What is the ABC approach, you may ask. Here ABC stands for antecedent (A), behaviour (B) and consequence (C), respectively. It is an observation tool that teachers can use to analyse what happened before, during and after a behaviour.
The ABC approach can help you find out what a child is trying to say (e.g. express tiredness or frustration from a task being too hard), as well as what the child gets out of the behaviour (e.g. someone’s attention or an object they want). Antecedents are all the things that happen leading up to a behaviour. They could be things like tiredness or hunger which may increase the likelihood of a particular behaviour. It could also be triggered by being given a difficult task or being asked to do something the child doesn’t want to do that may cause the behaviour.
It is sometimes difficult to deal with so many problems and it keeps repeating often in class. Usually, when punishment is given, the problematic behaviour stops for a while. However, when a teacher understands the approach of the ABC model, it is easy for them to completely understand and eliminate the behaviour.
Example for ABC model:
Alex is a boy who is studying in 3rd standard and keeps taking the stationary items of his fellow classmates without asking permission (Antecedent). When classmates complain about it to the teacher, he denies it in the beginning but later he accepts his mistake (Behaviour). As a result, the teacher assigns a leader to monitor his behaviour and does not allow him to take anything from anyone (Consequence).
In the above example when the teacher makes a note of the ABC model, it is easy for them to lessen the unwanted behaviour in the class. Further teacher asks Alex about his behaviour, he confronts that he doesn’t like Mathematics subject and wants to waste the time. It happened so because he finds it difficult. So, when the teacher gave special attention in explaining the concepts, slow improvement is seen in him followed by complete elimination of the behaviour.
However, this approach is time-consuming and needs extra work. But when the teacher keeps a track of this model, it definitely lessens the unwanted behaviour in the class.
