Behavior is anything that a person says or does. Behavior also includes a person's thoughts, feelings and emotions. Behavior includes everything from opening a box of pizza, to thinking about how delicious that pizza will taste!
We like to classify behaviors into behaviors that are observable by others, overt, and behaviors that are internal, covert. In Applied Behavior Analysis, when we are choosing a behavior to change we focus on two things. We want to objectively define the behavior and we want to make sure that it is socially significant.
Social significance means that if we change a behavior or are teaching an individual a new behavior it will improve the individual's life. It also means that changing the behavior would provide immediate and long term benefits. This means that we don't change behaviors just because someone finds them annoying or because the parent wants the individual to be able to do said skill. It might be really cool for a child to be able to label every U.S. president, but is teaching this skill socially significant for that person based on their environment?
When we think about defining a behavior we love to refer to the "Dead Man's Test" which simply states if a dead man can do it, it is not behavior. Instead of focusing on what the person is not doing, we focus on the what that person IS doing. Additionally, we might describe the internal events that could be happening in a objective way.
Mad | Throwing themselves on the floor, screaming and crying |
​Happy | Smiling, clenching fists and jumping up and down |
Frustrated | Kicking feet, pushing items off his desk. |
Stressed | Holding his head in his hands, retreating to his room, hiding from his parents. |
By describing the behaviors we are seeing in an objective way we allow for more people to be able to recognize it. As board certified behavior analysts, we are obsessed with all things behavior! We realize that when problem behaviors arise it can be stressful for the whole family and affects everyone's behavior. If you need help changing a behavior, or teaching a new behavior we are here to help. Most importantly we do it with a little grit and a whole lot of grace!
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