Task Avoidance

Most children occasionally have times when they do not want to do a task because it’s too difficult, unfamiliar, unpleasant, boring, ambiguous or they want to do something else instead. 

Specialist Behaviour Support Services and Speech Pathology

Child at school holding face in hands refusing to take part in the task

Task avoidance behaviour as a part of normal development

Most children occasionally have times when they do not want to do a task because it’s too difficult, unfamiliar, unpleasant, boring, ambiguous or they want to do something else instead. When this happens, adults can help their child by talking through the importance of completing the assigned task, encouraging them and if needed helping them complete the activity. The reluctance or refusal to do the task usually fades away.

Task avoidance as a behaviour of concern

Some children show a repetitive and persistent pattern of only partially completing or totally avoiding the assigned task – is called task avoidance. Task avoidance behaviour is used by the child to escape/avoid a specific activity that they perceive as aversive (meaningless, non-functional, boring); has the potential for causing physical discomfort (e.g. physical pain, injury and experiencing the physical symptoms related to anxiety) and/or psychological discomfort (e.g. thoughts related to anxiety, failing and shame) connected to performing a task. Children with low self-esteem believe that they are less capable than their peers, lack the skills needed to perform a task and even if they put their best effort into the activity they will not succeed.

Impact of task avoidance behaviour

When a child engages in task avoidance behaviour, they experience a temporary sense of relief from the physical and psychological discomfort. However, in the longer term prolonged and ongoing task avoidance leads to the behaviour becoming ingrained.

The example below describes how this happens. Jamie has to leave for a camp on Monday for two nights. She has never been away from home before or gone camping. A week before the camp she starts experiencing anxious thoughts on a daily basis such as, ‘What if nobody sits with me on the bus on the way to camp? What if I can’t do all the outdoor activities? What if I can’t sleep? I’ll lose my new towel. I won’t be able to open my sleeping bag or pack it up and everyone’s going to laugh at me.’ Accompanying these thoughts are a range of physical symptoms. She finds it hard to breathe, feels nauseous, and has trembling and shaky hands. These thoughts and symptoms appear to be getting worse, as she doesn’t know how to deal with them. Mid-week, she starts telling her parents she doesn’t want to go to camp. They try to convince her and encourage her to go, but as the week progresses, she begins to have meltdowns. By Sunday night, Jamie is in such a state that her parents can’t calm her down and are feeling helpless so they tell her she doesn’t have to go to camp. Jamie immediately calms down and it appears that her anxiety has gone away. Her parents feel extremely disappointed because they know how much fun she would have had at camp. The consequences of permitting the avoidance of the camping trip are:

It reinforces that all of her thoughts about camp were true: i.e. that nobody would have sat with her on the bus. She wouldn’t have been able to do all the outdoor activities. She wouldn’t have been able to sleep on camp. She would have lost her new towel. She would have struggled with opening and packing away her sleeping bag and everyone would have laughed at her.

By not going to camp, Jamie has missed out on a ‘corrective experience’ whereby facing her fears she would have realised that some of them were not true and even if something ‘bad’ did happen, it would have been tolerable and not as ‘bad’ as she thought. For example, had she gone on the bus, the peer sitting next to her might have spoken to her for a little while or maybe they would have become good friends. Had she attempted the outdoor activities, she could have seen that other children also struggled and realised she was not too bad at them, or actually quite good at some of them. She might have been able to sleep after all, or spend the night talking to her friends and having fun.

Avoidance reinforces her belief that if all of her fears came true, she wouldn’t have the skills to face and overcome them. It reinforces that it was good that she didn’t go to camp. This reduces her self-esteem and sends the message that the world is a dangerous place, which increases her general feeling of insecurity.

From the example above it’s clear each time a child avoids a task, they experience a temporary loss of the confidence and skills involved in engaging in what they perceive as a challenging task. This in turn makes them increasingly afraid of the task and other similar tasks, allowing the cycle of avoidance to intensify, encouraging further avoidance. The example also highlights the frustration, distress and feelings of helplessness that the families experience. Task avoidance also presents a challenge to contexts such as childcare, preschool, kindergarten, schools, disability support and youth services.

Positive support resources for task avoidance behaviour

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) focuses on evidence-based strategies and person-centred supports that address the needs of the individual and the undertask avoidance questioning causes of behaviours of concern, to enhance the quality of life for both the individual and those that support them.

PBS recognises that there is no single cause for task avoidance behaviour . It is a complex that is a product of the interaction between multiple factors contributing to its development and persistence.

Task avoidance behaviour is like the tip of the iceberg so it is essential to look beneath the surface to work out the why before we can address the problem. Behaviour Help resources are at hand.

 

S for Stealing - Forms cover image

Download this free PDF guide

The forms contained in this pdf booklet are from the S for Stealing: Positive Behaviour Support guide that can be used as part of the process of developing a PBS plan.

Download S for Stealing - Forms

Which resources are right for you?

Apps

Based on the Taking CHARGE of Rainbow of Emotions Workbook this app helps children of all ages develop emotional regulation skills. The app guides the child to firstly, identify and express their emotion in appropriate ways. Then the child is guided to use emotional management tool/s from the CHARGE tool kit to manage their emotions in a healthy way.

The acronym CHARGE stands for the different categories of emotional management tools – Chat tools, Helpful thinking tools, Amusement tools, Relaxation tools, Good routine tools and Exercise tools.

Behaviour Help App - Using the evidence-based approach of Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), the Behaviour Help web-based app allows people supporting individuals with emotional and behavioural difficulties to complete a Functional Behaviour Analysis and put together a comprehensive Behaviour Support Plan (BSP). The BSP can then be used by everyone interacting with the individual to manage and prevent challenging behaviours and ultimately improve their lives, and the lives of those who support them.

Books

Use the practical tools (checklists, forms, and strategies) in T for Task Avoidance: Positive Behaviour Support book to develop comprehensive PBS plans that can be used to support children of all ages consistently in all settings.

This invaluable guide is useful for parents, caregivers, educators in childcare, early childhood, primary and secondary schools, disability, mental health, allied health, and supervisory professionals.

Coaching

Personalised and practical one to one help tailored specifically to your family.

Online Courses

Access these online courses anytime online to learn about a range of diagnoses, practical skills and strategies to help develop the individual’s emotional regulation skills. Also learn to utilise the positive behaviour support framework to address anxiety, aggression, ADHD, ASD and ODD.

SEL Educational Videos

Minimise or eliminate the occurrence of challenging behaviours by teaching children of all ages appropriate ways of communicating, interacting, managing their emotions and behaviours.

The SEL curriculum uses video modelling to provide direct, explicit and systematic teaching of the various skills by discussing the importance of the skill, modelling the skill so the child learns what the skill looks like? sounds like? feels like? and learn the skill in staged situations that simulate real life scenarios.

Therapy

Personalised and practical behaviour therapy tailored specifically to your family.

Webinars

Webinars discuss a range of practical strategies to guide your child learn positive ways of behaving and managing their emotions.

Workshops

Attend our practical and interactive workshops to learn about a range of diagnoses, practical skills and strategies to help develop the individual’s emotions, behaviours, social and communication skills in your learning environment.

Ask Dolly

Since you’re here, you probably have questions and concerns. I am Dolly Bhargava, am here to help. I am a NDIS registered behaviour support practitioner and speech pathologist.

I have worked in a number of settings for over 21 years so, how can I help?

Please tell me what is worrying you right now and I will do my best to recommend resources and/or services that will be most useful to you in your situation.

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