IS BEHAVIOUR THE WHOLE STORY?
BY SHALEEKA JAYALATH
When a child refuses to do what we ask, our first instinct is often to ask how we can make the child comply. When a child disrupts a lesson, throws a tantrum or repeatedly avoids a task, we reach for the familiar tools of discipline: reprimands, consequences, rewards and, sometimes, punishment. But what if the more important question is not how we stop the behaviour, but why it is happening in the first place?
In our classrooms and homes, we often mistake the behaviour we can see for the problem we need to solve. A child who refuses to complete a task may be labelled lazy. One who repeatedly interrupts may be dismissed as disruptive. Yet what we see on the surface may be only a small part of a much larger picture.
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) offers a way of examining that picture. ABA is the systematic study of objectively observable behaviour, with the aim of bringing about meaningful improvements in everyday life. The word “applied” is important: the objective is not simply to understand behaviour, but to use that understanding to address socially significant needs.
Although ABA has applications beyond special-needs education, it is particularly associated with supporting children with autism and other developmental conditions. Its focus is on developing skills that can make a tangible difference to a child's communication, independence and participation in the world around them.
Dr Anton James, a Chartered Behavioural Psychologist and certified Behavioural Analyst, has spent much of his professional life working in this field. His commitment is also informed by personal experience. Diagnosed with autism and ADHD, Dr Anton encountered considerable difficulties navigating conventional education, moving between schools in Sri Lanka, India and Canada, and eventually pursuing much of his learning independently. His experience offers a perspective on what it means when an educational environment is unable to accommodate the needs of the child within it.
His professional philosophy, however, extends beyond any one child's experience: to eliminate barriers to learning. And this is where ABA has a potentially important role.
Consider a child who struggles to communicate a need, manage a transition, dress independently or cope with the demands of a classroom. These are not necessarily academic difficulties. They are barriers that may prevent the child from accessing learning and participating meaningfully in everyday life. ABA seeks to identify the skills that are missing or need strengthening, and to teach them in manageable steps.
But the starting point is not a presumption that the child must be made to behave. It is an assessment of why the behaviour occurs. Behaviour may serve different functions: seeking attention, escaping a difficult task, gaining access to an activity, or meeting a sensory need. Identifying the function requires systematic observation and information from those who know the child. Parents can provide valuable insight, but they should not be expected to diagnose the cause themselves.
Dr Anton describes a student who frequently shouted and asked inappropriate questions in class. An assessment over several days suggested that the behaviour was maintained by attention. The intervention involved eliminating the attention given to the behaviour while actively teaching and reinforcing more appropriate ways of seeking it. Dr Anton says the behaviour initially intensified (a response known in ABA as an “extinction burst”), before reducing. After approximately three months, it had ceased, and after nine months the student transitioned to a mainstream school.
It is an encouraging example, but also one that demands care in its interpretation. A strategy that is appropriate for one child may be ineffective or harmful for another if the function of the behaviour is misunderstood. Withholding attention, for instance, would be inappropriate if a behaviour were communicating pain, distress or a genuine need for help. Assessment, professional judgement and ongoing monitoring are essential.
Equally important is the question of what ethical, child-centred ABA looks like. Dr Anton argues that the goal should never be simply to make a child compliant. A child's preferences, choices and refusal must be respected. If a child is trying to escape a difficult task, the answer is not necessarily to remove the demand or force the child through it. It may be to teach the child to ask for help, request a break or communicate that something is too difficult.
This distinction matters in Sri Lanka, where parents seeking behavioural support may find it difficult to assess the qualifications of those offering it. ABA has a history of controversy, particularly where rigid reward-and-punishment methods have prioritised compliance over a child's dignity and autonomy. As such, certification was introduced to establish minimum standards of training and supervision, ethical requirements and professional accountability, and it is important that parents understand who is providing the intervention. There is a distinction between Behavioural Analysts, who assess behaviour and design intervention programmes, and Behavioural Therapists, who implement those programmes under supervision. A Behavioural Therapist implementing a programme is not necessarily qualified to conduct an independent assessment or design that programme; this is the responsibility of a suitably qualified Behavioural Analyst. In a field where professional standards and public understanding are still developing in Sri Lanka, parents should ask about credentials, the issuing body, expiry of certification, supervision and how progress is measured. These are not unreasonable questions. They are essential safeguards. In actual fact, they are also rights afforded to parents under the ethical guidelines of certification bodies. Dr Anton is among those advocating for clearer professional standards, and his work has contributed to efforts to establish a more structured system of training, certification and professional oversight. Ultimately however, the responsibility for ensuring that children receive safe, ethical and competent care must extend beyond any one practitioner.
Nor is ABA a substitute for clinical diagnosis, academic teaching, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, or other support a child may need. It does not remove underlying cognitive differences. Its value lies in addressing specific behavioural barriers and helping a child develop skills that support greater independence and participation.
And what of the child? The most meaningful measure of progress is not whether adults find the child easier to manage, but whether the child can communicate more effectively, develop useful skills, participate more fully and gain greater independence. Progress may be gradual, and the goals modest. There is no magic pill. No intervention can succeed without sustained commitment from the adults involved, and, in an age-appropriate way, the child. Above all, the objective must be to expand the child's possibilities, not simply to make life more convenient for everyone around them.
As educators, we speak constantly about removing barriers to learning. Yet how often do we recognise that some of those barriers are not found in a textbook or curriculum, but in a child's difficulty communicating, coping with demands or navigating the environment around them? In Sri Lanka, acknowledging that a child may have a developmental or learning difficulty can itself be a barrier. The fear of a label, the stigma attached to special needs, or the hope that a child will simply “grow out of it” can lead parents to postpone seeking professional advice. But refusing to acknowledge a difficulty does not make it disappear. It may simply mean that a child loses valuable time in which the right support could have made a difference. Acceptance is not about lowering expectations for a child. It is about understanding that child well enough to give them a fair opportunity to meet those expectations.
We cannot promise that every child will learn in the same way, at the same pace or by the same means. But we can choose whether to interpret difference as defiance, difficulty as laziness, and distress as bad behaviour.
The question is not whether children should be taught appropriate behaviour. Of course they should. It is whether we are prepared to do the harder work of understanding what a child needs in order to succeed. Perhaps the real battle is not between the adult and the child's behaviour, but between our desire for immediate compliance and our responsibility to help that child become capable, confident and independent.
