Behavior & Guidance
Skinner → Positive Behavior Support
Positive Behavior Support
Focus
Noticing the behavior you want teaches more than punishing the behavior you don't.
Key concepts
- Catch them being good
- Behavior communicates a need
- Teach the replacement skill
- Pyramid Model tiers
In the classroom
A teacher catches a child being gentle and names it — “you shared so kindly” — instead of only reacting to grabbing.
See it in practice
Every Edfable simulation connected to this theory — and why it applies.
Transitions are where challenging behavior spikes — a planned warning, a taught routine, and something to do while waiting prevent most of it before it starts.
10:25, outside time at 10:30. One child is mid-tower, one is already at the door, and the line is about to have nothing to do. Design the transition instead of surviving it.
Attention feeds behavior — narrating what's going right grows more of it than policing what's going wrong.
The composite: a crying child, a block argument, and a drifting group — all at once. Triage with intention.
Challenging behavior communicates a need — find the function, teach the replacement skill.
A recurring biting incident. Move from reaction to a function-based, teaching plan.