Behavioural

A psychologist undertakes a behavioural assessment to try and understand why a particular behaviour or group of behaviours occur. A psychologist is interested in knowing for example, whether there are particular triggers for behaviour, if there is a time in the day when a behaviour is most likely to occur and how the behaviour is managed by the child themselves and the adults around them. To get at this kind of information, the child is observed at home and possibly at school too. The psychologist will ask for the views of the child (where appropriate), parent and teacher about the child's behaviour and may also ask parents and teachers to keep a diary of when behaviours occur and how they are dealt with. This information is then used to think about how to manage behaviour differently, and in the case of brain injury where it is sometimes difficult for children to change their behaviour, to modify the environment to make behaviours less likely to happen.

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