Background Information
Joshua is a seven-year old boy who attends 2nd grade at Shaw Avenue School. Joshua currently attends ESL four times a week. Joshua’s greatest concern at this time is attention-seeking behavior, task avoidance, homework avoidance, disruptive and disappears from room/hall. His general education teacher, Joyce Smithok-Kollar, identified Joshua for functional assessment concerning his disruptive behavior in the classroom, which she noted have been a problem throughout the year.
Functional Assessment
The purpose of the functional assessment was to identify behaviors of concern, identify events that may trigger or maintain these behaviors, learn about attempted interventions, and identify strengths and skills that Joshua possesses. The functional assessment consisted of interviews with Joshua’s teacher, direct observations, and an interview with Joshua and his dad/guardian. This report includes the details of the functional behavior assessment (FBA) and a behavior intervention plan (BIP).
Functional Assessment Interview
On November 12, 2013, Joyce Smithok-Ko...
Tan, C.S. (2007). Test Review Behavior assessment system for children (2nd ed.). Assessment for Effective Intervention, 32, 121-124.
Helps to establish that a student’s low academic achievement is not due to inappropriate instruction, poor developmental activities and expectations deficit
Sebastian is a Preschool student who atttends For His Glory Early Education Center school in Puyallup, WA. Sebastian of the last year has be displaying very concerning behavior in his preschool class as well as at home. Sebastian has displayed several signs of being delayed in both social skills as well as cognitive skills. Furthermore, Sebastian often times displays behavior of being unable to concentrate suring curriculum time, being very disruptive in class, and has several out burst when faced with learning skills that he is not familiar with. In a meeting with Sebastian’s parents it was learned that many of the challenges that Sebastian is dealing with at school, he is also facing at home. Upon the recommendation of the teacher and the school counselor it was determined that furhter assemssment will be conducted on Sebastian. After going through extensive behavior analysis and assessments, it was determined that Sebastian is dealing with the condition ADHD.
Joe is currently 8 years old, diagnosed with autism. He is enrolled in a special education program, and spends the majority of his school day in self-contained setting. In the past it has been proposed that the consulting behavior analyst conduct a functional behavior assessment, because his teachers are concerned that his behavior are interfering with his quality of education. His behaviors include, eloping, spitting, and head butting. Unfortunately, consent was not given from Joe’s parents to conduct a FBA, due to personal beliefs surrounding his diagnosis, and as a result there is not a functional behavior plan in place. Staff members working with Joe have strategies and procedures in place, but the procedures are not functional since the functions of Joe’s behaviors have not been determined. Joe’s behaviors are segregating him more from his school community, because procedures that are in place have not been effective.
A mother finds parenting exhausting and describes her 7-year-old son as extremely energetic, frequently switching from one play activity to another, often losing his things, and forgetting to do his chores. A second grade teacher notes that her student has a learning disability, as he is unruly, requires constant disciplinary attention, fidgets or squirms in his seat, fails to follow directions or complete assignments, refuses to wait his turn, and often disturbs his classmates. A child psychologist indicates a young boy lacks the ability for sustained mental effort, is easily distracted by extraneous stimuli, displays poor impulse control, and meets the criteria for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), as defined in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fourth Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).
A Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is not one single thing. FBA is a broad term used to describe different methods. These methods or assessments are typically used to identify the causes of challenging behaviors. Though various methods are used to carry out an FBA, they all have the same goal in mind: to identify the function of a child’s challenging behavior. This is done, so an intervention can be put in place to help decrease the child’s problem behavior and replace that challenging behavior with a more desirable/appropriate
Some of the most common words moving around in the psychiatric circle are attention Deficit; hyperactivity; Ritalin; ADD, ADHD. These words are being most commonly discussed by most educators, physicians, psychologists and young parents in the society today. In spite of extensive advancements in technology which has brought new insights into the brain and learning, there is still a lacuna in the field of problems faced by children who are unable to remain focused on the task given to them in the classroom owing to their inability to pay attention.
A student will respond differently depending upon the actions and reactions of the individuals around him. Behaviors that occur repeatedly are often serving a useful function for the student. Positive behavioral support strategies make problem behavior irrelevant by redesigning the environment. Positive behavioral support strategies teach students new skills that are meant to replace the problem behavior with a socially-acceptable alternative. Addressing the larger social context surrounding a student can reduce the amount of time spent implementing intensive positive behavioral support plans. Functional assessment gathers information regarding the events that both immediately precede problem behavior and the situations where a student is successful.
See Appendices B and C for the functional behavior assessment data for Shane White and Cara Smith.
"Special Education." - Teaching Students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Resource Guide for Teachers. Province of British Columbia, 23 Aug. 2006. Web. 09 Apr. 2016. .
Per teacher reports, individual shows minimal progress in interaction with peers due to individual ignores peers when they talk about him in the classroom.
Hallahan, D. P., Kauffman, J. M., & Pullen, P. C. (2009). Learners with Emotional or Behavioral
Angels Individualized Education Program team conducted an Antecedent Behavior Consequence (ABC) analysis to determine the frequency of his behaviors, his interaction with peers, consequences and any teacher comments. In this analysis, his disruptions included being
It was observed a 5th grade elementary student, that for privacy we will name him J during this case study. He arrived to the school in the second semester of Fourth grade and he has being diagnose under the umbrella of the Autism spectrum from the previous school documentation. J was served by the Especial Education content Mastery (“as known Especial Ed. Classroom”) in period of times during the day, but he was place in a regular education classroom. He immediately presented behavioral issues due to the transition of a new environment and his learning disabilities. After a couple incidences, the administrator called the ARD committee to meet and review his IEP and place new behavioral strategies to follow. J made it through the year with continue incidences where he spend most of the time in the Content Mastery classroom. At the beginning of the 5th grade year they continue with the strategies that were in place from previous year; those were making a changed, not a constant issue, but once in a while his outburst were severe to the point that he got so angry that he broke a glass door, others where he just run away from the classroom crying and went into a bathrooms or outside to the playground stating that he had problems with his sugar levels; “sometimes it has difficult to identify if the cause of his outburst was cause by the diabetes or the autism” as the teacher aide stated.
Sattler, Jerome, and Robert Hoge. Assessment of Children: Behaviorial, Social, and Clinical Foundation. La Mesa:Sattler, 2006. Print.