Functional Assessment & Functional Analysis
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Episode
Elmo video playing, bad night sleep
Walking around the backyard
Noisy and crowd- ed setting with occasional atten- tion from Mom and Dad
Setting Event
Mom on the phone
Dad turned on the lawn mower
Singing Happy Birthday
Antecedent
Screamed for 2 minutes at a high volume Mom had to get off the phone to find out what was wrong
Screamed for 4 minutes at a high volume Mom took him inside to calm him down
Screamed for 3 minutes at a high volume Mom and Dad took him into a quiet room to calm him down
Behavior
Consequence
behavior analyst systematically changes the environment when the learner engages in the problem behavior. Doing so allows the team to see when the behavior is likely and unlikely to happen. Often, this information is sufficient to understand the problem behavior and begin intervention planning. Expertise in conducting functional analyses is essential to ensure that the challenging behavior is managed safely and effectively throughout the assessment process. The take-home message of functional assessment is that all challenging behavior is seen as communication. The individual is telling us something. The next time an individual engages in challenging behavior, the information gathering described above will help create a better situation.
environment. By analyzing this information and changing the behavior’s antecedents and consequences, a person’s response can be greatly improved. Typically, behavior analysts gather functional assessment information in two ways: interviewing people who know the learner and observing actual episodes of the behavior to collect ABC data. Sometimes, this information is not enough to hypothesize a function of the behavior and develop a treatment plan that is likely to be successful. In these instances, a process known as functional analysis may be conducted. Conducting a functional analysis requires a behavior analyst with knowledge and experience in the implementation of this complex process. In this procedure, the
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ABA Principles & Methods
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