Imagine being told that a first-grade student is refusing to do his work. He has already been written up multiple times for refusing assignments, and there is growing concern about what to do next. You walk into the classroom expecting to observe a behavior problem.
That was the situation I walked into several years ago when a principal asked me to observe a student. As I watched the class, the teacher was modeling work at the front of the room while students completed an assignment before leaving for specials. The student appeared to notice me watching him several times, and each time he looked up, he also appeared to be writing.
When the class lined up to leave, I walked over to look at his paper.
It was blank.
I asked him if he would write his name before leaving the room. As I stood beside him, I watched him pause before every single letter of his own name, carefully trying to remember what came next. At that moment, I wasn’t thinking about behavior anymore. I was thinking about kindergarten.
With the principal’s permission, I completed several end-of-kindergarten academic assessments. The results quickly showed that this student, who had attended kindergarten during the COVID years, still didn’t know all of his letters or letter sounds. He wasn’t refusing work because he was defiant. He was avoiding work because he didn’t yet have the skills to complete the work successfully.
After reviewing the information together, the team—including his mother—agreed that repeating kindergarten to build those missing foundational skills made much more sense than continuing to treat the situation as a behavior problem.
I’ve thought about that student many times over the years because he reminds me how easy it is to solve the wrong problem. As educators, we genuinely want to help, so it’s natural to start thinking about interventions as soon as we see a student struggling. We begin considering accommodations, consequences, behavior plans, or referrals because we want to improve the situation as quickly as possible.
Experience has taught me, however, that one of the biggest mistakes we can make isn’t choosing the wrong intervention. It’s trying to solve the wrong problem.
Sometimes a student truly needs behavior support. Other times, the behavior is communicating something else entirely. A student may be anxious, frustrated, overwhelmed by an academic skill they haven’t mastered, coping with a developmental delay, or responding to another underlying need that hasn’t yet been identified. In other situations, the student may be making poor choices and genuinely need clearer expectations, accountability, and opportunities to learn more appropriate ways of responding. The key is not to assume we already know which explanation is correct before we’ve gathered enough information.
Before we collect behavior data, request a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA), write a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), or move toward more intensive supports, we need to slow down long enough to ask one important question:
That question has guided my work throughout my career because the answer shapes every decision that follows. When we correctly identify the concern, we’re much more likely to choose interventions that actually help the student. When we solve the wrong problem, even excellent interventions often fail because they were never designed to address the student’s real need.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the same process I use when helping teachers think through challenging behavior. Rather than jumping straight to interventions, we’ll begin by understanding the concern, gathering meaningful information, and deciding what kind of support is actually needed. That process not only leads to better decisions, but it also helps us teach the life skills students need for success both in school and beyond the classroom.
One of the first questions I ask when someone describes a student to me is, “What is the student actually doing?” It sounds like a simple question, but the answer often tells me whether we’re describing observable behavior or interpreting the student’s intentions.
Teachers will sometimes tell me a student is lazy, disrespectful, manipulative, or defiant. While those words communicate how the behavior feels, they don’t describe what another person would actually see if they walked into the classroom. Those labels are interpretations, and two adults can easily watch the same situation and come away with different conclusions about why the behavior occurred.
Instead, I encourage teachers to describe only what is observable. Ask yourself, What did the student actually do? Did they crumple the worksheet? Walk away from the table? Put their head down? Say, “I’m not doing this”? Ignore three teacher prompts? Those are behaviors that anyone observing the situation could identify and agree upon.
Starting with observable behavior helps us separate facts from assumptions. More importantly, it keeps us from deciding why a student behaved a certain way before we’ve gathered enough information. That doesn’t mean our first impression is always wrong, but it does mean we’re more likely to ask thoughtful questions instead of immediately searching for an intervention that fits our initial assumption.
One of the reasons schools sometimes struggle to improve student behavior is that we naturally want to move quickly into solving the problem. We collect data, brainstorm interventions, schedule meetings, and begin discussing supports because we care about the student and want to help. Those are all important steps, but they only work well when they’re addressing the right concern.
Think about it this way. If a student has a reading disability, no amount of behavior reinforcement will teach them to decode words. Likewise, if a student has learned that refusing work is an effective way to escape difficult tasks, simply providing additional academic support won’t address the behavior. In both situations, teachers are working hard, but they’re solving different problems.
This is why understanding the concern always comes before choosing the intervention. A behavior plan is only as effective as the thinking that led to it. Before we decide what to do, we need to understand what the student is communicating, what skills may be missing, and what environmental factors may be contributing to the situation.
Taking the time to understand the problem doesn’t delay intervention. It helps us choose interventions that have a much greater chance of making a meaningful difference.
One of the biggest misconceptions about behavior is that the same behavior always has the same cause. In reality, two students can behave in nearly identical ways while needing completely different supports.
Consider a student who refuses to begin independent work. From across the room, that behavior looks the same regardless of the reason behind it. However, one student may be overwhelmed because the assignment is too difficult. Another may be anxious about making a mistake. A third may have discovered that refusing work often results in receiving one-on-one attention. Someone else may simply be more interested in talking with classmates than completing the assignment.
Each student is displaying the same observable behavior.
Each student may need a very different response.
This is why I encourage teachers to resist the temptation to immediately answer the question, “Why is the student doing this?” before gathering enough information. Our first impression may eventually prove to be correct, but if we make assumptions too early, we often stop looking for other possibilities.
This is one reason I encourage teachers not to think about behavior in isolation. While behavior is what we see, it is only one piece of a much larger picture. Before deciding how to respond, it’s worth asking ourselves, “What else might be contributing to what I’m seeing?” That question helps us look beyond the behavior itself and consider the student as a whole.
A student who appears oppositional may not understand the directions. Another may have significant language delays that make it difficult to explain their frustration. A student who frequently leaves their seat may be avoiding a task, but they may also be seeking movement because sitting for long periods is genuinely difficult. Another child may appear inattentive when they are actually struggling to hear, see, or process what is happening around them.
None of these possibilities excuse inappropriate behavior. Students still need to learn appropriate ways to respond. However, recognizing contributing factors helps us teach the skills students actually need instead of simply reacting to the behavior we happen to observe. The better we understand the whole picture, the more likely we are to choose interventions that truly meet the student’s needs.
One concern I occasionally hear is that looking for underlying causes somehow removes accountability. In my experience, the opposite is true.
When we understand why a behavior is happening, we can hold students accountable for learning a better way to meet that need. A student who lacks communication skills can learn to appropriately request help. A student who becomes frustrated can learn coping strategies. A student who has learned ineffective ways to gain attention can practice more appropriate social skills.
Our goal is never to excuse challenging behavior. Our goal is to understand it well enough that we can teach the life skills underneath it.
That distinction is one of the foundations of effective behavior support. Students deserve both compassion and accountability. When we provide only one without the other, we often miss opportunities to help them develop skills that will serve them throughout their lives.
One of the biggest shifts in my thinking over the years has been realizing that not every classroom concern is solely a student problem. Sometimes the environment, expectations, instruction, or adult responses are contributing to what we’re seeing. If we focus only on changing the student, we may overlook factors that are making success much more difficult than it needs to be.
Before moving toward more intensive interventions, I encourage teams to take a step back and look at the entire situation. Ask yourself questions such as:
These questions don’t shift responsibility away from the student. Instead, they help us determine whether we’ve created the conditions that allow the student to be successful. When we address classroom factors alongside student needs, we often see improvement before more intensive supports are ever needed.
Before assuming the student needs a more intensive intervention, ask yourself:
Have we given this student a fair opportunity to be successful?
One of the greatest advantages teachers have is that we rarely have to solve behavior concerns alone. Parents and caregivers see students in situations we never will, and their observations can provide valuable pieces of the puzzle.
At the same time, it’s important to remember that behavior often looks different across settings. A parent may tell you that their child never displays the behavior at home, while the teacher sees it every day at school. In other situations, families may describe concerns that have never appeared in the classroom. Neither person is necessarily wrong. The expectations, demands, relationships, and routines are different in each environment, so behavior may be different as well.
Rather than trying to determine who is “right,” I encourage teams to become curious. Ask questions that help you understand when the behavior occurs, when it doesn’t, and whether anyone has already found strategies that seem to help. Those conversations often reveal patterns that would have been difficult to identify from classroom observations alone.
Families can also provide important information about recent changes in a student’s life, medical concerns, developmental history, sleep patterns, medications, or stressful events that may be influencing behavior. While teachers should never assume these factors are the cause of a behavior, they can provide valuable context that helps us better understand the student.
When families and schools approach concerns as partners instead of investigators trying to prove each other wrong, everyone benefits—especially the student.
One of the most valuable things we can do when concerns begin to grow is simply watch.
That may sound obvious, but it is surprisingly easy to skip careful observation when we’re busy managing a classroom. Instead, we often rely on our memory of frustrating moments. The problem is that our memories naturally focus on the behaviors that stand out the most while overlooking everything that happened before and after.
Intentional observation helps slow that process down. Rather than immediately asking, “What consequence should I use?” or “How do I stop this behavior?”, try asking, “What information am I missing?”
As you observe, resist the urge to immediately answer questions like, Why is the student doing this? Instead, focus on collecting information. Notice what happens before the behavior occurs, what the student actually does, how adults and peers respond, and what happens afterward.
You may also begin noticing patterns you hadn’t recognized before. Perhaps the behavior only occurs during independent writing but not during math. Maybe it happens with one adult but not another. Perhaps it increases during long transitions or decreases when visual supports are available. Those patterns become much easier to see when we intentionally observe rather than relying on memory.
The goal of observation isn’t to catch students doing something wrong. It’s to better understand what they’re experiencing and what they may be communicating through their behavior. When we approach observation with curiosity instead of assumptions, we’re much more likely to identify patterns that lead to effective support.
One question I often ask teams is, “Who needs the support?” At first, that question usually catches people off guard because we naturally assume the answer is always the student. Sometimes it is. However, before we focus all of our attention on changing the student, it’s worth asking whether there are changes adults can make that will increase the student’s likelihood of success.
I’ve worked with classrooms where the student certainly needed additional support, but the adults did as well. Expectations were inconsistent, routines had never been explicitly taught, directions changed from one day to the next, or multiple staff members were responding to the same behavior in different ways. In those situations, focusing exclusively on changing the student would never have solved the problem because the environment itself was contributing to the behavior.
I’ve also seen the opposite happen. A classroom had predictable routines, strong instruction, and consistent expectations, yet one student continued to struggle because they needed more individualized support than universal classroom instruction could provide. Strengthening Tier 1 supports alone wasn’t enough because the student’s needs were different from those of their classmates.
More often than not, the answer is both. The student may need explicit instruction in a missing skill while the adults adjust how they teach, prompt, reinforce, or respond. Looking at both sides of the equation helps us stop viewing interventions as something we simply do to students. Instead, we begin asking what changes will give the student the greatest opportunity to be successful.
Imagine a student who frequently leaves their seat during independent work. One approach would be to immediately focus on keeping the student seated through reminders, rewards, or consequences. Another approach would be to pause and ask a few additional questions before deciding how to respond.
Has the student been explicitly taught what independent work should look like? Is the assignment matched to the student’s instructional level? Does the student know what to do if they become confused? Are movement breaks built into the schedule? Are all of the adults working with the student responding consistently?
None of these questions remove accountability. Instead, they help us determine whether we’re teaching the right skill and solving the right problem before choosing an intervention. Once we’ve answered those questions, we’re in a much stronger position to decide what type of support is most likely to help the student succeed.
One of the biggest misconceptions about behavior support is that challenging behavior automatically requires intensive interventions. In reality, many concerns improve significantly when teachers strengthen universal classroom supports and explicitly teach the missing skills.
Before moving toward individualized plans, ask yourself whether the student has had consistent opportunities to learn, practice, and receive feedback about the expected behavior. If the answer is no, that is often the best place to begin.
This is one of the reasons schools use a multi-tiered system of support. We start by providing strong universal instruction and classroom supports for all students. As we gather more information, we can determine whether additional targeted or individualized interventions are actually needed.
Beginning with the least intensive support doesn’t mean ignoring serious concerns or delaying necessary interventions. It means making sure we’ve built a solid foundation before adding more complex supports. Many students simply need clearer instruction, more opportunities to practice, consistent expectations, and meaningful feedback before they are successful.
When we begin with that foundation, we not only help individual students—we strengthen the classroom for everyone.
When a student is struggling, it’s easy to assume they immediately need an individualized intervention. Sometimes that is true, but many classroom concerns improve significantly when we strengthen the supports that are already available to every student.
Before moving toward more intensive interventions, ask yourself whether the student has had a genuine opportunity to learn the expected behavior. Have classroom expectations been explicitly taught, modeled, practiced, and reinforced? Are routines predictable and consistent? Does the student receive feedback that helps them understand both what they are doing well and what they still need to improve?
Universal supports are about much more than classroom management. They’re about intentionally teaching the social, behavioral, and executive functioning skills that allow students to be successful learners. When those skills are taught well, many behavior concerns improve because students have better ways to meet the expectations placed on them.
These questions are especially important because many behaviors that appear to require individualized support are actually signs that universal instruction needs to be strengthened. If several students are struggling with the same expectation, the first question shouldn’t be, “What’s wrong with these students?” Instead, ask yourself, “How can I improve my instruction so more students are successful?”
That doesn’t mean every behavior concern is a classroom-wide issue. Some students will require additional supports even in well-managed classrooms. However, beginning with strong Tier 1 instruction gives every student the best opportunity to succeed while helping us determine who truly needs more intensive interventions.
Strong classroom support goes far beyond posting classroom rules on the wall. Students need to understand exactly what those expectations look like during real classroom activities. They also need opportunities to practice those skills, receive feedback, and experience success before we assume they know what is expected.
For example, consider a teacher who wants students to work independently during math. Rather than simply saying, “Work quietly,” the teacher might model what independent work looks like, discuss what students should do if they become confused, practice those expectations together, and provide feedback as students begin working. If difficulties arise, the teacher reteaches the expectation just as they would reteach an academic skill that students have not yet mastered.
Behavior should be taught the same way we teach reading, writing, or mathematics. We explain the skill, model it, provide guided practice, offer corrective feedback, and gradually increase independence as students become more successful. When we approach behavior this way, we shift from expecting compliance to intentionally teaching the life skills students need to function successfully in school and beyond.
When several concerns are happening at once, it’s easy to focus on the behavior that frustrates us the most instead of the behavior that is having the greatest impact on learning, safety, relationships, or the student’s long-term success. While those two things sometimes overlap, they aren’t always the same. One of the most valuable things we can do is step back and ask whether we’re targeting the behavior that truly needs our attention.
I remember working with a teacher who was describing a student she wanted help with. As she listed the behaviors that concerned her, she mentioned that his hair had gotten long and that he was constantly flipping it out of his eyes. She found it distracting and wanted it included on the list of behaviors we planned to address.
I asked her a simple question.
“Are the other students distracted by it?”
She paused for a moment before answering.
“No.”
“If the other students aren’t bothered by it,” I replied, “then you may need to ignore it too.”
The point wasn’t that her frustration wasn’t real. Every teacher has behaviors that become irritating after seeing them repeatedly throughout the day. However, something that annoys us isn’t automatically a meaningful behavior concern. Before adding a behavior to an intervention plan, ask yourself whether changing that behavior would actually improve the student’s learning, relationships, safety, or ability to function successfully in the classroom.
This is one reason I encourage teachers to think about behavior in terms of priority rather than annoyance. When several concerns exist, start with the behaviors that create the greatest barriers to success. Those are the behaviors most likely to benefit from intentional instruction and intervention.
Trying to change every challenging behavior at once usually overwhelms both the student and the adults providing support. Focusing on one or two meaningful priorities allows everyone to respond more consistently, gives the student a clearer picture of what they are working toward, and makes lasting improvement much more likely.
If there’s one question I find myself asking teachers again and again, it’s this:
Have we actually taught the skill we’re expecting the student to demonstrate?
It’s an important question because we sometimes assume students know what to do simply because we’ve told them what we expect. However, telling and teaching are not the same thing. Before concluding that a student is unwilling to meet an expectation, it’s worth honestly asking whether we’ve provided enough instruction, modeling, guided practice, and feedback for that expectation to become a learned skill.
Sometimes the answer is yes. The student has been taught the expectation, practiced it repeatedly, received feedback, and still continues to struggle. In those situations, it makes sense to look more closely at why the behavior continues and what additional supports may be needed.
Other times, we discover that we’ve confused telling with teaching. We might tell students to “be respectful,” “work independently,” “use kind words,” or “make good choices.” Those statements communicate our expectations, but they don’t necessarily teach students what those expectations look like in real situations. Students need examples, practice, feedback, and opportunities to apply those skills in different settings before we can confidently say they have learned them.
This becomes even more important when we’re working with complex social-emotional or executive functioning skills. Behaviors such as accepting feedback, asking for help appropriately, managing frustration, resolving conflicts, or working cooperatively are not single behaviors that can be mastered after one lesson. They are life skills that develop gradually through repeated instruction, guided practice, and meaningful experiences over time.
As teachers, we would never expect students to master long division simply because we explained it once. We understand that academic learning requires instruction, practice, mistakes, feedback, and additional opportunities to improve. Behavior deserves that same level of thoughtful instruction.
When we begin asking, “Have I actually taught this skill?”, our thinking changes. Instead of viewing behavior as something to control, we begin viewing it as something we can teach. That shift not only improves classroom behavior, but it also prepares students with skills they will continue using long after they leave our classrooms.
Understanding the concern is the foundation of effective behavior support, but it isn’t the end of the process. Once you’ve identified the behavior you want to better understand and determined that additional support may be needed, the next step is collecting objective information about what is actually happening.
Before choosing interventions, writing a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), or requesting a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA), you need a clear picture of the student’s current behavior. That starting point—your behavioral baseline—allows you to make decisions based on observable evidence rather than assumptions and gives you a meaningful way to measure whether your interventions are actually working.
In the next article, Behavioral Baseline Data: The First Step to Solving Classroom Behavior Problems, we’ll look at how to establish that starting point, what information you should collect, and how to avoid one of the biggest mistakes teachers make when documenting behavior.
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