contact info
Box 21102, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, Y1A 6P8 phone/fax (867) 633-2747 janet@janetbwebster.com
My latest book:
Handbook for fluency training: Fast and accutate sight words
Functional behavioural assessment
I offer functional behavioural assessment for children, youth and adults with difficult-to-manage behaviour or with social skills deficits. The emphasis is on increasing positive or pro-social behavours rather than on punishment.
The goal of a functional behavioural assessment is to identify relationships between personal and/or environmental events and the occurrence or non-occurrence of target behaviours.
Specific information is collected concerning the challenging behaviour and hypotheses about the function or purpose of the behaviour for the target individual are examined. Data are collected via a variety of indirect methods (interviews, rating scales, checklists), and also direct methods (anecdotal records, frequency and duration counts, A-B-C records, scatter plots, and setting events records).
Hypotheses about the function of the challenging behaviour are confirmed or disconfirmed using functional behavioural analysis.
This form of assessment is extremely useful for individuals identified as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder or for other individuals with behavioural challenges.
Steps in a functional behavioural assessment
Step 1 - Identify and define the target behaviour(s)
Step 2 - Identify events/circumstances regularly associated with the occurence/non-occurence of the challenging behaviour
Step 3 - Explore the potential function(s) of the behaviour
Step 4 - Generate hypotheses (best guesses based on data collected) about the relationship between the behaviour and the events and circumstances in the environment. This includes hypotheses about the potential function(s) of the behaviour for the individual.
Step 5 -Functional behavioural analysis in which the variables identified in the hypotheses are systematically manipulated.
Step 6 - Develop interventions utilizing information generated in the previous step. Focus on modifying events or circumstances associated with the undesirable behaviour AND teach desirable alternative behaviours to address the original function of the undesirable behaviour.
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