Teaching New Skills & Replacement Behaviors

New Skills to Teach

Select one or more skills or replacement behaviors the student will be taught to use instead of the target behavior. These skills should help the student communicate, cope, participate, or meet their needs more appropriately within the situations where the target behavior currently occurs.

Strategies to Teach New Skills

Select one or more strategies that will be used to teach the new skill proactively.

Remember that new skills require ongoing instruction and opportunities to practice over time, not simply being told or shown what to do once.

Prompting New Skills

Describe how staff will prompt or cue the student to use the new skill within target settings. Effective prompting should support success while gradually promoting independence.

Tip: When possible, replace verbal prompts with more subtle visual or environmental prompts. This can reduce reliance on adults and encourage independent skill use.

Motivation to Practice New Skills

Select one or more methods that will be used to reinforce and motivate the student to practice the new skill.

The goal is to help the student experience that the new skill works as well as, or better than, the target behavior for meeting their needs, solving problems, or accessing desired outcomes.

Choose reinforcement strategies that can be delivered consistently and as soon as possible following successful skill use, especially during initial learning.

New Skills Details

Use this section to describe the new skill and how it will be taught, prompted, and reinforced. Descriptions of essential details help ensure staff members understand their role and can implement the plan consistently.

Because replacement behaviors often require individualized instruction, strategies selected from the inventories do not include pre-populated implementation details. Use this section to describe how the selected Teaching, Prompting, and Motivation components will be implemented for this specific student.

Tip: Consider organizing this section by component so staff can quickly understand the plan and their responsibilities.

Example:

Request help = raise a hand, ask for help, work with a peer, request and follow a taking-space protocol with designated areas and options.

Request break = use words, a pre-taught signal, or visual cue to request a pass or 5-minute break (walk, drink of water, talk to counselor, classroom chore).

Teaching = counselor will review plan with Shane and support Shane in scheduling a self-advocacy meeting with his teacher to rehearse and troubleshoot.

Reminders = cueing systems and visual supports.

Motivation = need to talk to Shane about additional motivations or goals.

Person Responsible (Optional)

Designate the person or role responsible for supporting implementation of this section of the BIP. Include when and where the skill will be taught, practiced, prompted, and reinforced.

Example: Case Manager, Small Group Instruction, Classroom

Custom Skill to Teach (Optional)

Enter the name of a custom skill or replacement behavior and click Create to add it to the BIP.

Custom Teaching Strategy (Optional)

Enter the title of a custom strategy, select a category (Teaching, Prompting, or Motivation), and click Create to add it to the BIP.

Simple BIP Teaching New Skills: Advanced Planning Guide

One of the most effective ways to reduce problem behavior is to teach new skills that help the student meet their needs more appropriately.

Before attempting to eliminate a behavior, consider what purpose the behavior may be serving for the student. If a behavior is helping the student obtain something desirable, avoid something unpleasant, communicate a need, or solve a problem, then simply trying to stop the behavior without teaching an alternative often leads to limited success.

When selecting replacement behaviors, consider the following questions:

• What might the student be trying to communicate, obtain, avoid, or accomplish?
• How can the student communicate those wants and needs more appropriately?
• If the student's wants or needs cannot be immediately met, what additional coping, self-regulation, or problem-solving skills should be taught?
• How will the team teach, prompt, practice, and reinforce these new skills over time?

Teaching New Skills in a Simple BIP

Simple BIPs use the Teaching New Skills section to identify replacement behaviors and develop an implementation plan. Teams should use collaborative discussion and existing information about the student to identify priority skills and determine how those skills will be taught, prompted, and reinforced.

Teaching, Prompting, and Motivation

Teaching replacement behaviors requires more than simply telling a student what to do. Most students need direct instruction, opportunities to practice, reminders within target settings, and meaningful reinforcement for using newly learned skills.

When developing a teaching plan, consider:

• How the skill will be taught and practiced.
• How the skill will be prompted or reminded.
• How effort and successful skill use will be reinforced.
• How the skill will be generalized across different settings, people, and activities.