Functional Behavioral Assessment

When a student who has a disability’s educational placement is changed due to challenging behavior, a functional behavior assessment must be conducted. Functional behavior assessment (FBA) is used to aid in the development of behavior intervention plans (BIP’s). In a functional assessment, the type and the source of reinforcement for problem behaviors are used as a basis for intervention efforts that are designed to increase occurrence. Functional analysis can also be used to determine the specific function of a behavior, but FBA’s are more commonly used, especially in school settings. In a functional analysis (FA), antecedents and consequences that represent those in the person’s natural environment are arranged so that their effects on the problem behavior can be observed and measured. The difference between a functional analysis and functional behavior assessment is that the assessment establishes a connection between the behavior and antecedent or the consequent variables, but a functional analysis identifies informal relationships. For this reason, a functional analysis is seen to be a more valid tool for identifying the function of a behavior; however, there are limitations to using a functional analysis. This method may momentarily strengthen the problem behavior or result in the behavior acquiring new functions. Federal mandates like IDEA 2004 and school reforms such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) have played a role in the increase of the

Functional behavioral assessments have two major components, identifying and defining target behaviors as well as conducting behavior observations. The assessment should begin with indentifying and defining targeted behaviors and the best way to do that is to conduct a formal interview of the student. The interview should include family who are directly connected to the student's home life as well as the staff involved with the student. The interview should reveal important things like when does the behavior occur during the day, how frequently, what the behavior is receded by, what

|The duration of this behavior is exhibited daily in 3 out of 6 class periods. |

What is the assessment purpose of the Behavior Assessment Scale for Children-2 and what disabling conditions can be accommodated? This is used to appraise students

Dylan was observed on August 29th, 2016. Dylan, his mother, as well as the B.A.T clinical team were present to conduct a descriptive functional assessment, which consisted of direct observation of behavior and an Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) narrative recording in the family home. Alexandria acted as the ASL translator.

I've generally heard somewhat about the RTI, yet one that contrasted from what I have experienced in the educational system is the Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA). This permits a methodical procedure for social occasion data that decides

Behavior analysis, health care professionals, and psychologists require competent procedures to find responses to relevant questions and to stay current with scientific literature. Behavior analyses use the best research that is evidence-based that supports clinical expertise and patient values (Walker, 2007). It makes significant differences in how effective more or less interventions are with clients, their families and society (Slocum, 2012). Clients deserve the best care and expertise that they can receive when it comes to their health and well being. Therefore, behavior analysis use work as a psychology professional to ensure the best type of interventions and therapy is provided to their clients. Before implementing a behavior change a functional assessment must be completed on the client.

In regards to functional behavioral assessment, many articles have been analyzed for this paper which review what FBA is, various areas of studies further investigating FBA, why FBA should be taught to pre-service teachers, how it is implemented within elementary school, and continuing. While reading these articles a few suggestions come to mind in which future research could be conducted to advance the use of FBA and how it could be used to assess students with more accuracy. A suggestion towards future research in this area of expertise would be to conduct a study focusing on a selected amount of students from elementary school to high school. With findings in research like this would help identify a student’s development over

The next intervention, Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) (Tobin et al., 2000), is also used in conjunction with other interventions as mentioned above. An FBA is rooted in the field of applied behavior analysis and identifies the antecedents and consequences for the behavior (Flower, 2011) and is a mandate of IDEA (Regan, 2011). It also acts as a guide to selecting interventions to address the problem behaviors (Binkiker and Pindiprolu, 2008). FBA’s are “based on the assumptions that (a) problem behaviors serve functions for a person who displays them and (b) all behavior problems are learned” (Binkiker et al., 2008 p. 68). The process of conducting an FBA “is a problem-solving approach that relies on selecting relevant environmental factors for identifying the primary motivations for the problem behavior and using that information as the centerpiece for developing an individual behavior intervention plan” (Wehby and Kern, 2014 p. 42).  When referring to the function of the behavior, it is the purpose that the behavior is serving.  There are 5 categories that the behavior can fall into and Gersham (2007) describes them as:

disruptive behaviors. BPT results in children’ s becoming not just compliant, but more compliant, than other children who do not have any significant behavioral problems, to their parents’ instructions. In addition to altering behaviors, BPT changes the parents-child interactions reduces parents’ stress. BPT is part of a multicomponent intervention for preventing serious conduct problems in school-age youth as well (Spiegler, 2016).

1) A functional assessment of a problem behavior would be gathering information about antecedents and consequences that relate to the behavior. It is important to conduct functional assessment because it gives you information that helps you determine why a problem behavior is happening.

What this does is educate you more deeply into this condition, and the behavior is monitored and perhaps even charted to keep track of it, meanwhile the behavioral patterns can remain as you replace the specific habits

The behavioral analyst utilizes the (FBA) functional behavior assessment because of its ability to enable a hypothesis about a relation between specific environmental events and behaviors. The use of functional analysis allows for antecedents and consequences that are displayed in an individuals natural environment. They are arranged because they have separate effects on a behavior that can be observed and measured. When using a (FBA) function behavior assessment it provides a hypothesis about a particular behavior in an environment indirectly, while the functional analysis assess a behavior directly in an natural environment.

Prior to the implementation of this intervention study, the previous available data was analyzed through a functional behavior assessment. This assessment examined all of Matthew’s target behaviors in addition to the antecedents and consequences of the behavior. The assessment also evaluated possible correlations between the environmental triggers such as time of the day, lighting, noises, temperature, etc. and the targeted behaviors. Furthermore, Matthew’s parents and school staff, who interacted with him, were interviewed. The teachers noticed a pattern for the approximate time and task of when the behaviors occurred. The functional behavior assessment and informal interviews identified that Matthew’s aggression is predominantly related to his attempt to escape from academic demands placed by adults in the classroom. The naturalistic observations also helped the authors to notice the time of day when the behavior most likely occurred. Shortly after the school day started, the students participated in mathematics class. Each child had to complete a worksheet, and to avoid task completion; Matthew demonstrated aggressive behaviors towards the nearest adult(s). The functional behavior assessment results enhanced the professionals’ knowledge about the background of environmental and other related variables, which may reinforce the targeted behaviors.

As soon as possible, the teacher must find out if a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) has been done. If not, it is time to begin the process.The main question is: Is this behavior related to Edward’s disability? To activate the process, a Manifest Determination Review (MDR) meeting must take place within ten days to determine if Edward’s behavior is