Experienced and inexperienced health care workers' beliefs about challenging behaviours.

Researchers gave a short survey to 80 residential staff who work with adults with intellectual disability. Half were brand-new, half had years on the job.

They asked each worker why clients hit, scream, or rock, and what they would do about it.

Veteran staff listed more causes and could tell the behaviors apart. Rookies gave one-size-fits-all answers.

Crucially, the vets saw challenging acts as signals of unmet needs, not as calls for attention or escape. Their go-to plan was 'give comfort,' not 'run an FBA.'

Chiang (2008) watched non-verbal autistic kids and found half used hitting or screaming to ask or refuse—clear communicative function. That work says the behavior is purposeful; P et al. show many staff still miss the purpose.

Klatte et al. (2025) asked Dutch speech therapists why they struggle with parents. Same pattern emerged: experience did not equal functional thinking. Both papers flag a training gap that crosses disciplines.

Reid et al. (2005) followed people with severe ID for twelve years and saw early severe behavior plus poor language predicts lifelong problems. If seasoned staff stick with 'needs' talk and skip FBA, those persistent behaviors may never get the right intervention.

Your most senior aide may be the least likely to ask 'What is this behavior getting the client?' Build brief re-training that links experience to function: show how meeting a 'need' can be delivered through communicative replacement. Start veteran staff on simple ABC data during the next shift; their richer observations can speed up the FBA process instead of replacing it.