The complexity of BESD

BESD can cause teacher–pupil relationships to deteriorate to the extent that everything a pupil does is perceived negatively. Focusing on objective evidence is essential, especially once emotions run high, as judgements can become prejudiced and reports of behaviour exaggerated. Interestingly, when teachers observe pupils with BESD objectively and compare them to other pupils, there is often little difference. Identifying and analysing the probable consequences (especially unintended) of attributing responsibility and blame to particular people or situations should form part of any assessment and intervention (see Chaplain and Freeman, 1994 for a more detailed discussion of intervention outcomes for pupils).

The complexity of BESD should not be underestimated. ‘Challenging behaviour’ is currently a popular term, providing a simple label to represent a supposedly commonly understood concept. However in practice, it represents the interaction of multiple ‘behaviours’ which vary from context to context. Categories and labels, whilst convenient for Government reports, are less helpful ‘at the sharp end’ when trying to make sense of what is happening, what makes the individual ‘tick’, what to change and how to measure any improvement. The following example illustrates this:

Example

For example, consider a child who refuses to work, is aggressive to teachers, plays truant, steals from her parents and is involved in criminal activity. Most would feel the child is exhibiting challenging behaviour. Yet each of her behaviours is challenging in its own right and can be analysed further. Furthermore, they will require different responses – some of which may be beyond the control of the teachers and the school. To simply say that the pupil is ‘disruptive’, ‘hyperactive’, has ‘problem’ or ‘challenging’ behaviour is over-simplistic. It is also unhelpful to teachers working with pupils who have challenging behaviours on a daily basis.

The interventions mentioned in this resource are scientific in their approach and require those involved to analyse complex behaviour and break it down into measurable specific behaviours, for example identifying verbal behaviour (swearing) and non-verbal behaviour (spitting). For this reason, wherever appropriate in Challenging Behaviour, ‘behaviour’ is referred to in the plural.