Conducting Functional Behavior Assessment

1. Conducting Functional Behavior Assessment Shamsi Sadeghzadeh, BCBA Director of Outreach Services

2. Some Facts • All Behaviors, adaptive and maladaptive, have a function. • Everything we do, we do for a reason.

3. Some Facts We believe that at any given time, everyone wants to do his/her best, and individuals with autism are no different. When we work with a person with autism who is experiencing behavior challenges, we need to know “why” and teach him alternative skills so that he can do his best.

4. Established Assumptions: • Challenging behaviors do not occur in a vacuum; they occur within an environmental context. • All behaviors occur in response to an identifiable stimulus(event). • Behaviors are governed(weakened or strengthened) by the consequences that follow them.

5. Core Skill Deficits Among Individuals with Autism • Difficulty understanding the environment • Difficulty in anticipating what is happening • Inability to shift engagement • Difficulty with processing sensory stimuli • Difficulty in communicating wants and needs • Tendency to be rigid and inflexible

6. Therefore • Combination of these skill deficits can be a recipe for confusion and stress which can lead to challenging behaviors.

7. Function vs. Topography • Topography = What the behavior looks like (e.g., spitting) • The shape and form of a behavior does not provide us with any information regarding how to intervene. Function= Source of reinforcement that maintains the behavior

8. Causes of Challenging Behavior • Autism diagnosis does not cause challenging behaviors • Research indicates that more than 95% of challenging behaviors in individuals with autism is caused by: Getting something they want(Attention, Tangible) Getting out of something they don’t want (Demand) Automatic (Sensory stimulation) Behavior is also a form of communication, i.e., the displayed behavior might be saying in a non-verbal fashion: “I am scared”, “I am tired”, or “I don’t know how to do this”.

9. What is Functional Behavior Assessment? FBA is an approach that uses a variety of strategies to find out the causes of specific problem behaviors and to identify interventions to address them. This approach is important because it leads the observer beyond the “symptom” (behavior) to the underlying motivation for it.

10. Why Does Function Matter? • There are strategies to teach the individual comparable positive behaviors when the function of that behavior is identified. • Without it, that behavior and the child will be labeled as “bad” and subject to punishment and possibly traumatized as a result.

11. What are the ABCs • Antecedent: Events that precede behavior are called antecedents. They are helpful for identifying triggers and causes of behavior. Antecedents reveal circumstances under which behavior is anticipated to occur. • Behavior: What the person does • Consequence: Events that follow behavior are called consequences. They identify the possible reinforcers that maintain the behavior.

12. Identifying the Target Behavior • Target behavior is a challenging behavior that has social significance for the individual with autism. When targeting a behavior for intervention, following should be examined: • Is the behavior dangerous to the individual or others? • Does this behavior interfere with learning? • Does the behavior interfere with socialization and acceptance by others?

13. More about Target Behavior • Target behavior should be clearly defined, be specific, observable, measurable, and pass the stranger test (an unfamiliar person can observe the individual and collect the same data as others).

14. Conducting a Functional Assessment Step 1. Review all historic documents Review any individualized sensory processing assessment Review any individualized communication assessment Step 2. Functional Interview: Interview at lease 2 persons who know the child Complete at least 2 assessment Tools: FAST, MAS,QABF Interview people from different environmental contexts (teacher, parent, driver)

15. Conducting Functional Assessment Step 3. Direct Observation: Complete Sequence Analysis (ABC) Write down everything that you see happen before and after behavior Describe all present environmental stimuli Document frequency, rate, duration, & latency Examine the effectiveness of individual’s communication system

16. Conducting Functional Assessment • It is critical to know when the behavior occurs most often; however it also is important to identify where, and under what circumstances the behavior occurs as well as where, when, and under what circumstances it doesn’t occur.

17. Conducting Functional Assessment • Step 4. Develop a summary or hypothesis statement Specific: When …..(trigger), individual will…(behavior), in order to…..(get or avoid, function) Global: What are the life circumstances that impact this person’s behavior ?

18. Intervention Strategies • Procedures are selected based on the assessment of the controlling variable. • Treatment includes manipulation of antecedents as well as consequences • Replacement behaviors or functional equivalents are taught directly and reinforced.

19. Intervention Strategies • Eliminate the motivation: Deprivation Aversive stimulation • Terminate the Behavior’s Reinforcement Extinction • Replace the Behavior with an Alternative Response & Differential Reinforcement

20. Intervention Strategies for Behaviors Maintained by Escape • Research indicates that the majority of challenging behaviors among individuals with ASD are escape motivated. This means: 75% of challenging behaviors can be corrected by effective teaching.

21. General interventions for problem Behavior Maintained by Escape • Reduce the motivation to escape by making the task easy and fun. • Do not remove the task, instead postpone the next reinforcing activity until task is completed. There is no need for forced compliance. • Teach a replacement behavior such as asking for a break

22. How to Reduce Escape Motivation • Errorless teaching/learning • Make teaching fun • Give choices • Pair material/setting with R+ • Task analysis, break task in small doable steps • Consider student’s style of learning • Make task meaningful and relevant • Enrich environment • Mix easy and hard tasks • Schedule breaks • Allow movement if needed/sensory diet

23. Teach Replacement Behaviors • Replacement behaviors are new behaviors(skills) that will serve the same function as the challenging ones. • Replacement behaviors should be easy to learn and easy to use. • Replacement behaviors must serve the individual with at lease the same amount of reinforcer. For example “asking for a break” result in an immediate postponing the task. • Replacement behaviors must be systematically taught, reinforced and generalized. Prompts should be faded when mastery occurs.

24. General Interventions for Problem Behavior Maintained by attention/things • Give lots of attention & enrich environment to prevent the behavior • Never give attention to the problem behavior 3. Teach a communication behavior (replacement behavior) for asking for attention/things

25. General Interventions for problem Behavior Maintained by Feeling Good • Provide an enriched environment that may incorporate the reinforcing stimulation for appropriate behavior • Physically or with equipment prevent the problem behavior from occurring to stop the good feeling • Teach social interactions and doing other activities that get lots of social reinforcement and alternative self-stimulatory behaviors

26. Conclusion • For almost every challenging behavior among individuals with ASD there can be a more socially accepted replacement behavior that can be identified and taught. • Autism diagnosis doesn’t cause challenging behaviors; skill deficits and aversive environmental stimuli result in such behaviors. • With environmental modifications and new skills, individual with autism will be able to do their best.