The Four Functions Of Student Behavior

Every behavior a student shows you serves one of four functions: escape, attention, tangible, or sensory. That's it. And when you can identify which one is driving what you're seeing, you stop asking what's wrong with this kid and start asking what does this kid need right now.

In part two of this series, Edward breaks down each function — what it looks like, why the typical educator response makes it worse, and what to do instead. The escape kid isn't defiant, they're overwhelmed. The attention-seeking student isn't bad, they're running on empty. The sensory kid isn't being difficult — you're fighting biology, and that's a fight nobody wins.

This framework works for every adult in the building. Send it to your co-teacher, your paraprofessional, your department lead, your principal. If you touch the student experience, this one is for you.

If you haven't heard part one yet, start there first.

⭐ Rate and subscribe. New episodes every Sunday.

www.homeroomattendance.com

Transcript

Kids Are Communicating

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What I need educators to carry into into September is that these kids are not bad. They are communicating. They've been communicating the whole time, and nobody has ever understood how to hear it. You can be the adult that hears it.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Education needs people who are truly present, not just in the building. I'm Ever DeShazer. And welcome to Homeroom Attendance. Your seat is safe.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

What's going on, Bod? Welcome back to Homeroom Attendance. I'm your host, Ever DeShazer, and today I'm asking, are you present or are you absent? If you have not, please subscribe on whatever podcast platform you're listening to. Please download. Please thumbs this up. If you are watching on YouTube, truly, truly mean it. Um, and if there's something that you like or appreciate or hear that you think someone else needs to hear, share it with someone. But let's

The Four Behavior Functions

SPEAKER_01 1:07

begin. Last week we talked about the lens to which we are hearing, or the lens to which we are seeing our student behaviors. So we talked about how every student behavior is a message in search of a listener, and we talked about how unconscious bias shapes what we see and how we respond before we've even said a single word. And we talked about the suspension uh cycle and what it costs kids when the adults around them respond to behaviors from frustration versus from understanding. If you haven't heard that episode, what I would say, pause this episode, go back and listen to that one first, then come back to this one. If this is the first one that you're listening to, go back to the previous episode right before this. Because today we're going to go a little deeper. Uh, we're going to be talking about what educators can actually do when a student's behavior is shutting down a classroom, when that student's behavior is testing every single nerve that you have, and when that old playbook that they invented in 1984 just is not working. It all starts with a simple framework. It's not my framework, it's a science. Comes from the framework and a field of people who have our applied behavior analysis, you know, people that truly have studied and understand behavior. And I am not ever going to stand up here and pretend that I am a behavior expert, but I am very experienced in student behaviors as a student who ex as a steer as a student who communicated those behaviors now to a school leader that listens to those behaviors, but I want to give us an easy way and a digestible way for us to understand what our students are doing so we can respond to the root of it instead of just swinging from the branches on it. And the core idea is that every every student exhibits or every behavior a student exhibits serves one of four functions escape, attention, tangible, or sensory. It's four. And when you can identify which function is driving the behavior in front of you, you stop reacting and you start responding. So I want to take time today to go through each behavior.

Escape Behavior And Better Choices

SPEAKER_01 3:42

The first one is escape. Or I'm sorry, each function. The first one is gonna be escape. Escaping behavior is exactly what it sounds like. The student is trying to get out of something, whether it's a task, a situation, a demand that feels uncomfortable, overwhelming, or threatening. They're not trying to ruin your lesson, they are trying to survive the moment that they are in. And here's how you know you're looking at escape. The behavior shows up specifically when a task is introduced. The student gets loud, shuts down, asks to use a restroom, goes to the nurse, complains about a stomachache, sharpens a pencil for four minutes straight. And the moment you remove the demand, the moment you say we'll come back to it later, the behavior immediately settles. That is not defiance. That is a kid telling you something about the ta that whatever task is in front of them is overwhelming to them. And here's where most educators go wrong in this moment. Our instinct as educators is to hold the line. You are not leaving until this is done. And I understand that instinct. I have done it, you've and you have 25, 30 other kids in the room, and you cannot let one student dictate the terms. But holding the line that way turns into a power struggle. And a kid in escape mode who gets backed into a corner is not going to suddenly decide to comply, they're gonna escalate. And now you're managing an escalation instead of teaching a lesson. The better move is going to be to give them control within your structure, give them two choices. What I need you to do is just write three sentences now, or you can stay with me for a couple minutes afterwards, I'm gonna help you get started. I'm gonna let you decide. And then walk away. This gives the student agency without letting them escape the expectation. You meet the need without surrendering the standard. When a student is trying to escape a situation in your classroom, in your hallway, in your office, in your school, the worst thing that you can do is trap them. The best thing that you can do is give them a controlled way through that situation. Second function is attention.

Attention Needs And Proactive Connection

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Attention-seeking behavior is probably the most mishandled function in education. And it's not because educators don't recognize it. I believe that most do. It's because the typical response to attention-seeking behavior is the one that tends to make it worse. Here's how attention-seeking behavior works the student calls out, makes a joke at the wrong time, says something under their breath loud enough for you to hear, talks over you mid-lesson, and then when you redirect them, they get louder. When the class laughs, they double down. Why is that? Because they got what they came for. They got your attention, they got the class's attention, and the redirection confirmed the strategy works. Here's what I want you to notice about an attention-seeking student. On the days that you greet them at the door, on the days that you check in before class starts, give them a job in the room, something that matters, the disruptions tend to stop. And they will probably stop significantly because you have filled the tank before it ran dry and they needed to fill it themselves. The attention-seeking student is not a bad kid, they are a kid with legitimate need for connection using the only strategy that they've found that has reliably worked for them in the past. Your job is not to eliminate that need. We cannot do that. Our job is to feed that need before it feeds us. There's a concept in education called proactive attention. You deliver it before the behavior starts, not in response to it. Eye contact in the hallway, a little bit of proximity, a quick check-in at the door, a thumbs up across the room when you see them trying hard to do something right. Small deposits made consistently that keep the account full enough so they don't have to make a withdrawal in the middle of your lesson. Don't wait for the attention-seeking student to act out before you see them. See them first. That is the strategy to help you understand and best and best proactively be prepared and respond to that whole behavior that is being communicated around attention.

Tangibles And First Then Clarity

SPEAKER_01 8:32

The third function is tangible. Tangible behavior is mostly about access. How do you know when this is the behavior you're seeing? This behavior shows up when a desired item is withheld or when an activity is about to end that they prefer. A student refuses to start their math sheet, argues, negotiates, eventually throws a pencil. But the moment that you announce that free time is coming next, they put their head down and they get right to work without a single word. The desired item is driving everything that that student is doing. The wrong response here is taking the preferred activity away as punishment. Now you have removed the only leverage that you had, and the student has zero reason to comply with anything that you're asking. You have just negotiated yourself out of the strongest position. A great response is the first then strategy. First, what I need us to do, you guys, we're gonna finish these five problems of math. Then free time is gonna start for us. Make the path forward very clear for them. Make that reward the deal and hold it consistently because the tangible, motivated student is not being manipulative, they're being rational in their brains. They have identified what they want and they're working towards it. Your job is to make sure the path to what they want runs through exactly what you need as an educator. This is not a concession, but this is a strategy. Function four is sensory.

Sensory Needs And Smart Substitutes

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Sensory behavior is often probably the most misunderstood and most often punished for the wrong reasons. The student who rocks in the chair, like literally right now, as I'm recording this, my right leg is tapping nonstop. The student who hums during silent reading that taps their desk, chews their the sleeve of their shirt, gets up constantly, makes sounds that have no apparent audience. The critical thing about sensory behavior is that it's not aimed at you, it's not aimed at the class, it is serving an internal need within that student. The student's nervous system is seeking input, stimulation, regulation, or calm, and that behavior is providing it. The clearest way to identify sensory behavior is that if it persists, regardless of what you do externally, if you remove the task and it continues, if you give them attention and it continues, if you take away their free time and it continues, none of these things address what the behavior is actually doing for them. It is providing their nervous system with whatever it is that it needs. And until you offer a better way to get it, the behavior is going to stay. The wrong response is the one that sounds firm but accomplishes nothing. You know, that student is doing that, and you're like, Jimmy, sit still. Stop all that humming. I've told you a hundred times not to make that noise and tap your pencil. That is not a battle that you are going to win as an educator. You are fighting against biology, and that battle doesn't end well for you, it doesn't end well for that student, and it doesn't end well for the other kids that are in that room. The right response is substitution. You need to meet the need with a better option. Maybe it's a fidget spinner, maybe it's a rubber band, maybe it's a cushion on the chair, maybe it's a standing spot in the back of the classroom, maybe it's a movement break that is built into your lesson. You have to channel the sensory input instead of trying to eliminate it. You have to work with the body, not against it. You cannot discipline a student out of a sensory need. You can only give them a better way to meet

From Reacting To Responding

SPEAKER_01 12:41

it. Now, pulling all these together, the four functions are escape, attention, tangible, and sensory. Every single behavior that you encounter in your building this fall is going to fall into one of those categories. And when you can identify the category, you can respond to the function instead of just reacting to the behavior. That is a shift where we go from reacting to responding, and that is where the real work in supporting our students' behavior lives. Let me be very clear. Understanding these things doesn't make the work easy. You are still gonna have difficult days. You're still gonna have your kid in your room or in your office who is operating from two or three functions at once, and the right response is not going to feel obvious to you. And you're gonna have a bunch of other kids watching you figure this out in real time. But now you'll be figuring it out from a completely different starting point. Instead of what is wrong with this kid, you'll be asking, what does this kid need right now? And that question changes everything. It changes what you do next, it changes how that student feels in your room, and it changes what the day costs to both of you. Because what I need educators to carry into September is that these kids are not bad. They are communicating. They have been communicating the whole time. Some of them have been communicating the same thing for years and building after building, class after class in front of teacher after teacher, and nobody has ever understood how to hear it. You can be the adult that hears it. That is not a small thing, but that is the whole thing. That is the important thing. You can be the adult in a student's life who finally understood what they were trying to say. There is no ceiling on what you can do for

Share The Framework And Subscribe

SPEAKER_01 14:33

a kid. What I am encouraging you to do is send this episode to someone in your team that could benefit from this information as school is getting ready to start back. Maybe it's a co-teacher, maybe it's a paraprofessional, maybe it's your department lead, maybe it's a principal, maybe it's the custodian who has more relationship with the harder-reach kids than other people in the building. This framework works for every single person who is in the building, not just the teachers that have the certifications. So, as we're getting out here, I'm gonna always ask, as I always do, please subscribe, please leave a star review if you're listening on whatever podcast platform you're listening to. I want to see those star reviews hitting. That helps me climb up the list to get in front of more educators like yourself. I'll see you next week. You have been present for homeroom attendance. Class is dismissed.