Summary of Function Based
Behavioural Assessment
Leading Behaviour Change
Providing Behaviour Support to All Students
Link Individual Support to Schoolwide PBS
• Using Schoolwide PBS a three tiered prevention logic is
applied to the provision of student support:
• Universal for all
primary prevention
• Secondary for some
classroom and small group
• Tertiary for a few
functional behaviour
assessment and targeted
support
CONTINUUM OF
SCHOOL-WIDE
INSTRUCTIONAL &
POSITIVE behaviour
SUPPORT
FBA
~5%
~15%
Primary Prevention:
School-/ClassroomWide Systems for
All Students,
Staff, & Settings
~80% of Students
Tertiary Prevention:
Specialised
Individualised
Systems for Students with
High-Risk Behaviour
Secondary Prevention:
Specialised Group
Systems for Students with AtRisk Behaviour
Positive
Behaviour
Support
Social Competence &
Academic Achievement
Supporting
Decision
Making
Supporting
Staff Behaviour
PRACTICES
Supporting
Student Behaviour
Why Do People Behave?
• In most instances the reasons are obvious:
– “I ate the chocolate cake because it
tasted good”
• At other times it may be more difficult to understand
why people behave in certain ways:
– “Jared punched himself in the face 112
times today”
What is a Functional Perspective?
A functional perspective
is a way of looking at behaviours
as a means of fulfilling a need for a student
(e.g., attention, avoidance of work).
It asks the question:
“Why did the student do that?”
© Missouri PBS Institute 2005
What is Functional Behaviour Assessment?
• A systematic individualised process for developing
statements about factors that:
– contribute to the occurrence and maintenance
of problem behaviour
– more importantly, serve as basis for
developing proactive & comprehensive
behaviour support plans
- Sugai
Functional Behaviour Assessment is Not…
• The first thing a teacher uses when a student misbehaves
• A quick fix
• About changing students’ behaviour (emphasis on adult
behaviour)
• A do-it-yourself technique (requires a collaborative team
approach)
• A fad – based on research-validated practices in real
settings
Functions of Behaviour
• Behaviour is functionally related to the teaching
environment
– it doesn’t occur in a vacuum.
– When a person acts, even when their behaviour is
considered to be inappropriate, they do so to achieve a
result.
– The result or desired outcome is viewed as the
consequence or function of the behaviour.
Function = outcome, result, purpose, consequence
Function and Form
The function of the behaviour is legitimate but the form of the
behaviour may be unacceptable in the setting:
– ‘Butting in’ to access entry to a game.
– Leaving seat to access teacher attention.
– Putting head on desk to escape difficult task.
– Fighting to access sensory reinforcement.
Functional Explanations
Explain behaviour in terms of its current
environmental purpose or function.
“He engages in out of seat behaviour a lot
because
1) it reliably gets his teacher’s attention, or
2) he gets a motor break, or
3) he avoids having to begin a difficult task ”
Non-Functional Explanations
Contrast functional methodology for
understanding human behaviour with “internal
construct” approaches:
“He gets out of his seat a lot because:
1) he has ADHD, or
2) he is acting out trauma suffered at age
two, or
3) he is at a certain cognitive level of
development.”
‘Internal Construct’ Explanations
Internal construct statements may be correct, but
they provide limited explanations for behaviour or
practical ways for teachers to intervene:
– They do not explain why the problem is experienced in
some settings and not others.
– They are not observable or measurable
– They may rule out simple environmental changes that
could improve the situation.
– They encourage locating the ‘problem’ in the learner.
Functions
•
•
Only two research-validated functions to peoples’ behaviour:
To access something (positive reinforcement)
– “Positive reinforcement is the condition in which a
behaviour has an increased likelihood of occurring in the
future if something (object or event) is given or presented
after the behaviour occurs.”
To avoid or escape something (negative reinforcement)
– “Negative reinforcement is the condition in which a
behaviour has an increased likelihood of occurring in the
future if something (object or event) is avoided, escaped,
or removed after the behaviour occurs.”
Sugai & Horner
Functions
Problem
Behavior
Behaviour is
Positively
reinforced
Obtain/Get
Something
Stimulation/
Sensory
Tangible/
Activity
Social
Adult
Behaviour is
Negatively
reinforced
Escape/
Avoid
Something
Peer
Non-Functions
• Examples of non-functional (inappropriate) labels:
“Power and control,” “bullying,” “authority,”
–
–
–
–
–
–
“intimidation”
They go beyond the behavioural foundations
Locate problem within students
Lack empirical verification
Not observable and therefore measurable
Focus responsibility for change on the student
Are not useful in the active design of behaviour support
-Sugai
Function and Form
Interventions that only focus on the form of a behaviour
but fail to address the function of the behaviour are
always ineffective in the long term.
Interventions based on function are more likely to be
successful and durable.
Conducting a Functional Assessment
• Screen the problem for seriousness
– Eliminate possible medical causes
– Test for any cultural bias
– Can you eliminate the problem through correct application of
universal and classroom strategies?
– Use only evidence-based strategies
– Focus on teacher behaviour – timeliness, organisation of
instruction, ratio of positive to negative interactions
– Attention to ecological factors: physical, social (expectations),
curriculum
– If no significant improvement proceed to functional
assessment
Conducting a Functional Assessment
• Form a collaborative team
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Team members must know the student
Active administrator involvement
Use facilitator trained in Functional Assessment
Form an agenda for each meeting
Time limit for each step
Keep minutes
Define responsibilities – who what when
Conducting a Functional Assessment
• Define the behaviour in concrete terms
– Teacher must be able to pinpoint behaviour causing learning
or discipline problems
– Behaviour must be observable and measurable
– Not, “Warren is aggressive”, but
– “Warren hits his peers if they come close to him when he has
the ball”
Conducting a Functional Assessment
• Collect data
– Indirect data collection: student learning and social history,
including family and medical
– History of school interventions and their outcomes
• Behavioural
• Academic
– Direct data collection: based on observation of student in actual
settings where behaviour occurs
• Frequency within interval
• ABC Narrative
• Scatter plot and graph
Conducting a Functional Assessment
• Analyse the data
– Use data to formulate problem behaviour pathways
• Describe the behaviour
• Describe the maintaining consequences
• Indicate environmental conditions in which the behaviour is
likely to occur (“setting events”)
• Identify factors that occasion the behaviour (“triggers”)
– Methods:
• Problem behaviour pathways
• Data triangulation
• Summary statements
Conducting a Functional Assessment
• Formulate and test hypotheses
– What is the purpose or function of the behaviour?
– Predict the general conditions under which the problem
behaviour is more likely and less likely to occur
– Experimentally manipulate some of the relevant conditions
affecting the behaviour
– If the behaviour remains unchanged then re-examine the
hypothesis with a view to changing it
Function Based Support Planning
• Behaviour intervention plans should include
– Well formed goals
– Structured tasks and reinforcements for school personnel
– Positive strategies, programs and curricular and pedagogical
manipulations
– Supplementary aids and supports that address the behaviour
of concern
– Emphasise skills needed by the student to achieve success
and how those skills can be taught and practised
– Evidence-based practices that provide proper motivation,
e.g., differential reinforcement
Function Based Support Planning
•
Evaluate the support plan
1. Measure fidelity: consistency with which the plan is
implemented
•
Constantly check for ‘contextual fit’: is it possible for
the teacher to actually implement the plan?
2. Measure behavioural changes
•
Use direct observation data and summary graphs
3. Team review and re-evaluation of support plan at
least annually and as required