Setting Goals for Individual Behavior Plans

When working with a student on improving a targeted behavior with a behavior plan, it is important to start small and work up to the desired consistency. What this means is that if there are a total of 10 points possible for the student to earn before getting a reward, do not require the student to earn all 10 points in order to get the reward. Otherwise the student will quickly give up and may even resort to additional misbehavior.

If the goal that the student is working towards will be especially hard to reach, it is even more important to start small.

For example, if a student diagnosed with ADHD is working on a target behavior of finishing seat work before getting up to do something else, the impulsivity and distractibility that are a result of the disability make this behavior particularly difficult for the student.

In order to decide where to start, take a look at where the student behavior is currently. If the student finishes his seat work only once a day with multiple reminders, work to have that student finish his work twice a day with only two reminders.

While the ultimate goal is to have the student finish all his work with no reminders, any improvement will show the student that it is possible to succeed and give him incentive to continue to work towards higher goals.