Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA): Importance and Assessment
As a practicing independent Behavior Analyst, you have received an email from a staff member representing a provider of education and/or human services requesting your services. Specifically, this staff member has asked you to meet with other staff and/or administrators to develop a behavior intervention plan for a third-grade student at a local elementary school. This student is demonstrating significant problem behaviors in the form of disruptive behaviors in his classroom and in other settings within the school (lunch, recess, specials, etc.). Disruptive behaviors have been termed “aggressive” and “non-compliant” by school staff.
Please detail responses to the following:
Specify the referral problem. Be creative and describe the type of provider that has requested your services, the client, and provide operational definitions for the problem behaviors indicated in the scenario.
In a script or narrative format, provide information to the members of the “planning” meeting including the following:
Describe the specific purposes of a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) and discuss why conducting the FBA prior to the development of a behavior intervention plan is important.
Describe, in specific detail, how antecedent stimuli and conditions could be potentially important for the assessment of the target behaviors in the scenario. Please include discussion of the influence of Discriminative Stimuli and Motivating Operations in triggering the target behaviors.
Describe, in specific detail, how Consequence stimuli and conditions could be potentially important for the assessment of the target behaviors. Be sure to indicate the influences of Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, and Automatic Reinforcement in maintaining the target behaviors.
Describe three (3) Indirect Functional Assessment procedures that you may be implementing during the process of the Functional Behavioral Assessment. Be sure to specify how they will be used and the purpose of each tool.
Describe three (3) Direct Descriptive Assessment procedures you may be implementing during the process of the Functional Behavioral Assessment. Be sure to specify how they will be used and the purpose of each tool.
Describe, in specific detail, at least two (2) ethical obligations and/or concerns that would be necessary to address within the current case scenario. (You may use either, or both, APA and BACB guidelines as reference).
Tips for developing your responses:
The staff that you are presenting to think that, as a Behavior Analyst, you will be able to develop a behavior plan on the spot during this meeting that is both easy to administer and effective at modifying the behavior of the client in question. The staff clearly knows nothing about behavioral assessment processes. It is your job to assist them in understanding the process of Functional Behavioral Assessment and its necessity before any interventions can be developed and implemented.
Be sure to discuss antecedent stimuli and consequence stimuli based on the function (purpose) that the target (problem) behavior serves and not the choice of intervention. The goal is to identify variables that are related to the occurrence of the problem behavior, not to develop an intervention.
Be mindful of making solid choices of the procedures you will be highlighting based on the scenario presented as well as rationales for your choices.
DO NOT focus on the use of diagnoses or labels.
You may take creative license and add to the scenario by fleshing out the student’s history or presenting problems if you choose.
Indirect Assessment Tools/Procedures:
Review of records
Analysis of rating scale results
Behavior-Analytic Problem-Solving Interview (BAPS-I)
Behavioral Stream Interview (BSI)
Directive Descriptive Tools / Procedures:
Task Difficulty Antecedent Analysis Form
The Conditional Probability Record
The Functional Behavioral Assessment Form
Interval Recording Procedures
Task Analysis Recording Procedure
Reference Text Book
Steege, M. W., Pratt, J. L., Wickerd, G., Guare, R., & Watson, T. S. (2019). Conducting School-Based Functional Behavioral Assessments (3rd ed.). Guilford Publications, Inc.. https://purdueuniversityglobal(dot)vitalsource(dot)com/books/9781462538744
FBA Importance and Assessment.
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FBA Importance and Assessment.
A staff member at a nearby elementary school has requested behavior analysis services to create a plan for intervention for a third-grade student displaying problematic behavior. The client is a third-grade student, and the provider of education and/or human services is the elementary school. The student's disruptive behaviors are being observed in various school settings, including the classroom, lunch, recess, and specials.
As you may be aware, an essential aspect of creating a successful behavior intervention plan is conducting a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) (Case-Smith & O'Brien, 2014). This assessment has multiple purposes, such as identifying the specific problematic behaviors, understanding the purposes that these behaviors serve the individual, and identifying the environmental factors contributing to the behaviors.
When discussing the development of the behavior intervention plan, it is imperative to emphasize the importance of considering antecedent stimuli and conditions while evaluating target behaviors. Steege et al. (2019) defines antecedents as events or circumstances that occur immediately before the behavior of interest and can trigger or maintain that behavior. Therefore, it is essential to assess the antecedents that are associated with the target behavior to develop effective interventions.
Motivating operations are another type of antecedent that can influence behavior. Steege et al. (2019) explains that a motivating operation is any event or condition that increases or decreases the value of a specific outcome or consequence.
I want to take this opportunity during the planning meeting to highlight the significance of considering consequence stimuli and conditions when evaluating target behaviors. According to Steege et al. (2019), consequences refer to the events or conditions that occur immediately after the behavior of interest and can be an essential factor in maintaining or reducing the behavior.
Positive reinforcement refers to a consequence where a desirable stimulus or reward is added after a behavior to increase the probability of the behavior occurring again in the future. Negative reinforcement is another form of consequence that involves removing an aversive stimulus or consequence after the behavior, intending to increase the likelihood of the behavior occurring again in the future. Automatic reinforcement is a third type of consequence that does not involve social or external stimuli. Instead, the behavior itself produces a reinforcing consequence, such as sensory stimulation or self-stimulation.
In this planning meeting, I will discuss three indirect functional assessment procedures that can be implemented during the functional behavioral assessment process. These procedures can assist in gathering information about a student's behavior and identifying its underlying function (Case-Smith & O'Brien, 2014). The first procedure is the Behavioral Interview. This structured interview is conducted with the student, parents, teachers, and other individuals familiar with the student's behavior. The Behavioral Interview aims to collect data on the antecedents and consequences of the target behavior, and to identify any potential underlying factors that may contribute to the behavior.
To obtain useful information during the Behavioral Interview, we can ask questions such as "What occurs before the behavior happens?" "What happens immediately after the behavior occurs?" and "Have there been any recent changes in the student's life that may have affected their behavior?" The answers can assist in identifying patterns in the behavior and potential triggers or reinforcing consequences that sustain the behavior.
The second ...