Functional Behavioural Assessment Case Study

Functional Behavioural Assessment Case StudyFunctional deportmental Assessments for SeanSiobhan L. HealyIntroductionMrs. Valdez, a second shape t distributivelyer at Hacienda Elementary School, contacted me via email requesting my services regarding cardinal of her students. Mrs. Valdez would like me to meet with her and several administrators, including the principal of Hacienda Elementary School, to disput optione the students behavioural issues. The subject of concern is Sean, a 9 year old boy, who had been held back to repeat second grade due to his ADHD and the resulting inattentiveness and failing grades. Sean is describe as a bright and lovable boy at enlighten and at home but due to his (recently diagnosed) ADHD, he is often inattentive during class, jumps expose of his seat and throws crumbled up school papers at peers when asked to complete a task.His lack of concentration and the inability to finish any task at school learn earned him failing grades during the prior school year and p atomic number 18nts and teachers fear that he whitethorn be failing second grade again, if nothing is make to help him. Seans parents are against any pharmaceutical medications to treat his ADHD and they have consulted with an herbal doctor to treat the condition. Now, Mrs. Valdez has asked me to develop a manner hindrance plan for Sean, in sight for him to succeed academically and socially during the current school year.The operational target behaviors seen in Sean are, a) inattention, in form of not remunerative attention to teachers instructions and school work, b) out-of-seat behavior, defined as any time Seans behind was not making contact with his chair, and c) throwing items (i.e., crumbled up papers) at peers. If my interdisciplinary group and I are able to describe the specific purposes of a Functional Behavioral Assessment for Sean, to the Hacienda Elementary School administrators during the planning meeting, then we go out be able to design and implement an effective treatment plan for this student based on the results of the proposed FBA.Functional Behavioral Assessments are used to determine why an individual exhibits certain behaviors and in what way the environment influences the individual and their behaviors. In the beginning, the method of analyzing behavior was created with the autistic and severely intellectually disabled world in mind, but it posterior be applied to any individual with problem behaviors. According to the State Board of Education, North Carolina (2015), The reauthorized respective(prenominal)s with Disabilities Education Act requires that a Functional Behavioral Assessment be conducted if a behavior was a manifestation of the disability or, as appropriate, for other disciplinary removals (http//ec.ncpublicschools.gov).In many schools, the Individual Education Program Team (IEP team) develops an assessment plan to address problem behaviors. During IEP team meetings, target behaviors must be ide ntified and specified. Decisions must be do about who forget conduct each component of an FBA, and a timeline as to when the assessment will be completed is set. Usually, the IEP team will meet to discuss the assessment results and to design and implement behavioral interventions. Some measure, The IEP team and members of a school administration need to bring in an independent team of experts in order to exhaust all possibilities of an effective FBA, especially in the case of Sean (State Board of Education, NC, 2015). corroborative Assessments are performed when information about antecedents, consequences, and critical variables, needs to be self-possessed indirectly via interviews, screening forms, and rating scales. The Indirect Assessments are considered an adjunct to direct measures, as the data gathered from these measures is usually not considered quite as reliable. However, Indirect Assessments are often the first procedures performed in an FBA because the beholder is ab le to genius meaningful watchings and he or she may begin the construction of hypotheses about the manipulation of behaviors rather quickly (Steege Watson, 2013).The interdisciplinary team would first assess Sean by conducting five general steps of a Functional analytic thinking. Step one would be a Functional Assessment Interview during which the team would question at least two or three persons who know Sean very well and who have been involved in the situations in which the behaviors occurred (most likely his parents and Mrs. Valdez). The interview would focus on identifying observable behaviors displayed by our referred student. For example, when addressing Seans inattentive behavior, the team should ask Mrs. Valdez, the teacher, to clearly and briefly describe the observable characteristics that constitute inattentive behavior. It is important to note during the interview, what function Seans behaviors serve. For example, his out-of-seat behavior may actually serve two va ried functions, one to get attention from his peers by jumping out of his seat, and two to escape from or avoid academic instruction from the teacher. This type of information will be relevant for the entire extremity of FBA, because, if the functions are different, the resulting interventions may be different as well (Steege Watson, 2013).With a typical ABC Assessment, when the meddling behaviors occur, the observer is expect to record those behaviors and the immediate antecedent and consequence variables. Observers often identify one immediate antecedent and one immediate consequence that occur during a behavioral event. For example, the ABC Interviewer could record the by-line in Seans classroom A Antecedent Teacher, Mrs. Valdez, requests Sean to sit down and complete his task, B Behavior Sean jumps up, crumbles his school paper, and throws it at a peer, C Consequence Mrs. Valdez verbally reprimands Sean and sends him to the principals office. However, in this instance, a hi t ABC preserve was not able to identify all of the relevant variables affiliated to this behavioral incident because, there were a number of additional incidents preceding this written text. Often times, with the occurrence of a series of behavioral incidents, the observers verbally report or record unless the final incident (Steege Watson, 2013).Thus, a Behavioral Stream Interview (BSI) could be performed in Seans case, in which contextual variables that are associated with the interfering behaviors, can be identified. This kind of interview centers on the idea that there are many variables, including individual, antecedent, and consequence variables in Seans environment that impact his challenging behaviors. These different variables often interact in a predictable manner and are not stagnant. Steege and Watson (2013), compare the ongoing flow of behavior and related stimuli to a river, several(prenominal)times a stream that gently meanders through a meadow, and at other tim es a raging torrent rushing through mountainous canyons (p.106).The BSI has the say-so of identifying patterns by calculating the sequence in which the variables occur. It can be compared to a movie strip of several captured pictures in a sequence, unlike a single photograph of a singular antecedentbehaviorconsequence interaction (A-B-C) (Steege Watson, 2013, p. 106).Furthermore, data could be collected through a questionnaire such as the sister Behavior Checklist (CBCL Achenbach, 1991, as cited in Sattler, 2002) which measures internalizing and externalizing problems in children and adolescents. The CBCL is designed for parents of children and adolescents ages 4 to 18 years old. The rationale for conducting the interview is to observe the target behavior. The reason for utilizing the CBCL is that it includes a Teachers make known form (TRF, Achenbach, 1991, as cited in Sattler, 2002). According to Sattler, the TRF has satisfactory validity. Functioning Assessment Screening Tool s or a Motivation Assessment Scale may additionally be used.The Functional Behavioral Assessment Screening Form (FBASF) would be a situationly useful tool to record data about, a) interfering behaviors (i.e., target problem behaviors), b) behavioral strengths (i.e., characteristics that are functional and appropriate, adaptive behaviors, and skills), c) Reinforcers (i.e., stimuli that are preferred by the student, people, activities, and events), d) Communication skills (i.e., verbal expressions, gestures, signs, or devices). In the context of Seans case, his behaviors too, are not occurring randomly, but are caused by an interaction between antecedent, individual, and consequence variables (Steege Watson, 2013).Direct descriptive Functional Behavioral Assessments, on the other hand, are very powerful tools in school settings. They are powerful because the procedures center on direct observations of behaviors in situations and settings in which the target behaviors occur. Systemat ic observations, and not upright mere indirect information lead to solid hypotheses on function and triggers of behaviors (Steege Watson).Therefore, step two in a Functional Analysis would be a Direct Observation and collection of data by observing Seans target behaviors directly. The team could do a Sequence Analysis by recording antecedents, behavior, and consequence (a Maladaptive Behavior Card can be used for this purpose). Furthermore, the frequency and rate of the behavior would be recorded. The frequency of occurrence per unit of time, for example, would be 30 behaviors divided by 20 min of observation = 1.5 behaviors per minute or about 3 behaviors every two minutes. Next, the duration of each behavior and the latency (which is the duration of time between a stimulus and a response) would be recorded, for example, how soon after the stimulus does Sean begin to jump up or throw paper balls at classmates (Carbone Zecchin, 2014).Step three deals with experimental manipulation s if they are feasible based on the severity of the behaviors. This procedure enables the observer to empirically judge the functions of the behavior. The situations in which the behaviors occur most frequently suggest the function of the behavior. In order to test for the functions of the maladaptive behavior, the interdisciplinary team would have to perform an completely Condition Test in which Sean would be alone without any stimulation and then count if any aggressive behavior occurred within a 20 minute session. Next, an Attention Condition-Test is performed to find out if the behavior is maintained by attention. This involves engaging Sean in a preferred activity and if a maladaptive behavior occurs, the team would give him 10 seconds of attention after each occurrence of the target behaviors by saying Sean, dont throw anything at your classmate, you could impairment her The team would count the number of times the behaviors occurred and this session would last 20 minutes. Then, comes the Demand Condition Test, which is designed to explore if a behavior is maintained by Escape or Avoidance. The interdisciplinary team will place Sean in a demanding task or situation and allow him to escape (or leave the situation) each time the target behavior occurs. The team would wait for about a minute and then direct Sean back to the demand situation or task, plot of ground keeping count of the number of times the behavior occurs. This session should also last 20 minutes (Carbone Zecchin, 2014).Last but not least, the Play Condition-Test will be performed, which is a control condition. In this scenario, the interdisciplinary team would place Sean in an enriched reinforcing environment, allow him to engage in preferred activities of his choosing, and count the number of times the behavior occurs. This session, again, will last 20 minutes. Step four will be a Functional Analysis Summary, to include a form/graph outlining the Functional Analysis Interviews conduct ed, the Direct Observation Data collected, and the Experimental Manipulation implemented. Step five will outline a Behavior Lesson Plan and after carefully choosing of an intervention, this will be called an Intervention Lesson Plan for Sean (Carbone Zecchin, 2014).In the literature by Steege Watson (2013),The Conditional Probability Record (CPR) is a form thatallows the observer to at the same time observe and record theantecedents and consequences of behavior. The advantage ofdoing so allows for the analysis of the likelihood(probability) of a behavior given a particular antecedent andthe likelihood of a particular consequence following abehavior (p. 134).Lets say, we take a 5-minute excerpt from a 15-minute observation period, and it shows that Sean was out of his seat during 70% of the intervals, then, of the intervals in which Sean was out of his seat, 51% of those resulted in a verbal reprimand by Mrs. Valdez and 43% resulted in her physically guiding Sean back into his sea t. Therefore, Seans out-of-seat behavior resulted in some form of attention by Mrs. Valdez in 94% of the intervals. On the other hand, when Sean was working on his assigned tasks, it resulted in no attention, verbal or physical, from Mrs. Valdez. So, only in 29% of the intervals in which Sean was working on his tasks, was Mrs. Valdez near him. Therefore, one of the hypotheses is that Seans out-of-seat behavior is maintained by Mrs. Valdez attention because doing so is more than three times as likely to result in some form her attention than working. During these observations, there may be some influence by Seans peers in the form of looking at him (23% of the intervals) or cheering him on (18%), however these consequences were not as probable as Mrs. Valdez attention.Additionally, there also appears to be a negative reinforcement because Sean is able to escape from the assigned task by getting out of his seat. Antecedent and consequent possibilities are verified by provided observa tion and analysis (Steege Watson, 2013).The interdisciplinary team could complete a Functional Behavioral Assessment Observation Form (FBAOF) for Sean. This is an assessment procedure involving direct observation and recording data of interfering behaviors and contextual variables. The FBAOF is generally used to record behavioral episodes or behavioral incidents that involve one single interfering behavior. The observer uses an FBAOF each time the interfering behavior occurs to record, 1) Date and time of day, 2) Setting events (i.e., activities, tasks, places, etc.), 3) Antecedents (i.e., events that appear to trigger the behavior), 4) Behavior (i.e., the defined interfering/target behavior), 5) Consequence (i.e., events following the interfering behavior), 6) Effect (i.e., change in rate or intensity of occurrence of the behavior), 7) Staff (i.e., person recording the data, working directly with Sean). Should the interdisciplinary team use the FBAOF, they must differentiate betwe en an antecedent and a setting event. The antecedent is a precipitating variable (i.e., a specific event triggering a behavior), while the setting event is just the general situation that the behavior occurred in (Steege Watson, 2013).Last, but not least, the interdisciplinary team could utilize the Task Analysis Recording Procedure ( tarpaulin), which is an effective procedure for teaching functional life skills and for progress monitoring (Steege Watson, 2013, p. 146). It is used for documenting a persons level of transaction on specific tasks, instructional procedures, identification of effective and ineffective instructional prompts, and to document levels of occurrence of interfering behaviors, especially in the context of instructional programs (Steege Watson, 2013). tarpaulin is a useful tool for recording a decrease of interfering behaviors, while, at the same time, documenting an increase in desirable and appropriate behaviors. For example, we could use the TARP data re cording in order to measure Seans occurrences of negative behaviors within a social or classroom setting, while, at the same time, recording any desirable behavior, such as doing his assigned tasks independently. This procedure is mostly used in individuals with autism who reside in group homes but TARP could be used in Seans case because of his ADHD diagnosis and being in a group setting (classroom) (Steege Watson, 2013).It is important for the interdisciplinary team to put emphasis on the vast selection of indirect and direct descriptive FBA procedures. In many cases, a combination of both types in an assessment process is adequate for an assessment and an understanding of behavioral functions. A comprehensive mixture of several procedures can lead to the design of effective intervention plans (Steege Watson, 3013).ReferencesCarbone, V. J., Ph.D., BCBA Zecchin, G., BCABA. (2014). How to conduct aFunctional Assessment Develop Behavior Plans to reduce Problem Behavior.Retrieved on March 10, 2015 fromhttp//armstrong.edu/images/psychology/FunctionalAssessment.pdfPublic Schools of North Carolina. State Board of Education. (2015). Functional Behavior Assessment. Retrieved on March 10, 2015 from http//ec.ncpublicschools.gov/instructional-resources/behavior-support/resources/functional-behavior-assessment.Sattler, J. (2001). Assessment of children Cognitive applications (4th ed.) La Mesa, CAJerome M. Sattler.Steege, M.W., Watson, T.S. (2013). Conducting School-Based Functional BehavioralAssessments, Second Edition. Guilford Press. VitalBook file.