Functional Behavior Assessment

1. Functional Behavior Assessment The General Process Troup County School System Psychological Services Department

2. General Process for Conducting an FBA • Phase 1: Identification and description of interfering behavior • Phase 2: Measuring interfering behaviors • Phase 3: Identifying contributing antecedent, individual and consequence variables

3. General Process for Conducting an FBA (continued) • Phase 4: How the FBA contributes to developing a positive support plan • Phase 5: Treatment validity --- Implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of the positive behavior support plan

4. Phase 1: Identification and description of interfering behavior • Assessment methods • Interviews, record reviews, direct observations • Clearly define each behavior • stranger test • Team should agree on definitions • Examples • Aggression = hitting, kicking, pinching other • Oppositional = not complying with teacher requests, not following classroom rules <return>

5. Phase 2: Measuring interfering behaviors • Assessment methods: • Direct observations & recording of interfering behaviors • Guiding questions: • To what degree does the behavior interfere with the student’s academic and/or social functioning? • What is the relative intensity of the behavior? • How often does the behavior occur? • Report “rate” data • Example: # occurrences per school day • Include length of observation per day <return>

6. Phase 3: Identifying contributing antecedent, individual and consequence variables • Identify and describe the variables that influence the onset of the interfering behavior (i.e., antecedents) • Identify variables that reinforce the occurrence of interfering behavior (i.e., consequences) • 3 categories of consequences • Positive Reinforcement • Negative Reinforcement • Automatic Reinforcement

7. Phase 4: How the FBA contributes to developing a positive support plan • Identify antecedent variable => modify variable to reduce the occurrence of identified behavior • Identify individual variables => select logically and socially valid replacement behaviors for student • Identify consequence variables => determine how to avoid reinforcing the interfering behavior and how to reinforce the replacement behavior <return>

8. Phase 5: Treatment validity --- Implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of the positive behavior support plan • Ultimately, the positive behavior support plan should be implemented in order to determine the validity of the FBA!

9. Typical Errors Committed During FBA • Recency error of perception • Generalization of variables present at the most recent presentation of the interfering behavior • Primacy error of perception • Generalization of variables present at the first presentation of the interfering behavior • Error of misplaced precision • Occurs when only the frequency of interfering behaviors are recorded and contextual factors are ignored

10. Typical Errors Committed During FBA (continued) • Error of inaccurate FBA • Incomplete or inadequate FBAs w/ faulty hypotheses • Error of association • Occurs when interviewees assume any present variables are related to the interfering behaviors

11. Reference • Steege, M.W. & Watson, T.S. Best Practices in Functional Behavioral Assessment. Chapter 19 in Best Practices in School Psychology. Vol 2. NASP. Bethsaida, MD.