Functional Assessment
&
Behavior Support Plans
For Charter Schools
March 2011
Presented by: Cindy Myers
Comprehensive Behavior Specialist
Behavior Serves a Purpose
• Get/Obtain
– Attention
– Tangible
– Activity
– Sensory
• Avoid/Escape
– Attention
– Activity
– Sensory, pain, discomfort
• To determine what purpose or function the
behavior serves for an individual, you must
conduct a functional assessment!
Functional Assessment is a Process
Determine characteristics of the
– Individual
– Environment
that exert an influence on the appearance of
behavior
Characteristics of the Individual:
• Physical
– Health related difficulties that affect sleep, mood, general wellbeing, affect/emotion
• Learning
– Executive function, memory, language-communication, auditory
or visual, individual vs group instruction, strategies, processing,
math-reading-writing
• Self-regulation
– “constitutional” factors, tolerance to stimuli, executive function,
frustration tolerance, delay of gratification, organization,
attention, concentration, self-soothing
• Social-emotional
– Response to authority, coop with peers, interests, friendships,
support network, problem solving, introvert/extrovert
Characteristics of the Environment
• Structure
– Physical layout, temporal organization, stimulation,
transitions, predictability
• Instruction
– Planning, organization, support, style, group size
• Expectations for Behavior
– School & classroom expectations, taught,
precorrection, praise, systematic reinforcement,
feedback
• Teacher & Relationship factors
– Preparation, skill, personal attributes, style, flexibility
To repeat:
• Functional Assessment is a process
• to gather information about factors related to
the student and the environment
• that influence behavior
• To determine what purpose the behavior
serves for the individual
3 different methods of FA
• Interviews, checklists, & questionnaires
• Direct Observation
• Functional Analysis Manipulations
Functional Analysis Manipulations
• Mini experiments
• Not recommended in school settings
Interviews, Checklists, Questionnaires
• A variety of instruments, tools, forms for
collecting information
• Common tools include:
– File review
– FAI, Student Directed FAI
– MAS
– FAST
– District specific forms
• One of these alone does not constitute a FA!
Motivation Assessment Scale
Durrand & Crimmins
3/22/11
MOTIVATION ASSESSMENT SCALE
(Durand & Crimmins, 2001)
ITEM
1.
Would the behavior occur continuously, over and
over, if this person was left alone for long
periods of time? (For example, several hours.)
RESPONSE
Never
Almost
Never
Seldom
Half the
Time
Usually
Almost
Always
Always
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
2.
Does the behavior occur following a request to
perform a difficult task?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
3.
Does the behavior seem to occur in response to
your talking to other persons in the room?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
4.
Does the behavior ever occur to get a toy, food,
or activity that this person has been told he/she
can’t have?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Would the behavior occur repeatedly, in the same
way, for very long periods of time, if no one was
around? (For example, rocking back and forth
for over an hour.)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
6.
Does the behavior occur when any request is
made of this person?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7.
Does the behavior occur whenever you stop
attending to this person?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
8.
Does the behavior occur when you take away a
favorite toy, food, or activity?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
9.
Does it appear to you that this person enjoys
performing the behavior? (It feels, tastes, looks,
smells, and/or sounds pleasing)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
10. Does this person seem to do the behavior to
upset or annoy you when you are trying to get
him or her to do what you ask?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
11. Does this person seem to do the behavior to
upset or annoy you when you are not paying
attention to him/her? (For example, if you are
sitting in a separate room, interacting with
another person)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
12. Does the behavior stop occurring shortly after
you give this person the toy, food, or activity
he/she has requested?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
13. When the behavior is occurring, does this person
seem calm and unaware of anything else going
on around him/her?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
14. Does the behavior stop occurring shortly after (1
to 5 minutes) you stop working or making
demands of this person?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
15. Does this person seem to do the behavior to get
you to spend some time with him/her?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
16. Does this behavior seem to occur when this
person has been told that he/she can’t do
something he/she had wanted to do?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
5.
Information to Consider:
• Communication Style
• Social Support Network
• Student Learning Style compared to Teacher
Style (Environmental Fit)
• History of the Behavior & Previous
Interventions
• Impact or Seriousness of Behavior
Now What?
• Analyze the information
• Are there setting events consistently
associated with the behavior?
• Are there antecedents or triggers consistently
associated with the behavior?
• What consequences maintain the behavior?
• What function does it serve?
• Keep a “paper trail” of the process!
• The culmination of the information gathering
process is to end up with a hypothesis about
the function of the behavior!
Develop a Hypothesis
Setting events
Antecedent/triggers
Behavior
Function
Collect Direct Observation Data
• Direct Observation data either
– Provides evidence to support your hypothesis
– Provides evidence that you may want to revise
your hypothesis
Direct Observation Data
• Best choices
• FAO by Dr. Rob O’Neill
• Structured A-B-C form (modified from Brian
Iwata)
Structured A-B-C
Structured Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence Analysis Form
Date
Time
Staf f
Student:___________________________
Behavior(s):
1.
2.
3.
Use this f orm to identif y situational
f actors related to the occurrence of a
behavior problem. Each time the
behavior occurs, record the date, time
and your initials. Use check marks to
identif y the target behavior, location,
activity, and w hat happened immediately
bef ore and af ter the behavior.
Location:
Desk
Horseshoe table
Playground
Caf eteria
Regular ed. room
Other
Data on antecedents and consequences
can be summarized in the boxes below
(note: some behaviors may ref lect more
than one f unction). In each box, enter
the number of times an antecedent or
consequence w as checked, using the
arrow s as guides. Enter the overall
totals at the bottom of each column.
Activity in progress:
IEP programs
Group activity
Recess/f ree play
Lunch or snack
Leisure (solitary)
Leisure (social)
Im m ediate antecedent:
Ignored by staf f
Leisure material/f ood removed
Request denied
Given instruction/prompted
Provoked by peer
None/student doing nothing
---->
------------------------>
Im m ediate consequence:
Attention/stopped/Chair Aw ay
Redirected to another activity
Leisure material or f ood given
Work requirement terminated
Staf f w alked aw ay
Staf f did nothing
---->
---->
---------------------
adapted from a form created by Iwata at the Florida Center on Self-Injury
---------------------
---------------------
---->
---->
------ ------ ---->
------ ------ ---->
------ ------ ------ ------ ---->
---->
---->
------ ------ ---->
------ ------ ---->
------ ------ ------ ------ ---->
R+
R+
(attention) (materials)
R(escape)
R(sensory)
Based on Your Hypothesis, Choose an
Alternative Replacement Behavior
• This behavior MUST serve the same function
as the problem behavior!!
• Use “The Competing Behavior Diagram”
model to visually describe the results of your
Functional Assessment
Competing Behavior
Diagram
Setting Events
Triggering
Antecedents
Desired
Alternative
Typical
Consequence
Problem
Behavior
Maintaining
Consequences
Acceptable
Alternative
4/13/2015
22
BEHAVIOR SUPPORT PLANS
Intervention Plans
• An intervention plan should address each area of
the Competing Behavior Diagram
–
–
–
–
Setting Event strategies
Predictor/trigger/antecedent strategies
Teaching strategies to teach replacement behavior
Consequential strategies
• How not to reinforce problem behavior
• How to reinforce replacement behaviors
• An intervention plan is not a single strategy, but a
cluster of strategies
Setting Event Strategies
• Strategies to “mitigate” or address those
things which “set the student up” for problem
behaviors
• Usually involve structural changes
– Alter the physical setting
– Enrich the environment
– Improve the activities or curriculum
– Predictability and choice options
Trigger or Predictor Strategies
• Triggers are those things that “set the student
off”
• Identify strategies to eliminate or mitigate the
trigger
• Antecedent Strategies
• See handout
Teach Strategies
• Strategies to teach alternative replacement
behaviors
– Social skills
– Communication strategies
– Academic skills & strategies
– Compensatory strategies
– Emotional regulation strategies
– See handout
Consequential Strategies
• What will you do when the problem behavior
occurs?
• What reinforcers will be used (including
schedules of reinforcement) to increase the
use of the replacement behavior
• See handout
Develop a Data Collection System
• How will the intervention be monitored?
Train those who will implement
• Do all staff members know what to do and
how to do it?
• Do all staff members know how to collect the
data?
• Do all staff members know what to do when
the problem behavior occurs?
Review Data
• Schedule a time to review the data to see if
the intervention is working
– About 2 weeks
– Decide next steps
• Continue with plan
• Revise plan
FBA & BIP
• Functional Assessment is a process
• Looks at relationships between physiological &
environmental factors & problem behavior
• Ends with a hypothesis
• BIP must be directly related to FA results
• BIP must address “prevention” or antecedent
strategies, teaching replacement behaviors, and
reinforcing replacement behaviors
• BIP does not outline what the student must do,
but what the staff does!