The answer to the question is similar regardless of the functioning level of the child, the type of problem behavior or the demand. Whenever problem behaviors occur, I believe the demands are usually too high, the reinforcement is too low and/or we don’t have adequate control of the reinforcement.
Before we can treat problem behavior, we need to accurately define what the behavior of concern looks like. Many people throw out vague words to describe problem behaviors displayed by their children or clients with autism. They might say Billy was “very off” today, “he was anxious” and/or “had a complete meltdown.” Even the word “tantrum,” which many professionals (including me) use routinely, doesn’t describe what exactly the behavior looks like.
In order to help parents or non-ABA professionals describe problem behavior more accurately when a parent or professional says “he was anxious,” I ask, “What did that look like, was he pacing, tapping his fingers, taking short/shallow breaths?” Likewise, if they say, “He had a tantrum,” I would ask what that looked like. Did the child fall to the floor, kick adults, hit the sides of his head with his fists? While I can’t count anxiety or autism tantrums easily, I can count more specific behaviors.
Next, I would look at activities when the problem behavior almost always occurs (when it is time to take a bath) and when the behaviors of concern never occur (while your child is playing on the computer).
