Learn More About Positive Behavior Support

Positive Behavior Support (PBS) refers to research-based strategies and tools that are used to increase quality of life and decrease challenging behavior by changing social interactions and settings that tend to be associated with challenging behavior. Four key elements of positive behavior include:

• Valued Outcomes – Interventions considered must be person-centered in spirit and culturally competent;
• Behavioral, Biomedical, and Mental Health Research – Psychological and medical fields inform all intervention efforts;
• Validated Procedures – Evidence based and promising practices are evaluated to demonstrate effectiveness;
• Systems Change – The larger contexts in which a person lives is assessed and changes made to ensure that evidence-based practices are effective and sustainable.

Positive behavior support includes tools and strategies that are used to support a person by creating an individualized plan that will promote positive social skills and communication and by making changes in the environment in ways that will prevent problems from occurring. Positive behavior support can be used to support a wide range of people from the very young to the elderly. The types of interventions used in positive behavior support vary based on each unique person: developmental stages of life experienced, types of disabilities, social and communication strengths, educational and sociocultural factors. Larger systems change efforts are used to ensure that individual positive behavior support plans will be effective and sustainable over time

Positive behavior support evolved from the field of applied behavior analysis and shares foundational principles based on the science of behavior.