Behaviour is Information

Understanding the principle

Behaviour provides information about the interaction between a person, their current state, their capacities, their experiences and the environment around them. It is data, not a verdict. But it does not explain itself, and what we observe is not the same as how we interpret it.

The child pushed the worksheet away and left the table is an observation. The child was avoiding work is an interpretation. Good understanding moves carefully from observation to pattern recognition, to hypothesis, to testing and to a refined understanding. Patterns matter more than single moments, sudden change is always important information, and behaviour can communicate a great deal without being deliberate communication. Listening to the child, in whatever way they communicate, is central.

In practice, we look for the earliest signs in a sequence rather than only the final visible behaviour, and we notice what happens afterwards, because that is information too. Records should improve our understanding rather than simply count problems, and observation should never become surveillance. Behaviour also tells us about environments, not only about children.