Competing Behavior Pathway

Once the team has a summary statement and a completed behavior pathway from the FBA, the construction of a behavior support plan begins with a competing behavior pathway. This is similar to the behavior pathway with the addition of more boxes showing how more appropriate behavior might lead to alternative consequences that still meet the needs of the child. See examples to the right.

At the same time, each segment of the behavior pathway is considered in turn and ways to modify events and situations are suggested. For instance,

• If hunger appears to be a setting event for misbehavior after 10:30 in the morning, a suitable part of the plan may be to allow the child a snack at 10:00.
• If the antecedent appears to be a peer who bothers the student during math, a subject in which the child is not confident, the plan may call for those students to work separately and/or individual help during math and/or clarification of expectations with students around respect for peer learning.
• The desired behavior should be clearly described (What will the behavior look like? Sound like?)
• The alternate consequence should also be clearly outlined so that the teacher and the student can understand what will happen when the student demonstrates the desired behavior rather than the problem behavior.