Positive Behaviour Support Strategies
Positive behaviour support strategies are not a fixed checklist. They're a toolkit that gets chosen, shaped and combined based on who the participant is and what the behaviour of concern is telling us. Good PBS assumes one simple thing: behaviour is communication. The job of the practitioner, the family and the support team is to work out what the behaviour is saying, and meet the underlying need in a safer, better way.
Here are the six categories of PBS strategy NDIS practitioners actually use, with plain-English examples you'll recognise.
1. Proactive and Preventative Strategies
Most behaviours of concern don't come out of nowhere. They build, often across hours, sometimes across days. Proactive strategies head things off before they escalate.
Examples:
- Predictable daily routines and clear visual schedules.
- Reducing sensory load (softer lighting, quieter spaces, noise-cancelling headphones).
- Building in planned breaks, rather than waiting for overwhelm to demand one.
- Giving genuine choices throughout the day: what to wear, what to eat, when to take a break.
2. Skill-Building Strategies
Proactive work reduces triggers; skill-building work grows the participant's own capacity. This is the long-game part of the behaviour support plan.
Examples:
- Teaching communication tools the person finds useful: AAC, picture cards, key signs.
- Coping skills for overwhelm: deep pressure, movement breaks, a trusted "safe person".
- Social problem-solving, taught at the right cognitive and developmental level.
- Daily-living skills that grow independence on the participant's terms.
3. Environmental Adjustments
Sometimes the fastest path to change is changing the environment, not the person. A good functional behaviour assessment usually surfaces environmental triggers that a small adjustment can resolve.
Examples:
- Repositioning a workspace to reduce visual or auditory distractions.
- Adjusting a support worker's proximity: closer for co-regulation, further for autonomy.
- Making transitions between activities slower and more visually cued.
- Creating a low-stimulation "reset space" in the home or SIL.
4. Communication and Sensory Supports
For many NDIS participants, particularly participants with autism, the single biggest driver of behaviours of concern is unmet communication and sensory needs.
Examples:
- Giving extra processing time before expecting a response.
- Offering information in the participant's preferred channel (visual, verbal, written).
- Pairing tasks with sensory tools the person finds regulating.
- Checking in with how the environment feels, not just how it looks.
5. Co-Regulation Before Self-Regulation
"Calm down" is not a strategy. Co-regulation, where a trusted person provides the calm and present support that helps the participant settle, is the skill that precedes self-regulation. Especially for children, adolescents, and anyone with trauma or intellectual disability, co-regulation is the strategy that works.
Examples:
- A calm, low-voiced presence in the same room, without demands.
- Mirroring slower breathing.
- Physical comfort (where welcomed and appropriate).
- Removing demands entirely until the participant is ready.
6. In-the-Moment Response Strategies
Even with strong proactive work, moments of crisis still happen. What the team does in those moments matters is not to "stop" the behaviour, but to keep everyone safe and maintain trust.
Examples:
- Reducing demands rather than escalating them.
- Moving to a pre-agreed safe space.
- Following the plan's agreed de-escalation steps, consistently across every team member.
- Debriefing with the participant afterwards, on their terms.
The NDIS Positive Behaviour Support framework explicitly expects in-the-moment responses to be proportionate, safe and covered by a reduction plan. Our blog on restrictive practices covers the safeguards in detail.
What Good PBS Strategies Have in Common
Across all six categories, the strategies that actually work share the same DNA: they are person-centred, evidence-based, consistently applied by everyone in the team, and always paired with a plan to reduce any restrictive practice in use. It's a requirement the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission takes seriously. Peer communities such as Every Australian Counts consistently highlight consistency across the support team as the single biggest predictor of real change.
Want PBS strategies tailored to your participant? Call AH2U on 1300 24 2428 or contact our team to speak with our Positive Behaviour Support specialists.
Positive Behaviour Support
