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Conducting A Functional Behavioral Assessment

What's All The Hype?

By: Joan M. Miller, Ph.D.

Definition:

Functional behavioral assessment is ...

• an approach used to help a pupil with a chronic behavior problem
• a problem solving method - one which takes time and creative collabration among professsionals and parents
• built on the assumption that, if a pupil keeps repeating a problem behavior, that behavior must be serving some purpose for the student - otherwise, he or she would not keep repeating it
• a process of looking for patterns in what happens around and/or to the student just before and just after the problem behavior
• examination of these patterns to identify their purpose or their "function;" some possible functions are: avoiding something, getting something, and making something happen
• creative problem solving to enable the pupil to achieve the same purpose in a more appropriate or more acceptable way

Functional behavioral assessment is NOT ...

1. the first technique a teacher uses when a pupil misbehaves
2. a quick fix
3. a choice for teachers of pupils with disabilities - it's required by federal statutes (such as the IDEA and Section 504) and by some states (such as New York)
4. a do-it-yourself technique - it takes collaboration

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