Functional Behavioral Assessment

Published by James Taylor

PART A

Functional Behavioral Assessment entails a variety of strategies used to assess the interaction existing between a given behavior and the environment so as to have the ability to guess certain functions of the behavior involved (Payne et al., 2007). FBA’s essential components include identification of the behavior, data collection, categorization of the behavior, analysis, formation of a hypothesis and development of an intervention. While identifying the behavior, the description should not be vague since this might hinder effective interventions. Data collection must use both direct and indirect behavior measures. Categorization on the other hand, helps in identifying whether the prevalent behavior is as a result of an eminent deficit in the individual involved. Development of an intervention on its part is based on conclusions developed from the analysis of the behavior at hand.

PART B

FBA has the ability to address a variety of classroom problem behaviors. This includes behaviors that are inherent to the affected students and those that are not entirely under their control. An example of this problem includes fighting. A student might be involved in fights with colleagues as a result of protesting their dissatisfaction on various issues. This might include issues like not having his or her way during various encounters. Initiation of fights might be a way of the student trying to make the others view his/her predicaments. The problem has the ability of affecting the student negatively. It tends to separate the student from the others during such activities. Other students fear the negative repercussions that might befall them. An aspect of loneliness tends to surface, as a result. The student involved with this behavior is also likely to gain injuries now and then due to the physical nature of the behavior. They might be tempted to pick fights with people they cannot handle hence suffer the negative consequences. An appropriate replacement behavior to help address the issue would entail the teacher educating such students how to use verbal communication while protesting. This helps in their views being heard and hence avoiding the negative consequences that come with fights. The corresponding IEP goal is that the student will protest via verbal communication in any event that they feel they are not receiving the desired treatment. There are several function based interventions that can be implemented with regards to this behavior. They include proximity control, discipline privately and behavior shaping. Proximity control entails the teacher being close to the student while they are conducting activities that make them aggressive. Disciplining them privately is also helpful since most students view it as a challenge when being disciplined in front of their peers. Behavior shaping would involve rewarding the student when they act appropriately, something that will always work as a motivation until they get accustomed to behaving in the required manner. The data collection method in this case would be observation and review of other students’ comments during the teacher’s absence.

Another classroom problem behavior that can be addressed by FBA is swearing at a teacher. This behavior might be prevalent when students want to protest against a lack of attention. The main triggers are the feelings of being ignored. In light of trying to negate this aspect, a student might find herself/himself swearing at a teacher. The hypothesized function of the problem is that it is likely to affect the teacher-student relationship. It would be demeaning for any teacher to receive certain responses from a student. It gets even worse when the teacher in question is not aware that the student has that certain behavioral problem. In the long-run, it affects a student’s performance due to the disjointed relationship. A favorable replacement behavior is for the student to learn how to state verbally his or her desire for the teacher’s attention. This helps to prevent the teacher from developing a negative attitude towards the student hence creating the desired teacher-student relationship. The corresponding IEP goal is that the student will seek the teacher’s attention verbally. Function-based interventions that can be used to address this problem include planned ignoring, prevent cueing and positive phrasing. Planned ignoring will work towards eradicating the annoying behavior. When certain actions are ignored, people stop using them since they are not receiving any attention. Preventive cueing on the other hand, will require the teacher to inform the student that he/she is indulging in a behavior that is not acceptable. The teacher can shake her head, frown, snap her fingers or make eye contact as a way of informing the student that he is not behaving desirably, and should stop immediately. A teacher’s observation would be the appropriate method to collect data since he/she is the target of the behavior.

PART C

Stahr, B., Cushing, D., Lane, K., & Fox, J. (2006). Efficacy of a Function-Based Intervention in Decreasing Off-Task Behavior Exhibited by a Student With ADHD. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 8(4), 201-211.

Stahr et al. (2006) assert that students that have hyperactivity disorder/attention-deficit tend to have problems with sustained attention, over-activity and impulsivity. As a result, the behaviors are manifested in a manner that a student has difficulties in following instructions, complying with classroom rules and completing instructional activities. The objective of this study is to analyze the effects that are portrayed by function-based intervention implemented on a student with attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder.

The study’s design included a nine years old student as the only participant. The boy had been diagnosed with ADHD, a speech and language disorder and internalizing behavior disorder (anxiety). The study was conducted in a self-contained school that served children with behavioral and emotional problems. The study’s dependent variable involved on-task behavior. This referred to attending to instructional activities as requested by the teacher. Examples included looking at the teacher while she was giving instructions, seeking assistance, attempting the assigned task and following directions. The functionally equivalent behaviors were instilled by way of requesting help, self-monitoring and planned ignoring. Requesting help was instituted by the participant placing a card color on his desk based on how he is progressing with his work. Self-monitoring helped him monitor his own on-task behavior. With regards to planned ignoring, the teacher was provided explicit strategies on how to ignore the participant.

The overall results after the intervention were that on-task behavior increased by five times that of baseline in math and two times in language. Social validity data also showed that the intervention was generally accepted by the lead teacher, therapist, participant and paraeducator.

Burke, M. D., Hagan-Burke, S., & Sugai, G. (2003). The Efficacy of Function-Based Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities Who Exhibit Escape-Maintained Problem Behaviors: Preliminary Results from a Single-Case Experiment. Learning Disability Quarterly, 26(1), 15.

Burke et al. (2003) postulate that regardless of the FBA’s benefits, there are few researches that have been established to identify how the technology would help students with learning disability. The objective of the study was to assess the usage of FBA while developing an intervention for a student exhibiting learning disability.

For the research design, the study involved a single participant; who was a third-grade student. The study took place in a general education classroom. The participant was nominated by both the special education and general education teachers. First, the researchers conducted FBA on the participant. The FBA included information from teacher interviews, direct observation, school records and curriculum-based measures. Another design involved alternating-treatments to examine the relationship between levels of task management and the intervention. The variables involved in the study included context, behavior, antecedent, peer, and consequence. Visual analysis was used to model the data in order to verify the documentation of the relationship that existed between dependent and independent variables. The participant’s reading teacher considered pre-teaching vocabulary concepts as the most logical intervention. It would ensure that the participant had sufficient background knowledge that would help to complete comprehension tasks.

The results of this intervention within and across-phase analysis pointed to high mean levels of task engagement during comprehension tasks, vocabulary instruction and decoding tasks. Decoding tasks delivered a mean engagement of 91% and the comprehension tasks 99%. This was an indication that FBA can be used to influence instructional planning with the objective of helping students exhibiting various unwanted classroom behaviors to improve.

Payne, L., Scott, T., & Conroy, M. (2007). A School-Based Examination of the Efficacy of Function-Based Intervention. Behavioral Disorder, 32(3), 158-174.

Payne et al. (2007) claim that FBA does not have an extensive research base in school settings. This is because the environments around schools tend to be very complex to allow control of external variables. The objective of the study was to investigate the efficacy and efficiency function-based interventions compared to traditional interventions, which are not function-based.

The research design involved four students; who were all students. The students were derived from school-wide disciplinary referral information. This included students that were above the 95th percentile with regards to the number of office discipline referrals. The study was executed at an elementary school in southeastern United States. Direct and indirect methods of data collection were used. Indirect methods included interviews with parents, teachers, other school personnel, attendance, reviewing academic performance and discipline records. Direct methods included observation, ABC evaluation and assessment of noted behavior. Each student was subjected to a different intervention depending on the nature of their behavior. The interventions involved included allowed access in the form of earned breaks, earned passes and encouraging verbal comments.

The impact of the functionally based intervention was that it decreased the students’ undesirable behaviors significantly. The introduction of non-function based intervention resulted to increases in these behaviors. This meant that function based interventions are more effective with regards to reducing problem behaviors.

References

Payne, L., Scott, T., & Conroy, M. (2007). A School-Based Examination of the Efficacy of Function-Based Intervention. Behavioral Disorder, 32(3), 158-174.

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