In short
Every behaviour happens for a reason. There are four reasons, called the four functions of behaviour: escape, attention, access and sensory. Once you know which function you are looking at, you can change what happens before and after the behaviour, and teach your child a quicker way to get the same result.
This guide explains each function, shows you how to work out which one is at play, and gives you an ABC chart to fill in at home.
- Escape
- Attention
- Access
- Sensory
- Free ABC chart
What are the four functions of behaviour?
The four functions of behaviour are escape, attention, access and sensory.
Behaviour is a form of communication. Whatever your child is doing, it is working for them in some way in that moment — and there are only four ways it can work. Those four ways are the functions.
Escape — getting away from something
Escape, sometimes called avoidance, is when a behaviour helps your child stop, delay or get away from a task, a demand or a situation that feels uncomfortable.
The obvious version: a student rips up a worksheet after the teacher says “complete your math”, and the work gets put away.
The less obvious version: a child leaves the table at a busy birthday party. Nobody asked them to do anything — the thing being escaped is the noise and the crowd.
Attention — getting a response from someone
Attention is when a behaviour gets a social response from another person: a look, a comment, praise, or being told off. Both kinds of attention work, which is why telling a child to stop sometimes makes a behaviour happen more, not less.
The obvious version: you say “great job wiping the table” after your child clears their lunch, and they start clearing it every day.
The less obvious version: your child shouts while you are on the phone, and you stop the call to say “please stop shouting.” The words were a correction. What your child got was you.
Access — getting something they want
Access, sometimes called tangible, is when a behaviour gets your child a wanted object, food, toy or activity.
The obvious version: a child cries at the checkout and gets a chocolate bar.
The less obvious version: a child quietly moves their sibling’s hand off a toy and takes it. It looks nothing like a tantrum, but it is the same function — the behaviour got the item.
Sensory — how it feels
Sensory, also called automatic, is when the behaviour itself provides the feeling. It gives physical stimulation, eases discomfort, or helps your child regulate. Because it does not need anyone else to respond, it happens even when your child is completely alone.
It can be movement — hand flapping, rocking, pacing. It can also be vocal, sometimes called vocal stereotypy, which means repeating sounds, words or phrases for the way they feel or sound rather than to tell you something.
A child might rock while watching television, or hum quietly all the way through a puzzle and stop the moment it is finished.
How do I work out which function I’m looking at?
Look at what happens immediately before the behaviour, and immediately after it.
What comes before is the antecedent. Common antecedents are the time of day, who is in the room, an instruction or demand, a change in routine, and transitions from one activity to another.
What comes after is the consequence — how the people around your child react, and what your child ends up getting or getting out of. Attention, a wanted item, or the task disappearing are all consequences.
One incident will not tell you much. Patterns will. That is what the ABC chart further down this page is for.
Example one: you tell your child to clean their room and they start hitting. You decide the room can wait. The likely function is escape — the hitting made the demand go away.
Example two: your child is playing alone and starts jumping on the couch, which they know is not allowed. You call out “stop jumping on the couch” and they carry on jumping. The likely function is attention — the jumping got you to speak to them.
Why does the same behaviour have different functions in different children?
Because the function depends on what the child is communicating, not on what the behaviour looks like from the outside.
Every child has a different environment, different experiences and different needs. Two children might both cry. One cries when a worksheet appears, and the crying gets the worksheet taken away — that is escape. The other cries when screen time ends, and the crying gets the tablet back — that is access.
The crying is identical. The reason behind it is not, and neither is what will help.
This is also why a strategy that transformed things for a friend’s child can do nothing at all for yours. It is not that the strategy was wrong. It was answering a different function.
What do I do once I know the function?
Two things: change what happens around the behaviour, and teach your child a faster way to get the same result.
1. Change what happens before and after
- Escape: break the task into smaller steps so it starts somewhere your child can already manage, and build in planned breaks before they need to ask.
- Attention: give frequent positive attention across the day, at moments when things are going well, so your child does not have to work for it.
- Access: use a visual schedule showing the day’s activities, including meals and screen time, so what is coming next is predictable and the answer is not always no.
- Sensory: build in activities that give the same input — kinetic sand, water play, a weighted vest, movement breaks between quieter tasks.
2. Teach the request
Behaviour is communication, so the most powerful change you can make is teaching your child a way to ask that works better and faster than the behaviour did.
“Behaviour is communication.”
Elisa Gattoni, Clinical Supervisor
Your child can learn to ask for a break, ask for help, or ask for a toy, a snack or your attention. They can do it out loud, by pointing, with sign language, or using a communication device — whichever they can already manage.
You will usually need to show them how first. Model the request, have your child copy you, then give them what they asked for straight away. That speed is the whole lesson: it is what proves to your child that the new way works.
What is an ABC chart, and how do I fill one in?
An ABC chart is a simple observation sheet that records what happened before a behaviour, what the behaviour looked like, and what happened straight after.
A is antecedent, B is behaviour, C is consequence.
- Choose one or two behaviours to focus on. Any more than that and the chart becomes impossible to keep up with.
- Fill it in immediately after the behaviour happens, while the details are still fresh.
- In the antecedent column, note the time of day, where you were, what was happening, who was there, and any instruction or demand given.
- In the behaviour column, describe what you actually saw and heard. You can also note how long it lasted.
- In the consequence column, note what happened straight after — the instruction was dropped, someone responded, your child got an item, your child was left alone.
- After a week or two, read down the columns and look for what repeats. The pattern is the function.
What a filled-in chart looks like
| Date and time | A — Antecedent | B — Behaviour | C — Consequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 4:15pm | Kitchen. I said “time to clean up your blocks.” Sister in the room. | Threw blocks, shouted. About 2 minutes. | I cleaned them up myself. He went back to the tablet. |
| Tue 6pm | Playing alone in the front room. I was making dinner. | Started banging the cupboard door, kept looking over at me. | I came in and said “please stop.” He laughed and did it again. |
| Wed 8:40am | Getting ready for school. I said “shoes on, we’re late.” | Lay down on the floor, would not move. About 5 minutes. | I put his shoes on for him and carried him to the car. |
A sample week. Yours will look messier — that is fine.
Reading this one back: two of the three entries happened straight after an instruction, and both times the instruction went away afterwards. That points to escape. The middle entry is different — nothing was being asked, and what followed was a response from a parent. That one looks like attention.
That is the whole method. You are not looking for a diagnosis in the chart. You are looking for what keeps repeating in the last column.
Print your ABC chart
A one-page chart with an example row, plus an extra page you can print as many times as you need.
When should I ask for help?
Speak to a qualified professional if:
- Your child is engaging in interfering behaviours that are not safe for them or for the people around them, including siblings.
- The behaviours are getting in the way of daily routines, learning or family life.
- You have changed what happens before and after, and nothing is shifting.
- You have filled in an ABC chart and the pattern still is not clear.
At AlphaBee, a Clinical Supervisor works with you to understand what is happening, identify the function, and write a plan you can use at home. Your Instructor Therapist then works directly with your child on the skills in that plan.