The Behavioural Futures Group

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: 
 

  • In what settings do you observe the behaviour? 
  • Are there any settings where the behaviour does not occur? 
  • Who is present when the behaviour occurs? 
  • What activities or interactions take place just prior to the behaviour? 
  • What usually happens immediately after the behaviour? 
  • Can you think of a more acceptable behaviour that might replace this behaviour? 
 

 

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: 
  • What were you thinking just before you threw the textbook? 
  • How did the assignment make you feel? 
  • Can you tell me how (the teacher) expects you to contribute to class lectures? 
  • When you have a "temper tantrum" in class, what usually happens afterward? 

 

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.
 

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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