... quoted from the Autism Discussion Page, a very useful resource.
Understanding Challenging Behavior Part 1: Functional Behavior Assessment
(This is the same article as the one posted earlier in the “discipline”
series, except it has a comprehensive “functional assessment form” for
doing assessments. This is the professional evaluation tool I use when assessing challenging behavior)
This series will go more in depth in how to incorporate a functional
behavior assessment (analysis of behavior) with a core deficit
assessment (analysis of the autism vulnerabilities) to get a more
thorough understanding of your child’s behavior challenges. The
documents that are attached are meant for professional evaluations
(forms that I use), but are helpful for everyone. This first article in
the series will describe the process of doing a “functional behavior
assessment”.
All behavior serves a function (purpose) for the
person. Behavior occurs for a reason(s). It serves a function for the
child. The child may be acting out to escape or avoid something
uncomfortable for him, may be doing it for the attention or reaction he
gets from others, may be for stimulation when bored, or to gain
something that he desires. The child may be screaming because he has no
other way of communicating that he is hungry, frustrated, or in pain.
He may be screaming because the demands placed on him are greater than
his current skills in dealing with them. He may be screaming because he
is overwhelmed by the sensory chaos of the load noises, bright lights,
and strong smells in the grocery store. He may be screaming because his
sister just took his favorite toy from him, or screaming because he
just stepped on something sharp. Consequentially, the same behavior
can occur for a variety of reasons (under a variety of conditions) and
several behaviors (screaming, biting self, hitting others) can occur for
the same reason (escape or avoid something undesirable).
Identifying the function(s) the behavior serves give us a good
understanding of why it is occurring, the purpose that it serves for the
child, what is maintaining the behavior, and some ideas of how to go
about supporting the child and reducing the problem behavior. It can
be troublesome to try and change a behavior before understanding the
purpose that it serves the child, and the conditions under which it
occurs. Reducing the problem behavior may be as simple as modifying
some of the conditions causing the behavior (reduce demands, provide
added support, etc.) or changing the way we react to the behavior
(support rather than demand, minimize our emotional reactions, redirect,
etc.). Often times we do not have to change the child at all, but
modify the conditions (often our own behavior) surrounding the behavior.
In other cases, we may need to teach alternative behaviors to replace
the ones we wish to decrease.
When doing a functional
assessment, we try to define the conditions occurring just prior to the
behavior, that may be influencing (triggering) its occurrence. These
conditions are usually called “antecedents” to the behavior. They set
the stage for the negative behavior to occur. By tracking
(documenting) when, where, what is occurring, as well as with whom, at
the time the behavior is occurring, we are can identify common
conditions (antecedents) that elicit the behavior. Maybe it may occur
when certain demands are placed on the child, under certain sensory
stimulation (bright sunlight), when left alone with nothing to do, etc.
By noting these conditions each time the behavior occurs we can isolate
out certain common patterns (conditions) that produce the undesirable
behavior. Identifying what conditions the behavior occurs can tell us a
lot about what function the behavior serves for the child (escape
demands, attention, getting something, etc.) Often we can reduce the
frequency of the behavior simply by eliminating or modifying the
conditions (antecedents) that elicit the behavior. If we can change the
conditions triggering the behavior (reduce the demands, provide more
frequent attention, give frequent breaks, etc.) we reduce the need for
the child to engage in the behavior. Even if we cannot eliminate or
modify the conditions, we can provided added support (greater
assistance) or accommodations to help the child adapt to the conditions
(e.g. sunglasses to minimize bright lights). Changing the antecedent
conditions triggering the behavior is often the best, and easiest, way
to reduce the unwanted behavior. Change the conditions before trying to
discipline the child.
We may also look at under what
conditions does the behavior “not occur”. If the behavior does not
occur when added support is given, then we may want to increase our
support to minimize frustration. If the behavior occurs when the
activity occurs in the morning, but not when the activity is in the
afternoon, then we may change the time of the activity until the
afternoon. If we can identify times and conditions when the behavior is
less likely to occur, then we may want to increase those conditions.
So, by identifying when, where, and under what conditions the behavior
does occur, and when it reliably doesn’t occur, we can make major
modification in these conditions.
In addition to identifying
the conditions triggering the behavior (antecedents), we also want to
identify the immediate effects (reactions) the behavior has immediately
following its occurrence. Again we want to note what occurs (especially
how people react, and what effects the behavior has for the child)
immediately following the behavior (e.g. withdraw demands, reactions of
others, getting something he wants, escaping situation, etc.). These
are the gains, or payoffs. that the child receives from engaging in the
behavior. These effects are often what are reinforcing the behavior,
and increasing the likelihood that it will occur again under similar
conditions. By identifying these effects we can often modify the
effects so that the behavior does not provide the same payoffs for the
child, thus decreasing the likelihood of occurring again under similar
conditions. We may want to minimize our reaction to the behavior, if
our attention seems to reinforce it, or we may want to make sure the
child doesn’t get to what he wants by throwing a tantrum, or get out of
doing things by acting out. Or, we may want to teach the child better,
more adaptive ways, of obtaining the same effects (saying “stop” or
“help”, rather than hitting, when wanting to escape a difficult demand).
As you can see, by changing the conditions that elicit the
behavior (antecedents) and the effects (consequences) that occur
immediately following the behavior, we can significantly modify the
likelihood of the negative behavior occurring again. Most recently, the
emphasis has been on identifying the conditions that trigger the
behavior and building in added supports to either eliminate or modify
the antecedent conditions, or providing accommodations and/or added
assistance to minimize their negative effects. This way we are reducing
the stressful conditions that trigger the child’s undesirable behavior.
In addition to changing the conditions, once we identify the
function (purpose) that the behavior serves, we can also begin to teach
other, more acceptable, behavior that can meet the same result
(purpose, function). If the child chews on his shirt for stimulation
to stay aroused, we might substitute chewing gum to take its place. If
the child yells in class to get the teacher’s attention, he might be
taught to raise his hand instead.
The following documents
will provide you with a comprehensive functional behavior assessment
form, that I use to evaluate a challenging behavior, a flow chart
summarizing the components of a functional behavior assessment, and a
power point presentation on doing a functional behavior assessment.
This link will take you to a comprehensive “Functional Behavior Assessment Form”
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1DaJtXzRn91OTdyZDVFTzNpT0k
Also, this link will take you to a nice flow chart for Functional Behavior Assessments:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1DaJtXzRn91WnJDOGhDWkFOTDQ
Power point presentation on “Reducing Problem Behavior
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1DaJtXzRn91YURwV1NCdzFRbk9QSFktbmt4cXd5Zw
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