News and Knowledge

Sara Baillie is a certified special education teacher and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). She has been working with people with autism in a variety of settings in the Chicagoland area over the past seven years, including schools, home, hospitals, and recreation groups. She is currently working towards her doctoral degree in special education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and hopes to continue to assist with problem behaviors in kids with autism.

When students with autism exhibit undesirable behaviors or act out in ways that are not acceptable, most schools have processes for addressing situations that are serious on their face or have not resolved within the context of standard classroom practices. As part of such processes, teachers or others at the school may be asked to write a functional behavior assessment (FBA). FBAs are being included more and more in IEPs.

If you haven’t written one before, the prospect of doing so can be a little intimidating. And, if you aren’t familiar with what an FBA is and what it is intended to do, you’ll have a difficult time contributing to the process effectively. Whether you are a teacher, supporting team member, or parent, these 10 steps can help:

1. A functional behavior assessment is just what the title says.

• Functional: An FBA is based on the “function” of the behavior. The function is the answer to “why is the student behaving this way?” Everything that we do has a function. Everything we do has a purpose. If you scratch an itch on your leg, it is to make that painful feeling go away. When you go to work, you are expecting to get paid.

• Behavior: It is also important to discuss what a behavior is exactly. A behavior must be something you can clearly define in a way that another person knows exactly what you are talking about.

• Assessment: To assess behavior, you must have data that can be used later to see if the intervention is working. Data can be gathered in many different ways depending on the type of behavior and frequency of the behavior. See step 3 below.

2. Define the undesirable behavior in clear and descriptive terms.

Let’s say that a student hits. Does that mean he slaps your arm or does it mean he punches you in the face? Those are two very different behaviors that could both be categorized as hitting. It is important to clearly define the behavior you are witnessing to ensure that all parties referring to the FBA know exactly what is being described.

3. Start with data to determine the function.

The best way to study behavior is within the context of a controlled environment in which one changes the variables individually over time. A classroom is not a controlled environment in that context and the antecedents of the behavior and the behavior itself are in the past. This leads us to the descriptive assessment which helps reconstruct the behavior in question and the factors (variables) surrounding it. In order to begin a descriptive assessment, you must first gather information. I recommend getting your data from at least two sources.

First, you can use the Functional Analysis Screening Tool (FAST). Google it. Copy the form, and give it to each person who works with the child. Then compile the results. It’s a quick and easy questionnaire that gives a lot of information about possible functions of the behavior.

The second method for obtaining descriptive data is to complete an ABC (antecedent, behavior, consequence) chart. These are very easy to create or you can download a chart from the Internet. An ABC chart records the antecedent (what happens right before the behavior). It also states what the behavior looks like in detail (i.e. hitting and kicking instead of “tantrum”). The “C” in ABC stands for consequence — what happens directly after the behavior. For example, if a child hits you and you yell at them, the consequence was yelling. If a person screams at recess and his or her classmates walk away from them, the consequence is other people leaving.

By looking at and combining the data from these and other sources, one can categorize various antecedents and consequences in order to determine the possible function. For example, you might realize that every time the child is asked to do work, he rips paper. Or, if a child is having a tantrum, his mom stops doing her chores and comes to hug and comfort the child. Possibly, the child is using the tantrum to get that hug.

4. Determine the function of the behavior

Next, you need to use the information you found when gathering data to make a hypothesis about the function of the behavior. Typically, functions fit into one of the four following categories:

• Attention-seeking behaviors: These behaviors have a goal of getting another person’s attention. A baby cries to get his parent’s attention. A colleague says, “Excuse me, I had a few questions for you.” Your 5-year-old says, “Look at me!” A child with autism may hit you repeatedly until you stop what you are doing to look at her.

• Escape/avoidance: Behaviors in this category have a goal of getting rid of something that is undesirable. A student may rip up a paper in hopes that the homework will not need to be completed. A student may run away from recess to avoid a bully. A student with autism may cover his ears to avoid a loud sound.

• Access to an object: When trying to access an object, there are many ways one might try to communicate. A person might order from a menu to get access to the dish he or she wants. A younger child might point at the TV and say “Barney.” A person with a picture exchange communication system might hand someone a picture of a snack.

• Automatic: The function behind behaviors in this category is hard to find, as we cannot see the benefit from the outside. When something inside our body is uncomfortable, we do what we can to fix it. We scratch an itch. We bite our fingernails. We blow our nose. People with autism have other behaviors we may see such as rocking, flapping hands, or bouncing on a therapy ball. All of these activities may give the person an automatic reinforcement by making their bodies more comfortable.

5. Match the function with your intervention

It is very important that you match the intervention with the function of the behavior. For instance, if a student is getting out of her seat and screaming at the top of her lungs, the teacher might think that a good consequence (response) would be a time out to allow the student to calm down and minimize disruption to the class. However, after collecting data, the teacher might realize that the screaming only happens after the student is asked to do work. Therefore, a possible function would be to get out of the work.

If a function of a behavior is to make the work go away, and the student gets sent to time out, then screaming worked. The student got out of my work just like she wanted to. If the consequence decided upon doesn’t match the function, then the behavior will not only most likely not decrease, but there is a chance that the undesirable behavior will actually increase. To address this, move on to Step 6.

6. Teach a replacement behavior

When looking to decrease a problem behavior, it is vital to teach a replacement behavior, meaning what you want the child to do instead. For example, let’s say that a child runs out of the classroom and down the hall every time he needs to use the bathroom. This is a problem because the student didn’t ask for permission and you are concerned about where he is going.

If you stop the child from running out of the room without teaching a replacement behavior, the child might start going to the bathroom in his pants again.

If you want him to ask to use the bathroom, it must be taught. Maybe the child can verbally say “bathroom,” or use a sign to tell you bathroom or maybe a picture exchange.

7. Explain FBA procedures to all involved parties to keep consistency.

Consistency is so important. If everyone in the student’s life understands the plan and works together, the plan will be able to affect the behavior more quickly.

8. Expect an extinction burst.

One aspect of working to decrease a behavior is an “extinction burst.” This means that the behavior may actually get worse before it gets better. Let’s start with a child who cries to get Mom’s attention. If Mom decides to ignore the behavior, the child will cry louder. In the child’s mind, crying always works, so if she cries a little louder, that will work. If that still doesn’t work, the child may progress to lying on the floor and kicking while crying….It goes on and on until Mom responds.

When Mom adopts a new strategy to change the child’s expectations, the child will keep trying the old behavior, and maybe even worse behaviors, to see if anything else will work to get what she wants. This extinction burst does not mean that the plan is not working. Stay consistent, and give the intervention time to produce the desired behavior.

9. Gather data.

Analyzing the data is the only way to judge if the plan is working or not. Especially with problem behaviors, it is hard to just “remember” if it is getting better. This is not the time for subjective analysis. Make sure you record the data as soon as possible so it’s as accurate as possible.

10. Review data and adjust as necessary. It is a fluid document.

An FBA should never be set in stone. The reason we gather data is to be able to adjust as we need to. Refer back to the data often, meet as a team often, and adjust as necessary.

An FBA provides teachers, administrators, parents, and others with information about why a person is exhibiting a behavior, and what can be done to teach other more productive behaviors. Writing an FBA can be a very challenging task and should be done by people with a background in behavior analysis as well as knowledge of the student and environment.