Johanna Taylor

Emotionally Based School Avoidance

Words matter. The terms we use shape how we understand problems and how we respond to them.

When we talk about students who stuggle to attend school, our choice of language matters more than many realise. Terms like ‘school refusal’ and ‘school can’t’ each carry certain assumptions that can narrow our understanding and in turn our avenues for support.

The long used ‘school refusal’ is often problematic as it suggests a level of wilful defiance or opposition to attending school. It can imply that a child is simply choosing not to attend school which risks framing the student as difficult, uncooperative or resistant. This thinking can lead towards support approaches with focus on pressuring or coercing students into attending with compliance-focused responses.

The term ‘school can’t’ emerged as a more compassionate alternative, acknowledging that many students are not refusing school out of choice but are experiencing genuine distress. This term was intended to disrupt the framing provided by the term school refusal and this disruption is important, however the term can still oversimplify the issue. Not all school avoidance reflects a complete inability to attend. Many students can, an indeed want to attend. Sometimes this is only possible under certain conditions, for certain periods, or with significant but meaningful support.

The term Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) recognises that school avoidance is often driven by emotional distress, linked heavily to feelings of anxiety, overwhelm, fear, shame or social stress. Importantly, it highlights the function of the behaviour. Avoiding school often provides immediate relief from the distress. When a student is unable to attend school, the absence often reflects underlying distress or unmet needs where school is concerned rather than being the core problem itself.

This distinction matters because it shifts the focus from “How do we get them back to school?” to “What is making school feel unsafe, overwhelming or unmanageable?” That questions steps up our responses to ones that are grounded in understanding, collaboration and meaningful support.

‘Step-In’

What is ‘Step-In’?

Step-In is a teacher-led support program which has been developed to help autistic students, who are showing early signs of school refusal, remain engaged in school. School refusal occurs when a young person is unable to attend school due to reasons associated with emotional distress and is often characterised by the amount of school that a young person has missed. This support program is focused on providing early support for students to prevent the development of school refusal. The strategies outlined in this support program are designed to be implemented with students who are still attending school, although this may be on a somewhat inconsistent basis. Step-In is made up of seven core components or steps.

The first two steps consist of strategies to enable the collection of information from both families and the child which, at step three, is used to support the development of a hypothesis about the signs of school refusal that have been observed or the symptoms that have been reported. Steps four and five incorporate school-based strategies aimed at reducing some of the common barriers for autistic students. It is recommended that these strategies be individualised using the information gathered in step one and two. The final two core components are used to monitor and direct future efforts including referral on to additional supports or close monitoring of attendance data. As well as the seven core components, Step-In includes four additional components or steps to be implemented. The need to implement these is identified during the implementation of the core components, typically during steps one and two, however they may also be implemented in response to a reduction in attendance during the monitoring and evaluation stages.

Why ‘Step-In’?

The literature shows that once established, problems with school attendance such as school refusal can be challenging to overcome. A ‘wait-to-fail’ approach, in which a students’ attendance drops below a certain rate before supports are introduced, should be avoided. Step-In outlines a series of strategies that schools can implement quickly to respond to a students’ first signs of school refusal. As an acronym, Step-In represents Supports Towards Engagement, Prevention of school refusal and Inclusion of Neurodiverse students and many of the strategies included in the program are representative of good inclusive education practices. However, the more important message is that rather than waiting, school staff, in collaboration with parents, should be encouraged to step in to support ongoing attendance rather than seek to remedy established school refusal.

Is ‘Step-In’ evidence based?

The Step-In program has been developed based on a body of research literature across several disciplines including education, psychology and behaviour analysis. As of 2024, the Step-In program is in a pilot stage when feasibility of the program, practicality of the procedures within and the potential methods for further research are being investigated. The Step-In program incorporates data collection and evaluation stages which support teachers to build a body of evidence upon which to base their decisions regarding which strategies to implement.

For questions or more information about the ‘Step-In’ program, get in touch!

It’s time to address the gap…

There’s been a gap on this page for quite some time – a gap in what ‘Taylor Behavioural’ is currently working towards. That’s because I’ve been busy trying to contribute to another gap, one that’s much bigger and one that will take a whole lot more than just me to fill.

For over seven years, I’ve worked on trying to understand and find ways to address the fragmentation that currently exists in the literature on how best to support students with school refusal, in particular, autistic students. My interest in this area started when I was tasked with supporting a seven year old girl who refused to attend school and, despite the efforts of her mum was missing over 90% of her school week through various combinations of late arrivals, early departures or entire day absences. This was the first time I’d encountered this story but I’ve come to learn that it’s far from unique, and that it will require a national response to resolve.

Last August, the Senate Inquiry into the national trend of school refusal handed down a series of recommendations. Among these recommendations were; the funding of more research into the effectiveness of interventions for school refusal, work by government child health departments to improve early identification of conditions such as autism, ADHD and anxiety, which are all closely related to the increase in school refusal, collaborative work between education departments and school sectors towards earlier identification of students with school refusal (among other school attendance problems such as school withdrawal) and enhanced flexibility in education options, and improvements to supports currently available to families. The recommendations point to several of the factors that are likely to influence school refusal in young people and were viewed by many as a positive sign.

Last month’s response, or lack thereof, by the federal goverment has underwhelmed many in the field of school refusal. Failure to adopt the recommendation to provide a national action plan means the fragmentation is set to continue. Obviously, education is a state responsibility but there is not enough known about the complexities of school refusal to presume that this widespread problem can be addressed without significant collaboration and planning. Nevertheless, the fact is that the gap remains one that is important to address.

Currently, my attempts to understand and address the gap have led me to conduct a program of research with the goal of developing an intervention package that supports teachers in both the early identification of school refusal and the selection of early strategies to support autistic students who may be headed towards more chronic forms of school refusal.

I’m always happy to share information about what I’m up to so if you’re interested, get in touch!

Make reinforcement a PICnic.

In their book Life’s a PICNIC when you understand behaviour, authors Aubrey Daniels and Alice Lattal describe the application of behaviour analysis to everyday settings and real life situations. They use the ‘PIC-NIC’ analysis to describe how the things that have the most impact over behaviour are generally events that are Positive, Immediate and Certain (PIC) or Negative, Immediate and Certain (NIC).

The PIC explained…

Positive means the outcome needs to be valued by the person whose behaviour is being analysed. Immediate means the outcome (or what is intended to be a reinforcer) needs to be delivered immediately following the desired behaviour. Certain means there should be a guarenteed outcome, the only condition on the outcome is that the desired behaviour occurs.

This thoughtful analysis by Daniels and Lattal is a simple yet effective way to summarise some of the key points regarding the use of positive reinforcement to change behaviour. The added bonus is that the simple idea of PICs and NICs to create behaviour change is supported by decades of behaviour analytic research.

Supporting Effective Responding.

When I started supervising ABA therapists and ABA programs, someone told me that the work with the student is often the easy part; that supporting the people around the student is often more challenging. Maybe it is!

Early on in my time working as a therapist, the little voice inside my head starting telling me that I might be making the wrong decisions when responding to challenging behaviour, naturally, I was happy when this stopped. With time I realised that actually it had just started telling me that I might be making the wrong decisions as a supervisor instead – shout out to the little voice for the tip!

I believe what makes challenging behaviour easier to respond to is an understanding of the principles of behaviour analysis, but also of how to turn down the volume on that voice and get on with the actions that I have seen make a big difference in the lives of those I work with.

Stay tuned for our upcoming workshop – Supporting Effective Responding – designed to upskill and expand the perspectives of those supporting individuals and teams who are faced with challenging behaviour.