Why Behaviour Support Strategies Sometimes Don’t Work

You have followed the plan. You have used the visual schedule, offered choices, changed your wording and tried to stay consistent. Yet the behaviour is still happening—or it has become more intense.

It is understandable to feel discouraged. Families may wonder whether they are doing something wrong. Support workers may feel that the person is refusing to engage. The person receiving support may feel that nobody understands what they are trying to communicate.

When a behaviour support strategy does not work, it does not automatically mean the person is unwilling to change or that the supporter has failed. It usually means there is more to understand. The strategy may be based on an incomplete explanation of the behaviour, introduced when the person has too little capacity, inconsistently implemented, difficult to access, or no longer suited to the person’s circumstances.

Positive Behaviour Support is not a collection of tricks for making behaviour stop. It is an ongoing process of understanding the person, testing informed ideas, teaching useful skills, improving the environment and reviewing what happens. A strategy that does not produce the expected result gives us information. The next step is to use that information well.

What Is a Behaviour Support Strategy?

A behaviour support strategy is a planned way of helping a person experience greater safety, communication, participation, independence or quality of life. Strategies may reduce the likelihood of behaviours of concern, help supporters respond safely when they occur, or teach the person another way to meet the same need.

Examples can include:

changing an environment to reduce overload
making routines more predictable
using visuals, written information, sign or AAC
teaching a person to request help, a break or more time
breaking a difficult task into achievable steps
offering meaningful choice and control
planning how supporters will respond during distress
building communication, regulation, social or daily-living skills

A useful strategy should be connected to a clear understanding of the person and the function of the behaviour. It should also be practical enough to use in the environments where life actually happens.

Under the NDIS, Positive Behaviour Support is described as a human-rights and values-led approach involving ongoing assessment, intervention and data-based decision-making. It focuses on skill-building, supportive contexts and evidence-informed strategies that respect dignity and improve quality of life.

That word ongoing matters. A strategy is not finished simply because it has been written into a plan.

Why Do Behaviour Support Strategies Fail?

Behaviour support strategies can fail when they do not match the reason for the behaviour, the person’s current capacity, their communication needs or the context in which the behaviour occurs. They may also fail when supporters have not received enough training, the strategy is too complicated to implement consistently, or changes in health, relationships, staffing or environment have altered what the person needs.

Often, several factors are involved at once.

For example, a visual schedule may be appropriate in principle, but it may not help if:

the person does not understand the symbols being used
the schedule is only shown after the person is already overwhelmed
different supporters use it in different ways
the person can see what is expected but still lacks the skill to do it
the activity itself causes pain, fear or sensory distress
the schedule offers predictability but no meaningful choice

The tool is not necessarily “bad”. The fit, timing, purpose or implementation may need to change.

1. The Strategy Is Based on the Wrong Explanation

The same behaviour can occur for very different reasons. If we misunderstand what the behaviour achieves or what makes it more likely, we can select a strategy that looks logical but does not address the real issue.

Imagine a student tears up worksheets. One explanation might be that tearing the paper helps them escape a difficult task. But the task could be difficult because they cannot read the instructions, because handwriting causes pain, because the room is too noisy, because they are afraid of getting an answer wrong, or because the demand arrives without warning.

Giving the student a reward for completing the worksheet may help in one situation. In another, it may increase distress because the underlying barrier remains.

This is why a functional understanding of behaviour is important. A Functional Behaviour Assessment brings together observation, information from the person and their supporters, relevant health and communication factors, what happens before and after the behaviour, and the wider context.

The explanation developed through assessment is still a hypothesis—an informed explanation to test. If the strategy built from it does not help, the hypothesis may need to be refined rather than defended.

2. Pain, Health or Sensory Factors Have Been Missed

Behaviour can change when a person is unwell, in pain, fatigued, constipated, hungry, experiencing medication effects or struggling to sleep. Noise, light, touch, temperature, crowds or movement can also affect capacity.

A strategy aimed at motivation or consequences will not treat a toothache. A communication prompt will have limited value if a person is trying to escape painful sensory input and the environment remains unchanged.

Health and sensory factors can be especially easy to miss when the person cannot reliably describe what hurts or when their signs of discomfort differ from what others expect. Possible indicators might include a sudden change from the person’s usual behaviour, changes around meals or toileting, disrupted sleep, guarding part of the body, changes in movement, or behaviour that occurs in particular sensory environments.

These observations are not a diagnosis. They are reasons to consider appropriate medical, allied-health or sensory assessment. A sudden, significant or unexplained change in behaviour should not be assumed to be “just behavioural”.

3. The Strategy Asks for More Than the Person Can Currently Do

Sometimes a strategy is too large, too abstract or too demanding for the person’s current skills and capacity.

“Use your coping strategies” sounds simple, but it may require the person to:

notice what is happening in their body
identify the emotion or problem
remember several possible strategies
choose one that fits the situation
communicate what they need
use the strategy while already distressed

If any of those steps is unavailable, repeating the instruction more firmly is unlikely to make it accessible.

One FABIC clinician described intervention as an informed starting point: sometimes the first attempt is not enough, while at other times it is more than the person can handle and becomes counterproductive. The response is to reassess, adjust and try again.

A better fit may involve teaching one small step, modelling it, practising while the person is settled, adding a visual prompt, providing assistance and gradually reducing support as the skill becomes more reliable.

4. The Strategy Is Being Used at the Wrong Time

A person’s ability to listen, process language, reflect and make choices changes with their level of regulation. A skill that is available when settled may be difficult or temporarily inaccessible during significant distress.

This can create a painful pattern. The supporter sees the behaviour begin and adds more explanations, questions, reminders and consequences. The person has less capacity to process them, becomes more overwhelmed and appears to be ignoring the strategy.

At peak dysregulation, the immediate priorities are generally safety, reduced pressure and support matched to the person’s plan. Teaching, problem-solving and reviewing consequences are usually more useful after sufficient capacity has returned.

This does not mean abandoning expectations or giving the person everything they request. It means recognising that settling the moment and teaching for the future are different tasks.

5. An Alternative Behaviour Has Been Named but Not Taught

Behaviour plans sometimes describe what a person should stop doing more clearly than what they can do instead.

Instructions such as “remain calm”, “make a good choice”, “communicate appropriately” or “walk away” may sound like strategies, but each requires skills. The person may need explicit teaching and practice to recognise an early warning sign, request help, tolerate waiting, navigate disappointment, use AAC, leave safely or return to an activity.

An alternative behaviour is most useful when it:

meets the same need as the behaviour of concern
requires no more effort than the person can manage
works quickly and reliably enough to be worth using
is understood and respected by communication partners
has been practised outside moments of crisis

If hitting reliably ends a demand but a “break” card is ignored, the safer communication method is not yet functionally equivalent. The answer is not simply to insist that the person use the card. Supporters must make the new method understandable, accessible and trustworthy.

6. The Communication Method Does Not Fit the Person

A strategy cannot work well if the person cannot understand it, express their response or access it when needed.

Communication barriers may involve spoken-language comprehension, literacy, vision, hearing, motor access, processing time, symbol understanding, cultural or linguistic differences, or loss of speech during overload. A person may nod without understanding, repeat words without being able to apply them, or understand far more than they can express.

Support may need to include:

shorter language and one idea at a time
pictures, objects, demonstrations or written information
sign, gesture or an AAC system
additional processing time
a reliable method for communicating “no”, “stop”, “help”, “break” and “I don’t understand”
consultation with a speech pathologist where appropriate

A non-speaking person should not be assumed to lack understanding. At the same time, we should not assume complete comprehension without assessment. Individualised communication support helps replace guessing with greater access and accuracy.

See Non-Speaking Does Not Mean Not Understanding.

7. The Environment Keeps Creating the Same Difficulty

Sometimes almost all the effort is placed on changing the person while the environment remains confusing, inaccessible or overwhelming.

Consider a person who frequently leaves a busy group activity. They may be taught to ask for a break, which is valuable. But if the room remains painfully loud, the activity is too long and requests for a break are discouraged, the environment continues to make distress likely.

Environmental support might involve:

reducing unnecessary noise, crowding or waiting
adjusting the length, difficulty or pace of a task
providing predictable routines and advance notice of changes
increasing meaningful choice
changing where or how an activity occurs
ensuring communication tools are always available
creating regular access to connection, movement, rest or preferred activities

Environmental changes are not shortcuts. They can prevent avoidable distress and create the conditions in which new skills can actually be learned.

8. The Strategy Is Not Being Implemented Consistently

FABIC clinicians repeatedly described consistency as essential. A person may receive one response from a parent, another at school, another from a weekend worker and a fourth from a new staff member. Even a well-designed strategy becomes difficult to learn when the conditions continually change.

Consistency can break down because:

the written plan is unclear or too long to use in the moment
supporters interpret the strategy differently
training explained what to do but did not include practice
staffing changes leave new workers without adequate induction
the strategy is unrealistic during busy routines
supporters are exhausted, frightened or unsure
the person’s communication is recognised by some people but not others

Consistency should create predictability, not rigidity. It means agreeing on the important parts: what the behaviour looks like, what early signs matter, how the person communicates, what supporters will say and do, which choices are real, and when the plan should be reviewed.

It does not mean delivering an ineffective response in exactly the same way forever. Good consistency includes a consistent process for noticing when adaptation is needed.

9. The Person’s Circumstances Have Changed

A strategy that worked six months ago may no longer fit.

People move house, change schools, begin work, lose relationships, experience grief, become unwell, develop new skills or encounter different supporters. The function of a behaviour can also change over time.

One clinician explained that when a client’s home environment or behaviour changed, the response was not to force the old intervention harder. It involved new observations, new skill-building and an adjusted approach. Another described progress as something that naturally includes rises and falls, particularly around major life events and crises.

A setback does not erase previous progress. It may show that the current situation is asking something new of the person. Review what has changed in LIFE before concluding that the person has lost motivation.

10. Success Is Being Measured Too Narrowly—or Not at All

If the only outcome measured is whether a behaviour stopped, important progress can be missed.

Meaningful change might first appear as:

communicating distress earlier
accepting support before reaching crisis
recovering more quickly after an incident
using a new skill occasionally rather than reliably
experiencing less intense behaviour, even if frequency is unchanged
participating in more activities or making more choices
supporters responding more calmly and consistently
reduced use of restrictive practices
greater safety, connection or quality of life

There is also a risk in relying on impressions alone. A difficult week can make it feel as though nothing has improved; a quiet week can create confidence without showing whether the change will last.

Useful monitoring may include frequency, duration or intensity of behaviour, but it should also include the person’s goals, communication, participation, wellbeing, skill use and feedback. Data should help the team make better decisions—not reduce the person to numbers.

A Quick Guide to What May Be Going Wrong

What You Notice	What to Explore	Possible Next Step
The strategy works with one supporter but not another.	Differences in wording, timing, relationship, prompting or follow-through	Observe both situations and provide practical team coaching.
The person can use the skill in a session but not during distress.	The skill may not yet be fluent or accessible under stress.	Practise earlier, simplify the prompt and support regulation first.
Behaviour increased after a routine or staffing change.	Loss of predictability, trust, communication or familiar support	Update the assessment and rebuild predictable routines.
Rewards have little effect.	The underlying barrier may be pain, fear, overload, skill difficulty or an incorrect functional hypothesis.	Reassess what makes the task difficult and what the behaviour achieves.
The person refuses the visual or communication tool.	It may be inaccessible, unfamiliar, infantilising, unavailable when needed or not respected by others.	Review the system with the person and relevant communication professionals.
The plan looks good but is rarely used.	Complexity, workload, insufficient training, unclear roles or poor fit with real routines	Simplify the critical steps, practise them and clarify responsibility.

This table offers questions, not diagnoses. Where behaviour creates significant risk or complexity, review should involve a qualified professional and the person’s wider team.

How FABIC’s Body Life Skills Program Helps Review a Strategy

The FABIC Body Life Skills Program provides a practical structure for moving beyond “the strategy did not work”.

Part	Questions for Review
BODY	What exactly happened? Did the behaviour change in frequency, duration, intensity or form? What did the person communicate before, during and after?
LIFE	What part of life was being presented? Has the task, environment, health, relationship, routine or person’s capacity changed?
SKILLS	What skill or support was expected? Has it been explicitly taught, practised and made accessible? Do supporters also need skills, training or a simpler plan?

This approach keeps responsibility shared and practical. The question is not only, “Why didn’t the person use the strategy?” It is also, “Did we understand the life situation accurately, and did we provide a skill the person could genuinely access?”

What to Do When a Behaviour Support Strategy Is Not Working

1. Pause the Blame

Avoid describing the person as resistant, manipulative or unmotivated. Avoid blaming families or staff before understanding the barriers they face. Blame narrows attention; curiosity expands it.

2. Check Immediate Safety

Follow any established behaviour support, crisis or safety plan. If the strategy appears to increase risk, seek prompt professional review rather than continuing simply because it is written down.

3. Define What “Not Working” Means

Is the behaviour more frequent, longer or more intense? Is the new skill not being used? Is the plan impractical? Is quality of life unchanged? Clear questions help identify what needs review.

4. Ask the Person

Seek feedback in a form the person can access. They may be able to tell you that the strategy feels confusing, embarrassing, exhausting, childish, painful or simply irrelevant. Include their preferences and goals in any revision.

5. Return to Observation

Record what happens before, during and after the behaviour, along with relevant setting events such as sleep, health, staffing, routine and environment. Compare situations in which the strategy helps with those in which it does not.

6. Check How the Strategy Is Actually Being Used

Do not assume implementation matches the written plan. Observe respectfully. Ask supporters to demonstrate the steps. Identify what is unclear or unrealistic and whether they need modelling, rehearsal, feedback or additional resources.

7. Change One Meaningful Variable Where Possible

If everything changes at once, it becomes difficult to learn what helped. A practitioner may simplify the instruction, alter timing, change the communication support or adjust the environment while monitoring the result. Complex or high-risk situations may require a more formal review.

8. Agree on How Progress Will Be Measured

Choose measures connected to safety, skills and quality of life—not only the absence of a behaviour. Decide who will collect information, how often it will be reviewed and what would trigger an earlier reassessment.

9. Keep What Works and Revise What Does Not

A review does not require discarding the whole plan. One part may be useful while another needs adjustment. Preserve helpful routines, trusted relationships and accessible communication while improving the weaker elements.

Consistency Is Important—but It Is Not the Same as Doing More of What Fails

Consistency is often presented as the answer to every difficulty: “Keep doing it and eventually it will work.” There is truth in the need for repetition. People require enough stable experience to learn that a new communication method, boundary or routine is reliable.

But consistency without review can become persistence with the wrong strategy.

Useful consistency means:

the person receives predictable, respectful responses
supporters understand the purpose of the strategy
the alternative communication or behaviour is reliably acknowledged
skills are practised often enough to be learned
important information is shared across settings
outcomes are monitored
the team changes course when evidence shows that it should

Flexibility and consistency are not opposites. We can be consistent in our values, communication and review process while adapting the support to the person.

What Should Families and Support Teams Record?

Useful notes are factual, brief and relevant. They might include:

the date, time and setting
sleep, health, medication or other relevant changes
what happened immediately before
an observable description of the behaviour
what supporters said and did
which part of the strategy was used
how the person responded
what happened afterwards
whether a replacement skill was attempted
any feedback provided by the person

Write “pushed the plate away and covered their mouth” rather than “was attention-seeking about dinner”. Clear observation allows patterns to emerge without turning assumptions into facts.

Information collection should be proportionate, respectful and handled according to privacy requirements. The purpose is to improve support, not to document every movement of a person’s day.

When Is a Professional Review Needed?

Professional input may be appropriate when:

behaviour creates a risk of harm to the person or others
frequency, duration or intensity is increasing
existing strategies appear to worsen distress
there has been a sudden or unexplained change
possible pain, illness, sensory or communication needs have not been assessed
the function of the behaviour remains unclear
the person cannot access or trust the proposed replacement skill
different supporters or settings are responding in conflicting ways
restrictive practices are being considered, used or require reduction
the plan is not producing meaningful improvement in quality of life

A multidisciplinary response may include behaviour support, speech pathology, occupational therapy, psychology, counselling and relevant medical professionals. The right combination depends on the person and what the assessment identifies.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Should We Try a Behaviour Support Strategy?

There is no universal timeframe. It depends on the behaviour, risk, frequency, skill being taught and how often there are opportunities to practise. The plan should state how progress will be monitored and when review will occur. Seek earlier review if risk increases, the person becomes more distressed or the strategy cannot be implemented safely.

Does a Behaviour Getting Worse Mean the Strategy Has Failed?

Not always, but it should be taken seriously. The change may reflect a new stressor, inconsistent implementation, an inaccessible strategy, a missed health issue or another factor. Avoid assuming that worsening behaviour is an expected stage that must simply be endured. Review the evidence and safety with the relevant practitioner.

What If a Strategy Works at School but Not at Home?

The environments may involve different demands, relationships, sensory conditions, routines and levels of fatigue. Home is not a failed version of school. Compare what happens in each setting and adapt the strategy rather than copying it without considering context.

What If the Person Refuses to Use the Strategy?

Explore what “refusal” may be communicating. The strategy may be unfamiliar, effortful, embarrassing, poorly timed or ineffective. The person may not understand it, may not trust that it will work, or may be communicating a genuine choice. Their feedback is part of the assessment.

Is Inconsistency Always the Family’s or Staff’s Fault?

No. Inconsistency may show that a plan is too complex, training was insufficient, staffing is unstable, roles are unclear or the strategy does not fit ordinary routines. Accountability matters, but support teams also need practical tools, coaching and plans they can realistically use.

Can We Use the Same Strategy for Everyone With the Same Diagnosis?

No. Diagnosis may provide useful information, but it does not tell us the function of a particular behaviour, the person’s communication, sensory needs, history, goals or current capacity. The same diagnosis does not mean the same needs.

Does Reviewing a Plan Mean Starting Again?

Usually not. Review identifies what should be retained, clarified, strengthened or changed. Existing observations, trusted relationships, skills and successful supports remain valuable.

How FABIC Can Help

FABIC supports children, young people and adults to understand behaviour and build practical skills for lasting change. The process can include assessment, individualised behaviour support planning, consultation with the person and their supporters, practical implementation guidance, training and ongoing review.

FABIC’s approach does not define a person by what their body is doing. Through the Body Life Skills Program, practitioners explore the part of LIFE being presented and the SKILLS or support needed to respond more successfully.

Support may involve behaviour support, psychology, counselling, occupational therapy, speech pathology and collaboration with families, schools, carers, support workers and other professionals.

Learn more about FABIC Behaviour Support Practitioner services.

When a behaviour support strategy does not work, the most useful question is rarely, “How do we make the person comply?”

A better set of questions is: What have we not yet understood? What is making this difficult? Is the strategy accessible at the moment it is needed? What does the person say? What needs to change in the environment, the teaching or the support team?

A strategy that misses the mark is not the end of the process. When approached with care, evidence and curiosity, it can become the information that leads to more individualised and effective support.

If current strategies are not creating meaningful change, FABIC can help you review what is happening and identify practical next steps.

BOOK IN WITH FABIC TODAY

General information only: This article is educational and does not replace individual medical, allied-health, legal, crisis or behaviour support advice. Follow any current behaviour support, health or safety plan developed for the person. If there is an immediate risk of serious harm or a medical emergency, call Triple Zero (000).

References and Further Reading

FABIC. FABIC Ethos and Principles of Client Care.
FABIC. The Body Life Skills Program.
FABIC. Positive Behaviour Support Explained: Strategies, Examples and When to Use It.
FABIC. Why Do People Behave the Way They Do? Understanding What Sits Beneath Behaviour.
FABIC. What Is a Functional Behaviour Assessment, and What Actually Happens?.
FABIC. What to Do When Someone Is Dysregulated.
FABIC. Why Individualised Support Matters: The Same Diagnosis Does Not Mean the Same Needs.
NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Positive Behaviour Support Capability Framework, Version 3.
NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Behaviour Support Assessment, Including Functional Behaviour Assessment: Practice Guide.
NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Behaviour Support and Restrictive Practices.

Fabic Team

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