to record intervention data on Data Entry using the method of data collection you selected when you set up the behavior. The current objective for the behavior will also be reflected on the data panel.

You can enter a summary of the intervention data by filling in the open fields in the Data Entry panel or you can enter more in depth data by clicking on the Record Details button and filling in the relevant information. Click Save once all data has been entered into the panel.


Once you have entered data and saved it, a behavior graph will be automatically generated for you in View Progress.  In addition, you can preview the graph by clicking on “View Data” while in Data Entry.

V. Viewing your Behavior Support Plan

a. The View Tab

Once you have created your behavior support plan, it will be available to view and print from the view tab of Rethink’s Behavior Support.

From the view tab you can select the behavior and record data (click record data) for this behavior, print off both ABC and intervention data sheets, add and view behavior notes, and archive behaviors you are no longer working on with the student.

Selecting the behavior name will open up all plans created for that behavior, each of which can be viewed, edited, or printed. Selecting the name of the plan you’d like to view will open up the plan created in the create tab beneath the behavior name.  From this screen you can view, delete, or print your behavior plan. To edit your plan, you will need to return to the Create Tab.

From this screen you can view, delete, or print your behavior plan. To edit your plan, click on edit, and it will return you to Create Plan tab.

When you click on Print, you are able to Choose a Plan to print, choose additional print options of: Behavior Notes, ABC log, and Intervention Data.  In addition, you can print out a basic or IEP list of behaviors.


b. Archiving Behaviors

Archiving a behavior will move the behavior and all of the associated plans for that behavior out of your student’s learning plan. To archive a behavior, go to the view tab of the Behavior Support.  Click on “Move Behavior” 


Selecting the “Yes, Archive” button will move the plan into your archived behaviors.  Selecting No, Delete will delete the plan.  To view archived behaviors, you can select the Archived Behaviors on the drop down menu under “Behavior Support” on left hand side.  From here you can view and print behavior updates for archived behaviors.

VI. Deactivating Behavior Support Plans


To deactivate your behavior support plan you will need to go to the View Tab of Behavior Support, select the behavior name, then select the “deactivate” icon next to the plan you’d like to deactivate. Deactivating your plan will deactivate all saved information from that plan, excepting data, which will continue to appear on the graph. Only plans created redundantly or accidentally should be deactivated. If you’d like to discontinue a plan, you can create a new plan for the behavior in the create tab and/or review the plan to indicate that it is not working, and then create a new plan and make the necessary changes.

VII. Re-activating Closed Behavior Support Plans


Once a plan has been reviewed and you have indicated that you’d like to make changes, the system will close out the plan and automatically start a new plan for that behavior. These closed plans are then considered “inactive.” If you’d like to reactivate an old plan, you can do so from the view tab of behavior support.

Any plan with the “Activate” icon under the column status is an inactive plan. To reactivate, simply select the icon. You will then see a pop-up asking you to set a new start date and a new plan review date for the plan. Once reactivated, your plan will be available for data collection in Data Entry and for editing in the Create Tab.



VIII. Editing, Changing, or Completing Unfinished Behavior Support Plans

Once Step 1 for a behavior is completed, your plan has been created. You can always come back to Behavior Support to complete incomplete steps or to make updates or edits to your existing plan. Please note that while you have the ability to edit the plan, if you have already begun implementing the plan and are making actual changes to the plan, rather than saving edits you should create a new plan.

a. Selecting Behavior Support Plans

When navigating to the Create tab and selecting a behavior, by default you will be in your most current plan. Any updates or changes you make on any of the steps will be for this plan. You can select another active plan to edit, update, or complete, from left hand side of the screen where all active behaviors are listed. 


 b. Saving as a New Plan vs. Updating a Plan

If you’d like to make changes to your plan, Click the “edit” button and a make any necessary changes in the fillable fields. When you click edit, the system will take you back to Step 1.  You then have the option to either “save as new plan” or “save edits”.  If you edit the plan, you have the option to create a new plan or save edits to the current plan by clicking “Save As a New Plan” or “Save Edits”.

You should select “Save Edits” when making minor spelling or grammar edits or when correcting mistakes made when creating the plan.

You should select “Save as new plan” when making changes to a plan you have already started implementing. Selecting “Save as new plan” will create a new plan for that behavior, pulling in all saved information from your old plan. Once the new plan has been created, you can go through the create steps to make changes to the plan, using the “Save edits” button.

c. Reviewing your plan and Creating a New Plan

If you’d like to make changes to an existing plan, the best thing to do is to review your plan, specify the changes, and start a new plan. You can review your plan on the plan review date set when creating the plan, or, if you need to review the plan sooner, you can go into step 6 and edit the plan, setting a new plan review date. Upon the new plan review date, you can then specify what changes you’d like to make to the plan, save, and then a new plan will automatically be created. You can edit this new plan to make the specified changes.

IV. View Progress


All data recorded in Data Entry and in the Rethink App is automatically recorded on a graph in our system. All Behavior Graphs can be found under the behavior tab in Analyze Data.

a. Behavior Graphs

Any behavior with data can be selected from the behavior drop-down.  By default, graphs for all plans that have been active in the last year will be available in the drop down. You can type in a new date range, select a filter for how you’d like to view your graphs and also select to see either a Behavior graph or an ABC graph. Behavior graph will be selected by default. Selecting the “update graph” button will update the graph below with selections:

You can then use the graph, which will display baseline data and data associated with your behavior plan, to interpret the effectiveness of your plan.

b. ABC Graphs

You can also select to view ABC graphs for behaviors.  Using the radio buttons above the graph, you can view different bar graphs for context/activity, antecedent, consequence, and possible reason to help determine the function of the behavior.


NEED HELP?

CONTACT RETHINK AT: 


SUPPORT@RETHINKBH.COM