Functional Behavior Assessment

Carol Ann Tomlinson once said, “we don’t get to decide if we have challenging students in our classes, but we can certainly decide how we respond to them.” As a future educator I find this quote to be very relatable and powerful. I know, that I will have challenging students in my classroom and how I manage them and address their behaviors has a huge impact on their development and their attitude toward school. I want students to feel safe at school and come wanting to learn and be apart of my classroom. When a student misbehaves I want to be the teacher that students can count on to provide the support they need to change their inappropriate behavior to a positive appropriate behavior by performing a functional behavior assessment and a behavior

It is easy to find flaws in student’s behavior, but it is not easy to change inappropriate behaviors to appropriate behaviors. Students behaviors tell teachers exactly what their strengths are and what they need to succeed. There is no one definition of inappropriate behaviors by students however a guideline to keep in mind when deciding to conduct a functional behavior assessment is to first decide whether the behavior is a risky behavior that causes academic or social challenges for the students or other students in one or more settings. For example, behaviors could be “on/off task, aggressiveness, disruptiveness, noncompliance, depression, and withdrawn behavior. When a student’s behavior is labeled as a problem behavior the first step of a Functional Behavior Assessment is to screen the student. “Assessment teams can screen for behavior problems by collecting behavior assessment data using a variety of strategies and techniques, such as checklists and rating scales, teacher rankings, sociometric techniques, interviews, and observations. Once the student has been screened they may need further assessment of the behavior problems. Further assessment may also

Does the behavior interfere with the student’s or others’ learning? Etc. Once which student behavior is identified the next step is for the assessment team to identify the function of the behavior or what is causing this behavior. According to the Iris site the function of an inappropriate behavior usually occurs for one of two reasons. The students either wants to obtain or avoid something such as attention, tangible item, activity or a sensory condition. (iris site). After the assessment team determines the function of the behavior they can begin designing an intervention based around the function determined. The goal od the intervention is to teach or reinforce a replacement behavior that serves the same function as the problem behavior (iris site). Teachers need to ask the question of what other more appropriate behaviors can the student exhibit in the classroom to receive that same function. Once the function-based intervention has been designed the team must consider three additional plan components that can help to ensure success. Additional plan components consist of social validity, implementation fidelity, generalization and maintenance. Social validity refers to the whether or not the