Reducing a problem behavior is only half of a behavior plan. The other half is deciding what the person will do instead, and that choice often decides whether the plan works at all.
Why it matters
Problem behavior persists because it works: it gets attention, ends a hard task, produces an item, or feels good. If you only reduce it, the person keeps the same need and no acceptable way to meet it, so new problem behavior may fill the gap or the old one may return.
A good replacement gives the person a better route to the same outcome, and family, teachers, coworkers, and peers keep reinforcing it after you leave. On the exam, expect vignettes that give you assessment results and ask which replacement fits best. The right answer is almost always the one that matches the function and fits the person's real life.
Key ideas
- Start with function. The replacement should produce the same reinforcer that currently maintains the problem behavior. Escape-maintained behavior calls for a way to request a break or help; attention-maintained behavior calls for an appropriate way to get attention.
- Make it more efficient than the problem behavior. A replacement competes only if it pays off at least as well. Compared with the problem behavior, it should take less effort and be reinforced more quickly and more reliably, especially early in teaching.
- Choose something the person can do now or learn fast. A response already in the repertoire, or close to it, contacts reinforcement sooner.
- Pick a form other people recognize. The replacement only works if the people around the person notice it and respond. An idiosyncratic gesture only clinic staff understand will not be honored at home, school, or work.
- Check social validity. The client and the people who matter to them should agree that the behavior is acceptable, useful, age-appropriate, and worth the effort. Ask before you finalize, not after the plan stalls.
- Plan for the natural environment. Favor behaviors that the everyday environment will keep reinforcing (the relevance-of-behavior rule) and, when possible, skills that open doors to new reinforcers and settings.
- Name an action, not an absence. "Will not hit" is not a replacement behavior. Describe what the person will do.
Definitions
- Replacement behavior: an appropriate behavior (also called an alternative behavior) that you teach and reinforce so that it takes over the role of a problem behavior, usually by producing the same reinforcer.
- Functional equivalence: two responses are functionally equivalent when they produce the same reinforcer (for example, a break from work).
- Response efficiency: how well a response pays off relative to its cost, shaped mainly by response effort, the schedule of reinforcement, and the delay to reinforcement.
- Social validity: the extent to which the goals, procedures, and outcomes of an intervention are acceptable and important to the client and other stakeholders.
- Relevance-of-behavior rule: target only behaviors that the natural environment is likely to keep reinforcing after formal intervention ends.
- Dead man's test: if a dead person could "do" it, it is not behavior. Goals that state only the absence of behavior fail this test.
Examples from a session
Matching the replacement to the function
- Escape, school: A functional analysis shows that Priya, 8, rips worksheets to get out of writing. Her team teaches her to hand over a "break" card, which earns a short break right away at first. Later, the team asks for more work before each break.
- Attention, home: Andre, 4, throws toys when his dad is on the phone. His dad teaches him to tap his arm and say "Dad, look," and turns to him right away during the first weeks of teaching.
- Tangible, adult day program: Rosa, 45, grabs other people's drinks. Her team teaches her to point to a drink on her communication board, a picture system that staff and her family already use.
- Automatic, clinic: Kai, 11, mouths objects. The team cannot hand out "the same reinforcer" socially, so they offer chewable items that produce similar sensory stimulation and teach him to request them.
In each case, the team checked three things: does it serve the same function, does it pay off faster and more easily than the problem behavior, and will people in that setting understand and honor it?
Non-example: Mia, 6, hits peers to get their toys. Her plan teaches her to ask for a hug when she is upset. It is a pleasant skill, but a hug does not get her the toy, so hitting still pays off.
Common mistakes / exam traps
- Making the replacement harder than the problem behavior. If screaming gets attention in seconds and the new request is honored minutes later, screaming wins. Early on, reinforce the replacement immediately and every time.
- Ignoring the audience. Sign language can be a great choice, but only if people in the learner's daily settings understand it or will learn it.
- Writing a non-behavior. "Does not leave seat" and "sits quietly" both fail the dead man's test. Name what the person does, such as "raises a hand to ask for a stretch break."
- Skipping stakeholder input. A replacement that caregivers find embarrassing or impractical will not be honored, however well it matches function.
Exam trap
Incompatible is not the same as functionally equivalent. An incompatible behavior (the DRI logic) cannot occur at the same time as the problem behavior; a functionally equivalent one produces the same reinforcer. Folded hands block hitting but deliver no break, attention, or item.
Exam trap
When two options both match the function, pick the one that is easier for the person, reinforced faster, and understood by the people in their natural settings. Functional equivalence is necessary but not sufficient.
Quick check
Devon, 12, curses to escape group work. His team teaches him to say 'Can I work alone for a few minutes?' Staff honor the request about half the time, but cursing still ends group work every time. What should the BCBA change first?
Related topics
- Differential reinforcement (DRA, DRO, DRL, DRH) with and without extinction (G.2)
- Designing and evaluating functional analyses (F.6)
- Prioritizing socially significant, client-informed, culturally responsive goals (F.8)
- Recommending interventions: assessment results, evidence, preference, and contextual fit (H.2)
- Maintaining change after intervention: schedule thinning and natural reinforcers (G.16)
- Planning to prevent relapse (H.5)