You are a behavioral rock star. You’ve taken baseline data, identified the function, selected an impeccable intervention, and even did the heavy lifting and implemented that intervention with OCD like perfection. Behaviors are down, morale is up. Life is good. But before you whip up a batch of mango margaritas and throw your feet, you job is not 100% over. You did so much amazing work – the worst thing to do now would be to let it fall to the wayside. Yes, the hard work is mostly done but there are some critical steps you need to put into place to make sure that behavior success keeps going and going and going.
Great news, friends. You can simmer on the data. Yes, a BCBA just said you can simmer on the data. You have it in writing. In a perfect world, we’d have so much staff and such small classrooms and we could maintain perfect data all the time. But in real world, we have so much on our plates. Back to Week 1: Identifying the Behavior – we discussed prioritizing behaviors. Now that you have reduced this first high priority behavior – now it’s time to target other behaviors.
Instead of taking data every day, you can now conduct regular data check-ins. This is a MUST. We as special ed teachers have that miraculous ability to get used to some real crazy situations. You might not realize the behavior has increased until one day you get literally hit in the head. Avoid that. Schedule data check-ins. Weekly, biweekly, monthly – whatever. Just make sure you are reliably checking in on that behavior. Schedule it in your teacher planner, iPhone, assign it to a staff member, whatever. Give yourself prompts and don’t forget! Make it a habit 🙂
This post is part of Summer Series: Reducing Problem Behavior. Click here to see more in this series!
- Planning for the Fall: Part 4 and 5 – Visually Structured Tasks and Routines - January 30, 2026
- Using TAH Curriculum for Homeschooling from a Homeschooling Parent - September 10, 2022
- Using The Autism Helper Curriculum for Homeschool - August 8, 2022
