Understanding the Functional Behavior Assessment Process

This was another class where I was exposed to ideas and topics that I had little prior knowledge about. Though I knew that students with disabilities can be labeled as having “emotional disturbance,” I didn’t know that there was an actual process that educators must undertake (apart from the IEP process) in order to determine the reason for such unique behavior. The Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) process is used to determine and target chronic or severe behaviors, that are usually very different from societal norms. Even though an FBA is commonly a part of the pre-referral stage of an IEP, general education students can have an FBA. When the professor announced that students without an IEP can have an FBA, I was pleased to hear this comment

At this stage, the FBA team describes the prevention teaching and the crisis management strategies that the student would receive. The goal is to teach and reinforce the positive behavior that the student should be displaying. For students with IEPs, the BIP is a part of this document. At the BIP stage, the team also begins to hypothesize about the expected result of each intervention that they put into place. Some of the things that could be noted in a BIP are: changes in the physical environment, changes in the student’s daily routine, and changes in the way information is gathered. For example, in class, we read an example where the student problematic behavior was biting his/her own hand. Whether this is due to anxiety or this is an attention-seeking tactic, this student needed an appropriate replacement behavior. The replacement behavior that the professor noted was to train the student to squeeze a Koosh ball. This example shows that an essential idea of the Behavior Intervention Plan is that educators cannot get rid of an undesirable behavior without replacing it with something else. In sum, the steps of the BIP and FBA process are to first collect information; then describe the behavior; next, determine the functions of the behavior; fourth, develop a plan of intervention; fifth, implement the plan correctly; and finally, evaluate the outcome of the

At this point in class, different groups presented their posters about special internal and external behaviors that may lead to either an FBA or a BIP. One of the posters noted, “children who enter adolescence with a history of aggressive behavior stand a very good chance of dropping out of school, being arrested, abusing drugs and alcohol, having marginalized adult lives, and dying young.” When I read this statistic, I cringed in my seat. This was a shocking reminder that even though a behavior such as talking back to the teacher may not seem trivial when compared to behaviors like fighting, educators (and parents) must be mindful of their students’ action. For what may seem mediocre, can eventually lead to more serious behaviors. Another poster also noted that,”A pattern of antisocial behavior in a child's early development is the best single predictor of delinquency in adolescence.” This is another quote that helps to demonstrate the power of intervention, and the significance of special education teachers. If adults do not pay close attention to a student’s mannerism and provide any sort of intervention for inappropriate behaviors, these undesirable behaviors can easily lead to greater troubles for the student when he/she is older. So, I must wonder if BIP and FBA were properly implemented fifty years ago, would the American prison system have has many inmates as it currently