Behaviour Bits

Jenn Colechin is joined by Dr Fiona J. Davis to unpack what actually makes Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) implementation work in real-world disability contexts. Fiona is a specialist developmental educator and specialist behaviour support practitioner with more than 35 years’ experience across Australia, and she brings a strongly rights-based, practical lens to the “doing” part of PBS.
Together, they explore why implementation often becomes an afterthought (especially for novice practitioners under compliance pressure), and what it looks like to start implementation from “day dot” by building trust, working with context, and focusing on micro-changes that families and support teams can realistically sustain.

Takeaways:
Implementation isn’t the optional second half of PBS. It’s the core work that turns assessment and plans into meaningful quality-of-life change.
Many PBS practitioners have been trained for compliance (reports, timelines, restrictive practice identification), but not supported to build strong implementation skills.
Start implementation from the first contact: the way you listen, communicate, and build trust sets up everything that follows.
“Good implementation” is always contextual. Your approach shifts depending on the person, setting, safety risks, and stakeholder capacity.
Micro-changes matter: small, doable shifts can create momentum, reduce overwhelm, and help stakeholders see that change is possible.
Data collection needs to fit the family’s real life. Creative, low-burden options (like simple dots on a calendar) can still give useful insight.
Strong therapeutic relationships make it easier to collaborate, problem-solve, and respectfully challenge when things don’t go to plan.
Understanding disability (including history, rights, and lived impact) is essential. Behaviour support doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Clear, concrete communication supports predictability (for example, reducing language during escalation and using specific times rather than vague “later”).
Implementation is iterative: expect adjustments as you learn more, circumstances change, and you refine strategies, often by simplifying rather than adding more.
Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS goals) offers a practical way to define success, capture progress on a spectrum, and make outcomes visible and measurable.
Organisation supports implementation: simple structure, checklists, and consistent communication reduce “floating in the wind” for both practitioners and teams.
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Jenn Colechin is joined by Jill Hellemans (Behaviour Analyst, Special Educator, and Child and Family counsellor; Clinical Director of All Aboard Inclusion) to unpack early intervention- especially what good early intervention can look like when it’s embedded in inclusive, real-world settings like homes, childcare, and preschool.
Together, they explore why early intervention is fundamentally about building meaningful skills (not “fixing” children), how capacity-building with families and educators creates real intensity over time, and what current shifts in Australia’s NDIS landscape (including Thriving Kids) could mean for practice, particularly around natural environments, collaboration, and tiered support.

Takeaways:

Early intervention is most powerful when it builds foundational learning skills early (communication, play, transitions, tolerance, daily living skills, safety), reducing the likelihood that distress behaviours become the main way needs are communicated and met.
Progress comes from everyday practice across routines, relationships, and environments.
High-quality early intervention prioritises capacity-building: upskilling the people who are with the child most (family, educators, support staff) so strategies are used consistently and confidently.
Teaching needs to happen where life happens, like at home, community, and early childhood settings because that’s where skills are most likely to generalise and stick.
Multidisciplinary work is essential, but collaboration needs to be realistically funded and protected.
In early childhood settings, therapists who “blend in” (support routines, join play, build rapport, avoid the clipboard-in-the-corner vibe) are more likely to create sustainable change.

Early intervention is a rights-based opportunity: teaching choice-making, requesting, and rejection (including “no”) supports agency and reduces reliance on unsafe or misunderstood communication.

· Thriving Kids could create better pathways by focusing on need (not just diagnosis), strengthening natural-environment supports, and investing earlier, before children reach school already behind.
· Jill’s call to the field: be more visible, collaborative, and open. Show what contemporary ABA looks like in practice, learn from lived experience and past harms, and keep improving.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

· PRECI Report (National Best Practice Framework in Early Childhood Intervention) – released May 2025
· Thriving Kids Advisory Group Final Report – released December 2025
· Key worker model (and how behaviour analysts can work effectively within it)Want extra support to turn these ideas into practical, real-world strategies?

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It’s all grounded in evidence-based, person-centred practice—designed to support you at your own pace, in real-world ways.

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In this episode of Behaviour Bits, Jenn Colechin is joined again by behaviour support practitioner, Board Certified Behaviour Analyst, speech pathologist, and co-director of Launch Supervision, Kristin Bayley, for a deep dive into supervision.
Together they unpack what “good supervision” really looks like in Positive Behaviour Support, both within NDIS contexts and beyond, and why it matters at every stage of your career.
They explore the difference between clinical and organisational supervision, how to balance KPIs with genuine clinical growth, and why the “dose” and quality of supervision can be a major protective factor against practitioner burnout.

You’ll also hear practical guidance on individual vs group and clinical vs organisational supervision, how to find a supervisor who’s a good fit for your values, and how supervision can help you hold onto your “why” in this demanding but rewarding work.

Takeaways:
Supervision should be lifelong: even very experienced practitioners benefit from a reflective space, a soundboard, and someone to challenge and extend their thinking.
There is a crucial difference between organisational supervision (KPIs, billables, deadlines, compliance) and clinical supervision (case formulation, evidence base, skills, wellbeing) and both are needed.
When supervision time is often consumed by compliance issues, practitioners lose opportunities for deeper clinical reflection and skill-building, and risk practising in a reactive way.
Finding a supervisor starts with knowing your own “why” and values—then seeking out practitioners whose public work resonates, connecting through communities of practice, and treating the match a bit like dating: fit matters.
Supervision is a key protection against practitioner burnout in emotionally demanding work; connection, celebration of small wins, and peer/reading groups all help you keep giving people the best of you, not just what’s left of you.
Looking for practical, flexible learning that goes beyond the podcast?

The All Access Pass gives you unlimited entry to all of our self-paced online courses, early access to new content, exclusive member discounts, and our ever-growing library of downloadable resources, templates, and clinical tools.
It’s all grounded in evidence-based, person-centred practice—designed to support you at your own pace, in real-world ways.

Visit https://specialistbehaviour.com/all-access-pass/

Questions, comments, feedback?
Email us at [email protected]

In today’s engaging conversation, Dr. Russ Fox discusses his journey in education, focusing on positive behaviour support and its implementation in schools.
He emphasises the importance of multi-tiered systems of support, building relationships with students, and the need for targeted training for teachers.
Dr. Fox highlights the interconnectedness of academic and social behaviours and advocates for a rights-based approach to behaviour support.
The discussion also covers practical strategies for effective classroom management and the significance of celebrating small successes to motivate both teachers and students.

Takeaways:
Dr. Russ Fox emphasises the importance of effective implementation in positive behaviour support.
Multi-tiered systems of support are crucial for addressing diverse student needs.
Building relationships with students is essential for effective teaching and behaviour management.
Teachers often feel overwhelmed by the demands of classroom management and behaviour support.
Positive behaviour support should be a team effort involving the entire school community.
Teachers need targeted training in behaviour management strategies during their preparation.
Academic and social behaviours are interconnected and should be taught together.
Implementation of behaviour support strategies must be functional and sustainable.
Celebrating small successes can motivate both teachers and students.
Research on rights-based approaches to behaviour support is emerging and important.
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The All Access Pass gives you unlimited entry to all of our self-paced online courses, early access to new content, exclusive member discounts, and our ever-growing library of downloadable resources, templates, and clinical tools.
It’s all grounded in evidence-based, person-centred practice—designed to support you at your own pace, in real-world ways.

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Email us at [email protected]

This episode dives straight into the constructional approach to positive behaviour support (PBS), an outcomes-first, person-led framework championed by guests John Wooderson and Oliver Roschke.
Rather than shrinking “problem behaviour”, they emphasise building repertoires, opportunities and genuine options using four guiding questions: where the person wants to go, where they are now, how to get there, and what will keep them going.
You’ll hear how this shifts practice towards true therapeutic contracts with the individual, assent-based, strengths-focused planning, and dignified risk—grounding change in what matters to the person, not in compliance for others.

We get practical about disentangling PBS from restrictive practices by targeting the behaviour of the implementing provider and co-designing alternatives that keep everyone safe without eroding rights. John shares a compelling case example replacing a compulsory in-car harness with communication supports and staged fading—resolving conflict and maintaining safety by building skills and staff practices, not adding restraint.
The conversation closes with actionable takeaways: co-created “lifestyle plans” over behaviour plans, rigorous progress reviews that treat programme design (not the person) as the problem when change stalls, and a relentless focus on quality-of-life outcomes.

Resources:
"Nonlinear Contingency Analysis: Going Beyond Cognition and Behavior in Clinical Practice" is probably one of the most accessible introductions to the constructional approach and non-linear contingency analysis, and it was written to introduce these ideas and concepts to a broader audience, beyond behaviour analysis: https://www.amazon.com.au/Nonlinear-Contingency-Analysis-Cognition-Behavior-ebook/dp/B09GFMZ6F9/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0 PDF copies of the book are available via most uni libraries.
Constructional Approach community website: The Constructional Approach to Behavior Analysis – constructional approach
Relevant research papersLiden, T.A., Rosales-Ruiz, J. Constructional Parent Coaching: A Collaborative Approach to Improve the Lives of Parents of Children with Autism. Behav Analysis Practice 18, 109–126 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-024-00944-y (attached)
Abdel-Jalil, A., Linnehan, A.M., Yeich, R. et al. Can There Be Compassion without Assent? A Nonlinear Constructional Approach. Behav Analysis Practice (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-023-00850-9 (free download: (PDF) Can There Be Compassion without Assent? A Nonlinear Constructional Approach)
Layng, T. V. J., & Abdel‐Jalil, A. (2022). Toward a constructional exposure therapy. Advances in Cognitive Therapy, Fall, 8–11. (Free download: (PDF) TOWARD A CONSTRUCTIONAL EXPOSURE THERAPY)
Linnehan, A.M., Abdel-Jalil, A., Klick, S. et al. Foundations of Preemptive Compassion: A Behavioral Concept Analysis of Compulsion, Consent, and Assent.Behav Analysis Practice (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-023-00890-1 (Free download: (PDF) Foundations of Preemptive Compassion: A Behavioral Concept Analysis of Compulsion, Consent, and Assent)
Scallan, C.M., Rosales-Ruiz, J. The Constructional Approach: A Compassionate Approach to Behavior Change. Behav Analysis Practice (2023). Https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-023-00811-2 (free online copy: The Constructional Approach: A Compassionate Approach to Behavior Change)
Layng T. V. (2009). The search for an effective clinical behavior analysis: the nonlinear thinking of Israel goldiamond. The Behavior analyst, 32(1), 163–184. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392181
Goldiamond, I. Toward a Constructional Approach to Social Problems: Ethical and Constitutional Issues Raised by Applied Behavior Analysis. Behav. Soc. Iss. 11, 108–197 (2002). https://doi.org/10.5210/bsi.v11i2.92

Looking for practical, flexible learning that goes beyond the podcast?

The All Access Pass gives you unlimited entry to all of our self-paced online courses, early access to new content, exclusive member discounts, and our ever-growing library of downloadable resources, templates, and clinical tools.
It’s all grounded in evidence-based, person-centred practice—designed to support you at your own pace, in real-world ways.Visit https://specialistbehaviour.com/all-access-pass/

Questions, comments, feedback?  Email us at [email protected]