What is Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)?
Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) is an individualised and comprehensive approach that parents and carers can use to guide children towards new ways to behave.
The approach aims to reduce challenging behaviour that negatively affects children or other people.
Who is Positive Behaviour Support for?
Positive Behaviour Support is for anyone with behaviour challenges, including autistic children. The approach can also be used with people with intellectual, learning, developmental and social challenges.
What is Positive Behaviour Support used for?
The main goal of Positive Behaviour Support is to help children join in and learn. A related goal is improving children’s wellbeing.
Where does Positive Behaviour Support come from?
Positive Behaviour Support emerged in the 1980s, evolving from Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). Both PBS and ABA are based on ‘learning theory’, but PBS is more person centred or family centred. This means it’s more focused on people’s goals and strengths.
Learning theory suggests that how people behave in a situation depends on their previous experiences of similar situations.
What is the idea behind Positive Behaviour Support?
The idea behind Positive Behaviour Support is that all behaviour serves a purpose. You can help children learn new behaviour when you understand what children are getting or communicating when they behave in particular ways.
Positive Behaviour Support aims to help children learn new ways of behaving or communicating to get what they want – for example, by using words or signs to communicate. These new ways of communicating can replace challenging behaviour.
The key feature of Positive Behaviour Support is an individualised plan that is:
- implemented by everyone involved with a child on a daily basis
- used in the natural environment where children’s behaviour occurs.
What does Positive Behaviour Support involve?
Positive Behaviour Support involves understanding the reasons for a child’s behaviour. This is the basis for removing things that trigger the child’s challenging behaviour and finding more positive ways to meet the child’s needs.
1. Assessment
The first step is assessing the child to understand more about their behaviour. This might involve a medical assessment to rule out a physical illness like an ear infection or toothache as the cause of the behaviour.
Then a psychologist or another trained therapist talks with the child’s family and observes the child’s behaviour to work out what the child gets by behaving in a particular way. This is known as a functional assessment.
2. Plan development
Next the family and support team work with the practitioner on a detailed plan for:
- minimising the triggers for the child’s behaviour
- teaching the child new skills and ways of communicating
- teaching the child’s parents how to respond to the challenging behaviour if it happens.
3. Plan implementation and review
The family and support team follow the plan and regularly review the plan together to make sure that it’s working.
ABA programs like Positive Behaviour Support can help autistic children develop skills and independence. But these techniques should always be used in a way that respects neurodiversity, works with children’s strengths and rewards positive behaviour change.
Does Positive Behaviour Support help autistic children?
Positive Behaviour Support is supported by high-quality research. The research shows that this approach:
- improves children’s school performance
- helps children ask for things they want and need
- helps children give and share information
- reduces children’s aggression towards themselves and others
- reduces meltdowns and disruptive behaviour.
Children benefit most from this therapy when it’s consistently put into practice.
Which professionals offer Positive Behaviour Support?
Psychologists and other professionals who are trained in Positive Behaviour Support can help families develop Positive Behaviour Support plans and put them into practice. With the right support, a child’s teachers and other professionals can also use Positive Behaviour Support in their work with the child.
Where can you find a Positive Behaviour Support therapist?
You can find psychologists who are trained in Positive Behaviour Support at Australian Psychological Society – Find a psychologist.
If you’re interested in Positive Behaviour Support, you could talk about it with your GP or one of the other professionals working with your child. You could also talk about it with your NDIA planner, early childhood partner or local area coordinator, if you have one.
How are parents involved in Positive Behaviour Support?
If your child is in a therapy program that uses Positive Behaviour Support, your involvement is essential.
You’ll have a central role in the collaborative team that develops the Positive Behaviour Support plan. As part of this, you should be trained to put the plan into action and respond to difficult situations.
You’ll be responsible for implementing the Positive Behaviour Support plan at home, and you’ll play an active role in providing feedback to the team about your child’s progress.
How much does Positive Behaviour Support cost?
There’s a cost for developing a Positive Behaviour Support plan, because you do this in collaboration with a trained therapist like a psychologist or an experienced education professional. The cost varies depending on how long it takes to develop the plan, as well as the professional’s qualifications.
You use the plan in your child’s natural environments, so there’s no financial cost for putting the plan into action.
You might be eligible to see a psychologist at a subsidised rate for a limited number of sessions through Medicare. Some private health care funds might also cover a portion of the consultation fee. If the therapist has HICAPS, you might be able to make a claim immediately.
You can contact the NDIS to find out whether you can include the cost of PBS therapy in your child’s NDIS plan.
Therapies and supports for autistic children range from behavioural therapies and developmental approaches to medicines and alternative therapies. When you understand the main types of therapies and supports for autistic children, it’ll be easier to work out the approach that will best suit your child.