 Techniques for Conducting
the Functional Behavioural Assessment
| Indirect assessment.
Indirect or informant assessment relies heavily upon the use of structured
interviews with students, teachers, and other adults who have direct responsibility
for the students concerned. Individuals should structure the interview
so that it yields information regarding specific questions such as: |
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In what settings do you observe the behaviour?
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Are there any settings where the behaviour does
not occur?
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Who is present when the behaviour occurs?
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What activities or interactions take place just
prior to the behaviour?
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What usually happens immediately after the behaviour?
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Can you think of a more acceptable behaviour that
might replace this behaviour?
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| Interviews with the student may be useful
in identifying how he or she perceived the situation and what caused her
or him to react or act in the way they did. Examples of questions that
one may ask include: |
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What were you thinking just before you threw
the textbook?
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How did the assignment make you feel?
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Can you tell me how (the teacher) expects you
to contribute to class lectures?
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When you have a "temper tantrum" in class, what
usually happens afterward?
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| Direct assessment.
Direct assessment involves observing and recording situational factors
surrounding a problem behaviour (e.g., antecedent and consequent events).
A member of the IEP team may observe the behaviour in the setting that it
is likely to occur, and record the data.
The observer may use a matrix or scatter plot
to chart the relationship between specific instructional variables and
student responses. These techniques also will be useful in identifying
possible environmental factors (e.g., seating arrangements), activities
(e.g., independent work), or temporal factors (e.g., mornings) that may
influence the behaviour. These tools can be developed specifically to address
the type of variable in question, and can be customized to analyze specific
behaviours and situations (e.g., increments of 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 1
hour, or even a few days). Regardless of the tool, observations that occur
consistently across time and situations, and that reflect both quantitative
and qualitative measures of the behaviour in question, are recommended.
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Data analysis.Once
the team is satisfied that enough data have been collected, the next step
is to compare and analyze the information. This analysis will help the
team to determine whether or not there are any patterns associated with
the behaviour (e.g., whenever Trish does not get her way, she reacts by
hitting someone). If patterns cannot be determined, the team should review
and revise (as necessary) the functional behavioural assessment plan to
identify other methods for assessing behaviour.
Hypothesis statement.
Drawing upon information that emerges from the analysis, school personnel
can establish a hypothesis regarding the function of the behaviours in question.
This hypothesis predicts the general conditions under which the behaviour
is most and least likely to occur (antecedents), as well as the probable
consequences that serve to maintain it. For instance, should a teacher
report that Lucia calls out during instruction, a functional behavioural
assessment might reveal the function of the behaviour is to gain attention
(e.g., verbal approval of classmates), avoid instruction (e.g., difficult
assignment), seek excitement (i.e., external stimulation), or both to gain
attention and avoid a low-interest subject.
Only when the relevance of the behaviour is
known is it possible to speculate the true function of the behaviour and
establish an individual behaviour intervention plan. In other words, before
any plan is set in motion, the team needs to formulate a plausible explanation
(hypothesis) for the student's behaviour. It is then desirable to manipulate
various conditions to verify the assumptions made by the team regarding
the function of the behaviour. For instance, the team working with Lucia
in the example above may hypothesize that during class discussions, Lucia
calls out to get peer attention. Thus, the teacher might make accommodations
in the environment to ensure that Lucia gets the peer attention she seeks
as a consequence of appropriate, rather than inappropriate behaviours. If
this manipulation changes Lucia's behaviour, the team can assume their hypothesis
was correct; if Lucia's behaviour remains unchanged following the environmental
manipulation, a new hypothesis needs to be formulated using data collected
during the functional behavioural assessment.
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