What Does Behaviour Support Actually Do?
Behaviour Support at a glance
- Understand
Get to know the person, their needs and what may be contributing.
- Plan together
Choose practical strategies guided by the person’s goals.
- Put into practice
Build useful skills and help supporters use the plan every day.
- Review & adapt
Check what is helping and adjust as needs change.
The person’s preferences, experiences and goals guide the whole process. Support can begin while assessment and planning are underway.
If you or someone you support has Behaviour Support funded through the NDIS, you might be wondering what that actually involves.
Behaviour Support helps people and their supporters understand behaviours that are causing difficulty or harm, and find practical ways to improve everyday life.
That can involve changing the environment, building useful skills and helping the people around the person provide support that meets their needs. The aim is to improve quality of life, choice, independence, participation and safety.
A Behaviour Support Plan is part of this work, but meaningful support involves much more than writing a document.
Understanding the person and the behaviour
Good Behaviour Support starts with getting to know the person: what matters to them, what they enjoy, what they find difficult and what they would like to change.
A Behaviour Support Practitioner works with the person using communication methods that suit them. They may also talk with family members and support workers, observe everyday situations and review relevant information.
Together, they explore questions such as:
When and where does the behaviour happen?
What happens before and afterwards?
What might the behaviour help the person express, access or avoid?
Are communication difficulties, sensory experiences or overwhelming demands contributing?
Could health, pain, fatigue or sleep be affecting the situation?
When do things go well, and what is different at those times?
Where needed, the practitioner works with other professionals to help understand these factors.
This information is brought together through a Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA). The assessment helps explain what may be contributing to the behaviour, what function it may serve for the person and which approaches are most likely to help. It forms an important part of the planning process, guiding the strategies and skills included in the person’s Behaviour Support Plan.
Developing a Behaviour Support Plan
A Behaviour Support Plan brings the assessment and recommended strategies together into practical guidance.
It may explain:
What contributes to behaviours of concern
How to prevent or reduce difficult situations
Which skills to teach and how to support them
How to recognise and respond to distress
How to maintain safety when behaviour escalates
Where restrictive practices are being used—such as restrictions on movement or access to items—the plan also addresses how to reduce and work towards eliminating their use.
The person’s preferences, experiences and goals guide the plan. Practical support may also begin while the assessment and plan are being developed.
Making everyday support work better
The plan may recommend changes to the person’s environment or the way support is provided.
That might mean making routines more predictable, explaining requests differently, allowing more time for transitions, reducing overwhelming sensory input or providing meaningful choices.
For example, someone who becomes distressed when an activity ends may benefit from advance notice, a clear explanation of what happens next and some choice about the transition.
The practitioner considers whether expectations are appropriate and whether the person has the support they need.
These changes can make everyday situations easier and reduce the need for behaviours that cause difficulty or harm.
Building useful skills
Behaviour Support can help people develop skills that make difficult situations easier and give them effective ways to meet their needs.
The skills chosen are linked to what the assessment identifies and are included in the plan. Examples might include:
Asking for help or a break when a task becomes overwhelming
Communicating discomfort, preferences or boundaries
Using a coping strategy that suits the person
Managing changes with appropriate support
Starting conversations in ways that help build relationships
Teaching involves finding an approach the person can understand, providing opportunities to practise and helping supporters recognise and respond when the person uses the skill.
Success includes greater confidence, communication and participation, alongside reducing behaviour that causes harm.
Putting the plan into practice
The practitioner helps the person and their supporters put the strategies into everyday practice. This may involve families, carers, support workers, supported living teams, schools, day programs and other professionals.
Support can include training, demonstrating strategies, coaching and solving practical problems. The practitioner also checks whether the recommendations are realistic for the setting and addresses barriers to using them.
For example, supporters may need clearer instructions, opportunities to practise or an approach that better fits the person’s daily routine.
A useful plan needs to be understood, practised and applied in everyday life.
Checking whether it is helping
Behaviour Support continues to develop as the person’s needs and circumstances change.
The practitioner reviews information, talks with the person and their supporters, and considers:
Are the strategies being used, and are they helping?
Is the person developing useful skills?
Does the person feel better supported?
Are safety, quality of life and participation improving?
This helps the team recognise progress and adjust approaches that are not working.
What should you expect?
Behaviour Support looks different for different people. Useful questions to ask your practitioner include:
What are we working towards, and how does it relate to the person’s goals?
What have we learned about the behaviour?
What should the person’s supporters be doing, and why?
How will we check progress and review the plan?
Could Behaviour Support help?
If behaviours are affecting someone’s safety, relationships, independence or participation, Behaviour Support may be worth exploring.
You do not need to know exactly what support you need before contacting us. Tell us a little about what is happening, and the Dauntless team can help you work out the next step.
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