Communication Interventions: A positive behavioral support strategy that involves identifying the function maintaining problem behavior and teaching a student an alternative verbal or gestural response that results in the same desired outcome as the problem behavior.

Function: The consequences that are related to maintaining the occurrence of a behavior. An individual may engage in problem behavior to (a) gain attention, (b) indicate a desire for activities or items, (c) escape from attention or activities, and (d) escape from or obtain physiological stimulation.

Functional Analysis: Documenting a meaningful relationship between the occurrence of problem behavior, antecedents and consequence events through direct observation and the systematic manipulation of environmental events.

Functional Assessment: Also known as Functional Behavioral Assessment. The process of collecting information in order to develop hypothesis statements regarding the variables that maintain and predict problem behavior. Functional assessment strategies include indirect assessment methods, direct observation, and functional analysis.

Functionally Equivalent: An intervention approach meant to replace problem behavior with a socially desirable alternative that results in the same reinforcing outcome and is equal in terms of the physical effort as the problem behavior.

Generalization: The use of a new skill in a setting that is different than the setting in which the skill was initially learned.

Immediacy of the Reinforcer: The amount of time that transpires between a student's behavior and the delivery of the desired item or event.

Multi-Component Intervention Plan: A comprehensive behavioral support plan that contains multiple strategies to address problem behaviors in settings where problem behaviors occur.

Positive Behavioral Support: A comprehensive set of strategies that are meant to redesign environments in such a way that problem behaviors are prevented or inconsequential, and to teach students new skills, making problem behaviors unnecessary.

Prompts: The physical, verbal, or gestural assistance provided to a student after the presentation of the instructional materials but prior to the response of the student. Prompts are used to communicate or facilitate a desired response.

Quality of the Reinforcer: When one reinforcing event is more highly preferred than another event, the preferred event is considered to be of a higher quality.

Rapport Building: Involves building a positive and caring relationship that can form the basis for many positive behavioral support interventions, including teaching communication and self-management skills.

Reinforcement: The state of receiving or presenting a reinforcer. A stimulus that when presented immediately following a response increases the probability that the response will occur again. Can be the presentation of a reward or removal of something unpleasant.

Reinforcer: A consequent stimulus that increases the probability a behavior will occur, or maintains the future rate of that behavior.

Response Class: Groups of behaviors that may look different but share a common relation with the antecedent and consequence events occurring within an environment.

Response Efficiency: When teaching a student an alternative behavior that is meant to replace problem behavior, the efficiency of the alternative behavior is considered. Response efficiency refers to the a) physical effort required to perform the new alternative behavior, b) the schedule of reinforcement, c) the immediacy of the reinforcer that follows the behavior, and d) the quality of the reinforcer.

Schedule of Reinforcement: The timing established for the delivery of a reinforcer.

Self-Evaluation: A self-management strategy that involves teaching a student to compare his performance to a self-selected criterion.

Self-Management: An intervention approach that is considered part of self-determination and involves teaching a student new skills for self-monitoring, self-evaluating, and self-recording behavior.

Self-Monitoring: A self-management strategy that involves defining a target behavior, observing one's own behavior and recording its occurrence while engaging in a task or activity.

Self-Reinforcement: A self-management strategy where a student controls access to and administers reinforcement independently after completing a designated task or activity.

Tolerance for Delay: An intervention strategy that involves presenting the student with a verbal or visual cue that signals release from an activity. Initially, the interval between the verbal or visual cue and the release is very short, although, the time is gradually increased over a designated period of time based on the absence of problem behavior.