Stopping Behavior Before It Starts: Antecedent Interventions for Challenging Behavior

Many teachers have difficulty supporting students with challenging behavior. Students who shout out, are frequently off task, have a tantrum, or don't follow directions can be disruptive and bring a teacher's lesson to a halt. Other students may struggle to communicate their needs. As a result, these students may engage in challenging behavior to get what they want or to escape unpleasant environments or activities. Fortunately, there are evidenced-based practices for addressing challenging behavior. Some interventions help teachers stop problem behavior before it starts. These practices are called antecedent interventions (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). This article discusses three research-based antecedent interventions to prevent and manage students' challenging behaviors. They are: (1) presession attention; (2) high-probability request sequences (HPRS); and functional communication training (FCT). Research has shown the effectiveness of antecedent interventions, such as presession attention, HPRS, and FCT, to prevent and manage students' challenging behaviors across a wide range of student ages and disabilities.