Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP): Examples & Template

What is a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)?

A Behavior Intervention Plan is a kind of roadmap that can be used by professionals and parents to help reduce problem behavior, especially in children with behavioral disorders, like autism.

A BIP is not usually used alone. It generally is part of a much larger long-term treatment plan or IEP. In a nutshell, there isn't a set way for a BIP to be drafted. 

It is just a blueprint for professionals and parents to follow to help reduce challenging behaviors by keeping everyone who interacts with the learner remains on the same page when it comes to behavior strategy.

The BIP is a written document, but that doesn't mean that it is the final product. A BIP will gradually evolve depending on the response of the learner and it can go through several revisions over time.

Components of a Behavior Intervention Plan

A comprehensive BIP has several components to come together to be useful. All of the professionals and adults in the learner's world need to know the components. Let's talk about some of the most important components.

Identifying Information

This is an essential component because this will allow everyone working with the child to know they are working with the right plan for the individual. Here is some of the information that should be a part of this component.

• Author
• Setting (if the BIP is being used in different locations)
• Child's name and any nickname they go by
• Date of the original plan
• Date of any revisions to the plan
• Child's date of birth
• Supervisor

BIP Goal

The goal of the plan must be properly stated. Anyone who reads the BIP should be able to understand the entire purpose behind the BIP and know what is expected. The goal must be stated well and specifically to make sure that nothing is lost during translation from one adult and setting to another.

Definition of Target Behavior

The only way that one can help to correct a behavior is if the adults understand the behavior, and recognize if the behavior is or is not occurring. After all, they can only help with a behavior issue that they understand and target as a whole.

If one of the adults in the learner's life doesn't follow the BIP it could cause the intervention steps to be ineffective, which could cause unnecessary revisions.

Responses to Target Behavior

Understanding the definition of the target behavior is important, but it is just as important for professionals and adults to also have the same parameters for responses to the target behavior.

There are different ways to approach responses to the target behavior, but here are a few examples of what a response to target behavior might look like in a Behavior intervention plan:

• Use visuals to present the demands of the behavior
• Always wait for compliance with the initial demand
• Only resume reinforcement schedules once the compliance has been re-established
• Monitor the target behavior for safety

Consequent Interventions

Every behavior intervention plan should use some form of reinforcement strategy. In the BIP, there should be a reinforcement schedule to ensure that the adults and behavior staff working with the individual know what the reinforcement is and when it is appropriate to reinforce.

Behavior Intervention Plan Examples

Goal: Increase John's ability to be able to remain in his classroom to 95% of the school day and actively participate in activities with his peers with a decrease in noncompliance to less than 20 minutes a day and then an increase in requesting staff attention to 75% of opportunities.

Noncompliance: This includes any instance where John verbally or physically refuses to comply with the teacher's directive for a skill that has been previously demonstrated for longer than 30 seconds.

Hypothesized function: With the observation of the different data collected from interviews with the staff, John's noncompliance is likely maintained by access to staff attention in the form of chasing, reprimands, and coaxing.

Once all of this has happened, the professionals will make sure that all of the appropriate interventions they use to make sure that they are in line with all of the laws.

After reviewing the plan with John's parents, they will be required to sign off on the BIP to ensure they understand the hypothesis and the plan on how to change the behavior of how John interacts with the school.

Finally, the teachers will implement the plan to ensure that everything is followed on the plan to see if there need be any adjustments to the plan for it to work properly.

Behavior Intervention Plan Template

There are several types of templates that can be used in a BIP, and some of them include:

• ABC data sheet templates
• Blank scatterplot templates
• Completing behavior pathways

Difference Between FA and FBA

It is important to understand the difference between a functional analysis (FA) and a functional behavior assessment (FBA). The best way to do that is to understand the definitions of these two terms.

They both are used to help professionals identify the function of a behavior, but the difference lies in the degree of confidence in the results and the intrusiveness of the assessment.

How to write an effective Behavior Intervention Plan?

When writing a BIP, here are the steps that one should use to ensure it is easily followed:

• First, professionals must acquire informed consent from the individual's guardian or parent.
• Collect all of the baseline data for the individual.
• Collect all of the FBA or FA data.
• Professionals should analyze the data for the target behavior(s)
• Professionals should research all appropriate interventions.
• Then, they need to assemble all the components of the plan.
• Review the plan to make sure that it follows the laws and rules of the area where it is being administered.
• The professional will have to go over the plan with the guardian or parent and get their signature.
• All the staff working with the individual will need to be trained.

The Effectiveness of the Behavior Intervention Plan

Whenever there is a behavior intervention plan in place, everyone involved must be capable of being able to check on the effectiveness of the plan. This is the only way that they will be capable to adjust the plan as needed to make sure that it is getting the proper results.

Professionals should check the plan to make sure that it is working, and there are different measurement techniques that they can use to judge this effectiveness. Here are three of the most common options used by professionals:

• Intensity (Professionals can come up with a scale to measure the intensity of the behavior)
• Frequency (Professionals will keep records on how many times the behavior occurs)
• Duration (Professionals will measure how long the behavior occurs)

When judging the effectiveness of the BIP, professionals should keep in mind that just because they aren't getting the results they want, they shouldn't get rid of the entire BIP plan. It usually takes time for a good BIP to start showing tangible results.