FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT
FBA is the process of gathering and analyzing information about a student’s behavior and accompanying circumstances in order to determine the purpose or intent of the actions. This investigation is designed to help educators:
- Determine the appropriateness of the student’s present educational placement and services, and whether changes would help the student to display more acceptable behavior
- Identify positive interventions that would reduce the undesirable behavior
- Identify appropriate behaviors to be substituted in the place of the inappropriate ones.
FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR ASSESSMENT IS BASED UPON THE FOLLOWING ASSUMPTIONS:
- Challenging behaviors do not occur in a vacuum; there is a reason for their occurrence
- Behaviors occur in response to an Event
- Behaviors are governed (weakened or strengthened) by the consequences that follow them
- Behavior is a form of communication (i.e., educators need to figure out what a particular behavior is communicating. The displayed action might be saying, in a non-verbal fashion; “I am tired.”, “I am bored.”, “I’m still upset at what happened earlier”, etc.)
- “Misbehavior” might actually be adaptive (justifiable and understandable) given the circumstances. For example, in a classroom in which the teacher is a ineffective manager of student behavior, the student of concern might engage in “inappropriate” actions designed to bond with, and offer protection from bullies.
In this particular case, the “misbehavior” could be designed to avoid victimization by other students in the presence of the non-protective teacher.
It is believed that all behaviors demonstrated by all persons serve a function and have a purpose. If benefits didn’t result from showing certain behavior, then individuals would stop doing them. Usually, our behaviors are meant to do one of two things:
- Obtain something desirable (e.g., attention, money, good grades), or
- Avoid or escape something unpleasant or punishing (e.g., penalties, embarrassment, pain, fear)
FBA IS THE PROCESS OF GATHERING AND ANALYZING INFORMATION ABOUT THE STUDENT’S BEHAVIOR AND ACCOMPANYING CIRCUMSTANCES IN ORDER TO DETERMINE THE PURPOSE OR INTENT OF THE ACTIONS.
FBA was designed to help us:
- Determine the appropriateness of placement and services.
- Identify positive interventions to reduce the undesirable behavior.
- Develop appropriate behaviors to be substituted in replacement of the
inappropriate ones.
FBA is based upon the following assumptions:
- Challenging behaviors do not occur in a vacuum
- Behaviors occur in response to an identifiable stimuli
- Behaviors are governed by the consequences that follow them
- Behavior is a form of communication (we just need to figure out what it says…
“I am tired.”, “I am bored.”, “I’m still upset at what happened earlier.”, etc.) - “Misbehavior” may actually be adaptive given the circumstances (e.g., “My teacher
is a ineffective manager of student behavior. S/he can’t protect me from the thugs
in my class. I better misbehave so that the aggressive kids like me and won’t
victimize me.”)
Behaviors serve a function & have a purpose, usually:
- To get something (e.g., attention, money, good grades)
- To avoid/escape something (e.g., punishment, embarrassment)