ABSTRACT
Over a number of years Derby City Educational Psychology Service (EPS) in England has developed and disseminated the use of Multi-Element Plans. Design and development of effective individual intervention programmes in schools to address children's behaviour that is problematic in some respect requires detailed assessment of the child and the learning environment. It also requires awareness of ethical considerations. This chapter outlines the practice of multi-element planning for primary aged children and provides a framework based on clear behavioural principles (Glynn, 1982; Wheldall, 1982) and the discipline of applied behaviour analysis (Kazdin, 1975; Grant and Evans, 1994) within which account can be taken of:
potential causes of the problems experienced by the child
factors that appear to maintain behaviour seen as problematic
a range of strategies related to the learning environment, the development of skills that will be useful to the child, and intervention that will prevent the recurrence of the problematic behaviour or provide a way of safeguarding the child, peers and staff when the behaviour does recur.
