Lauren Miles |
What are antecedent strategies?
Antecedent strategies are evidence-based, proactive approaches to behavior change. This is the process of changing some aspect of the environment (physical or social) to encourage a desired behavior to occur or reduce the likelihood of an unwanted behavior from occurring (Mayer, Sulzer-Azaroff, & Wallace, 2014).
How do antecedent strategies work?
Antecedent strategies either eliminate, modify, or change the presentation of the antecedent event or the situation that causes the behavior.
Why use antecedent strategies?
- Generate a more reinforcing environment (Mayer et al., 2014).
- Easy to implement. Most antecedent strategies are quite simple to implement and take very little effort to successfully utilize.
- Least restrictive, most effective approach (Mayer et al., 2014).
- Wide impact. Many antecedent strategies can be applied to an entire classroom or group setting and support the behavior of each individual.
- They are proactive!
References:
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Mayer, G. R., Sulzer-Azaroff, B., & Wallace, M. (2014). Behavior analysis for lasting change (3rd ed.). Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Sloan Publishing, LLC.