ABC (antecedent, behaviour & consequence) Table

If a child is exhibiting a particular behaviour and you want to identify why it is occurring and what the child may be communicating, an ABC table can help. It is an observational tool, we have ours uploaded to sharepoint so that anyone can access it, and complete it on an iPad shortly after a behaviour occurred. Alternatively you can print it out and have it close at hand within the classroom.

The antecedent is what happened just before the behaviour occurred. You may want to include factors such as the noise level in the classroom, how busy it was, temperature, proximity to others

The behaviour is what occurred e.g. ‘child x’ knocked the books deliberately off the shelf.
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The consequence is what happened immediately after the behaviour. This is both for the child that exhibited the behaviour and to those who were affect by it. It can also include the effect on the environment.