Functional Assessment In Education Settings

CENTER FOR AUTISM AND RELATED DISORDERS, Inc.

Functional Behavior

Assessment in the Education Setting

Sarah Niehoff Clinical Supervisor CARD, Bangkok

What is behavior?

•  Anything an organism does ¡  Can be good or bad ¡  Examples:

–  Breathing –  Eating –  Crying –  Writing Name –  Playing with friends –  Hitting

Terminology

•  Topography = form = physical characteristics of the object or behavior = what things look, sound, smell, ….like.

•  Function = maintaining consequences =

characteristics of the interaction between the behavior and the environment = why do we do what we do = cause of behavior

Terminology

Screaming refers to: Topography or Function

Terminology

Screaming to get out of a task refers to:

Topography or Function

Common Types of Inappropriate Behaviors

•  Physical aggression (hitting, biting, throwing things, etc) •  Self-Injurious behaviors (banging head, biting self, etc) •  Screaming, verbal interruptions (self talk, profanity,

abusive language, etc) •  Non-compliance (refusing to respond or refusing

requests) •  Eloping (getting up and leaving, etc) •  Stereotypy or “Self-Stimulatory”

¡  Verbal, physical, visual •  Culturally inappropriate behavior ranging from violating

personal space to public sexual behavior •  Spitting •  Pica

Why do we care about the function of behaviors?

•  Failure to base the intervention on the specific cause (function) very often results in ineffective and unnecessarily restrictive procedures.

•  For example, consider the child who has learned that screaming is an effective way of avoiding or escaping unpleasant tasks. Using timeout in this situation would provide the child with exactly what he wants (escaping the task) and is likely to make the problem worse, not better.

How does a behavior occur? A - B - C

Antecedent (undesired task e.g. worksheet) Behavior (scream)

Consequences (removal from class)

Variables Controlling Behavior

•  Internal ¡  Antecedents ¡  Consequences

•  External (others control) ¡  Antecedents ¡  Consequences

Non-Social Variables

Internal Antecedents •  Pain •  Fatigue •  Hunger •  Allergies •  Medication •  Room Temperature •  Lighting •  Sensory Needs •  Environmental Agents

(i.e. sugar, etc..)

Internal Consequences •  Self Delivery of

Reinforcer ¡  Tangible ¡  Sensory

•  Self Removal of Aversive Stimulus, Condition, or Event

Behavior Maintained by Automatic Reinforcement

• No auditory

Stimulation • Verbal Stereotypy • Audio

Stimulation

Social Variables

Eternal Antecedents •  Noise/Crowding •  Difficult task •  Low reinforcement given in the

environment •  Teacher’s response to

behavior is conditioned in the student

•  Disrupted routine •  Aversive prompts •  Lacks verbal skills to ask for

reinforcers •  Lacks verbal skills to refuse

requests/demands

External Consequences •  A person delivers a reinforcer •  A person removes an aversive

stimulus, event, or condition

Behavior Maintained by Socially Mediated Reinforcers

Positive Reinforcement Escape

• No attention • Verbal Stereotypy

• Hears teachers exasperated

Voice

• Is asked to clean up • Verbal Stereotypy

• Is not asked to clean up

Behavior Escalation

•  Verbal Behavior ¡  Appropriate verbalizations ¡  Whining ¡  Verbal aggression

•  Physical Behavior ¡  Ignoring ¡  Eloping ¡  Physical Aggression (self and others)

•  Verbal and Physical Behavior ¡  Tantrum ¡  Verbal and Physical Aggression

What Do You Need to Address a Behavior?

Step 1- Define the behavior •  Provide an operational definition of the behavior

¡  Develop an objective, detailed, and behaviorally specific definition or description of the behavior(s)

¡  The definition includes a description of the duration, and intensity, topography of the behavior(s) of the inappropriate behavior(s) as well as of the alternate or incompatible behavior(s).

What Do You Need to Address a Behavior?

Step 2- Collect Data •  Data collection

¡ The scope and comprehensiveness of data collection is tailored to the individual student and to the particular behavior(s) of concern

¡  Ideally, the information is collected from multiple settings; i.e. different classroom, play yard, etc.

¡ Do not collect extended baseline data

Function of the behavior

Step 3- Determine the function • Before we decide WHAT to do to decrease a problem behavior we first must know WHY it’s occurring. 1. Escape 2. Attention (from teachers, staff, students) 3. Tangible (to get something) 4. Automatic (just feels good) • And sometimes when you are lucky, it’s might be more than one of the above.

Functional Behavior Assessment

•  A systematic method use to determine the underlying function or purpose of a behavior, so an effective intervention can be developed.

•  3 types ¡  Direct assessment ¡  Indirect Assessment ¡  Experimental Analysis

Direct FBA

•  Collecting data in the environments in which the problem behavior occurs.

•  ABC data is collected on a specific behavior

•  Tally function of Antecedent and Consequence

Direct FBA

Experimental Functional Analysis

•  Gold standard in research •  Manipulate antecedents and consequences to

determine the function •  More difficult to do in the school setting •  Time consuming •  Needs to be done by a trained professional

Indirect FBA

•  An assessment process to determine the function of a behavior based on interviewing people who know the child (i.e.-teacher, parent, nanny, aide) ¡  Child actually is not involved ¡  Quick – when you need a plan now ¡  Great for low frequency behaviors ¡  Can interview multiple people ¡  No extra data collection throughout the day

Questions to ask… #1

• Does the behavior occur following a request to perform a difficult task?

AUTOMATIC ATTENTION ESCAPE TANGIBLE


• Does the behavior seem to occur in response to your talking to other persons in the room?



• Does the behavior occur to get a toy, food, activity that Tim has been told he can’t have?



• Does the behavior occur repeatedly, in the same way, for longer periods of time if no one is around (e.g., 1 hour of rocking)



•  Does the behavior occur when you make any request of Tim?



•  Does the behavior occur when you take away a food, toy, or activity?



•  Does the behavior occur once you stop attending to Tim?



•  Does Tim seem to enjoy doing the behavior?



•  Does Tim tries to upset or annoy you when you are no paying attention to him?



•  Does the behavior stop occurring shortly after you give the toy, food or activity that Tim requested?



• When the behavior is occurring does Tim seems unaware of what is going on around him?



•  Does it seem that Tim does the behavior to get you to spend more time with him?



•  Does the behavior occur when Tim has been told that he can not do something he wanted to do?


So which type of FBA do I use?

• When compared sometimes conflicting results

¡  Indirect – best ¡  Direct- also good

What next?

•  Now that you know the function of a behavior- make a plan to decrease or eliminate the problem behavior ¡  Antecedent Modifications ¡  Replacement Behaviors ¡  Consequences