Positive Behavior Support (PBS) refers to many things to many people. However, we employ the term PBS to refer to one thing: A framework for service delivery. At its foundation, PBS is derived from the principles of applied behavior analysis and the seeds for PBS were sown in the 1970s by the founding professionals in their development and examination of nonaversive strategies to address challenging behaviors.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, the “PBS Movement” began to coalesce to not only include strategies, but also principles/tenets. These principles not only described what should be done (e.g., skill developement), but also what should not be done (e.g., punishment), as well as why (e.g., to improve quality of life) and with whom (e.g., stakeholders as well as the individual).