Social psychological models of reasoned action, and behavioural models ofverbal behaviour, predict that caregiver beliefs and attributions partiallydetermine their responses to challenging behaviours. The present studyexamined the relationship between special educators’ causal attributions andthe underlying function of challenging behaviours in children with learningdisabilities. Sixty special school staff were presented with two questionnairevignettes describing attention seeking and task avoidance behaviour. Theywere then asked to identify the likely causes of the behaviours. Onlya small proportion of participants made accurate causal attributions aboutthe two examples of challenging behaviour. In addition, staff experience hadlittle effect on the accuracy of attributions. Implications for futureresearch, for staff training, and analysis of challenging behaviours arediscussed.