Yesterday, we held the second Free Nanny Training session in our three-part series on Child Behavior.

In this session, we introduced the Four Functions of Behavior, and explained how to figure out the reason behind a child’s problem behaviors.

Behavioral Science has identified four reasons that are at the root of everything that we do. These are called the Functions of Behavior.
They are:

• Socially Mediated Positive

  • Behaviors aimed at getting an item, activity, or attention

• Socially Mediated Negative

  • Escape behaviors - to avoid an item, activity, or attention

• Automatic Positive

  • Sensory Seeking Behaviors

• Automatic Negative

  • Sensory Avoidance/Pain Attenuation

With that information, we then taught the nannies how to figure out which function was driving a child’s consistent, problem behaviors.

This involves keeping a log of the child’s problem behaviors for a period of days. In the log, they should note what happened just before and just after the behavior, as well as a description of what the behavior looked like.

Once they have logged several episodes, usually a pattern will emerge. Did most of the problem behaviors happen after the child was asked to do something? Were they mostly when attention was directed at another child? Did they happen when the environment was extra noisy? These patterns will give clues as to the cause, or function, of the behavior.

We provided the nannies with a data sheet that they can use to log these behaviors, as well as a “cheat sheet” of the four functions of behavior. At the bottom of this article, we have provided you with the same.

As we closed out the session, we discussed briefly how to respond to the problem behaviors when they happen, as well as the importance of teaching the child a more appropriate way to meet the need that the problem behavior had been meeting for them so far. We will go into much more detail on this topic in our next Free Monthly Nanny Training: Preventing and Responding to Problem Behaviors.

These trainings are FREE to all nannies, and they can receive a Certificate of Completion at the end of each session. If you have a nanny, are a nanny, or know a nanny who would be interested in these free trainings, we hope that you will share our website with them. Under the “Resources” tab, they request access so they can watch previous sessions, as well as be alerted when registration for new sessions open.