Supporting Children with Behaviours of Concern

Mia (name changed for privacy) is a creative and fiercely independent seven-year-old girl with a love for drawing and animals. However, Mia was exhibiting escalating "behaviours of concern" that were heavily disrupting her daily life.

Whenever she was faced with academic demands or asked to transition away from her preferred activities (like drawing), Mia would become highly distressed. Her distress often manifested as screaming, tearing up her schoolwork, and occasionally throwing objects across the room. These explosive outbursts were occurring several times a week, leaving her parents exhausted and her educators deeply concerned about her safety and inclusion in the classroom. Seeking a structured and collaborative solution, her family engaged the multidisciplinary team at daar.

The Challenge

When a child’s behaviour escalates into aggression or severe disruption, adults often react with rigid discipline or by restricting the child’s activities. For Mia, this reactive cycle was only making things worse, severely impacting her daily functioning:

• At Home: Evenings were dominated by "homework battles." Because she associated school tasks with anxiety, the mere mention of homework would trigger aggression, leading to high family stress and strained relationships between Mia and her parents.
• At School: The impact at school was even more significant. Educators, unsure of how to de-escalate her safely, were frequently relying on sending her to the principal's office or removing her from the classroom. The lack of a unified response plan meant Mia was missing out on valuable learning time and becoming isolated from her peers.

Mia didn’t need stricter boundaries; she needed a coordinated support network to teach her how to regulate her anxiety and communicate her distress safely.

daar Therapy Approach

The clinicians at daar understand that behaviours of concern are almost always a form of communication. To guide Mia toward success, we facilitated a highly collaborative approach focused on positive behaviour support—shifting the adults' focus from punishing the behaviour to teaching replacement skills.

Our comprehensive, team-based strategy involved:

• Functional Assessment & Shared Understanding: Our behaviour support practitioner observed Mia in the classroom and at home to understand the "why" behind her behaviour. We discovered that tearing up her work successfully allowed her to escape tasks that provoked her anxiety.
• Building a Collaborative Behaviour Support Plan (BSP): We brought Mia’s parents and her classroom teachers together to create a unified BSP. Consistency is critical; if home and school use different strategies, a child remains anxious. The plan focused on proactive strategies, such as breaking tasks into smaller, less intimidating pieces and using visual timers.
• Targeted Speech Therapy for Self-Advocacy: We integrated speech therapy into her plan to give her the exact vocabulary she needed in moments of stress. Instead of expressing her anxiety by throwing items, we taught her to use a "Help" or "Break" card, empowering her to safely request a pause before she reached her boiling point.
• Socialised Behaviour Therapy for Educators: A major component of the intervention was coaching the adults. Through socialised behaviour therapy, we trained the school staff on how to avoid restrictive practices. Instead of sending her out of the room when she escalated, teachers were taught to lower verbal demands, use calm body language, and prompt her to use her newly learned coping strategies.

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Results & Progress

By uniting her parents and teachers under a single, consistent plan, Mia’s environment transformed from a source of anxiety into a zone of support. When the adults stopped reacting with punishments and started responding with proactive tools, Mia’s need to engage in severe behaviours of concern dropped drastically.

At home, the introduction of visual timers and chunked tasks completely eliminated the homework battles. At school, her teachers noted a phenomenal shift. Mia began utilizing her "Break" card independently when she felt overwhelmed. Because the teachers responded calmly and honored her request for a break, the instances of her tearing up her work or throwing objects effectively ceased, keeping her safely included in the classroom.

85%

Reduction in unsafe classroom and home behaviour. 

+10

Use of Functional Coping Skills 

100%

 Time Spent in Classroom.

Key Outcomes

Mia’s progress is a testament to the power of teamwork and proactive intervention. When all the adults in a child’s life respond with the same empathetic, skill-building approach, the outcomes are profound:

1. Replaced Aggression with Communication: By providing a functional alternative (the break card), Mia no longer had to resort to destructive behaviour to express her overwhelming anxiety.
2. Preserved Mainstream Inclusion: Giving the school a clear alternative to punitive removal meant Mia could remain safely in her classroom, protecting her educational and social development.
3. Strengthened Adult Partnerships: The consistent communication between Mia’s home and school removed confusion and created a highly supportive, trauma-informed net around her.
4. Boosted Self-Esteem: Mia moved from feeling like the "naughty kid" who was always in trouble to feeling capable, understood, and in control of her own regulation.

Conclusion

When children exhibit severe behaviours of concern, it is easy for families and schools to feel overwhelmed and divided. However, challenging behaviour is rarely intentional malice; it is usually a desperate communication of an unmet need or a lack of coping skills. By stepping back to understand the triggers and implementing a collaborative positive behaviour support plan, the adults in a child's life can turn conflict into connection. Teaching functional communication directly replaces the need for challenging behaviour, keeping children safe, regulated, and engaged.

As Mia’s classroom teacher reflected on the process:

"Before we sat down with the daar team, we were really struggling to keep Mia safe in the classroom. We were reacting to her blow-ups rather than preventing them. Having a plan that her parents were also using at home changed everything. Once Mia realized we would respect her 'break card' instead of pushing her to the point of tearing up her work, she completely softened. We are functioning as a real team now, and Mia is finally thriving."

Are behaviours of concern disrupting your child's learning, social inclusion, or family peace? You don't have to navigate challenging outbursts alone or through trial and error.

Build a unified, supportive environment for your child.
Reach out to the expert allied health and behaviour support team at daar today to discover how our collaborative plans can empower your child and your family. Call us at 02 9133 2500 or visit our website to secure your consultation!