Monday, March 26, 2018

The Functional Behavior Assessment Steps Specialists Take To Understand What Motivates Your Child

By Michelle Patterson


If you have a child who can't seem to adjust to the classroom, has trouble concentrating and sitting still, and becomes disruptive when bored, you have probably already talked to the teacher. You may have had meetings with the school administrators to discuss your child's issues. At some point, when the usual remedies have been tried and proven unsuccessful, professionals may recommend taking functional behavior assessment steps.

In order to really help your child, you have to fully understand what functional behavior assessment, or FBA, encompasses. Most educators and psychologists are genuinely concerned about the children in their care. When those children are struggling, the professionals want to know why. There is always a reason for inappropriate behaviors. The goal is to find out what the reasons are and develop a plan to successfully change them.

A lot of times the school psychologist is chosen to lead the FBA team. She meets with educators and others who frequently interact with your child to get their thoughts on the situation. She will meet privately with your little one and might do some behavioral testing. Administrators, special education and classroom teachers, the child, and the parent are usually members of the team.

The behaviors have to be defined before they can be assessed. The professionals need specific information instead of vague language like disruptive and unacceptable. They must have detailed descriptions of actual events that have occurred whether inside or outside of class. The more details they can get, the more effective their final plan will be.

Once the information has been compiled, it can be analyzed. The specialists look at when the conduct occurs, and if there are commonalities in what goes on immediately before. They want to know how often the behaviors are occurring and who is there when they happen. On the other side, these specialists need to understand if there are certain times, places, and people where the inappropriate behaviors are consistently absent.

After this information has been processed, the professionals start to hypothesize about the reasons behind the poor behaviors. This is often difficult to do accurately and takes time. They are trying to figure out if the behaviors are a result of your child avoiding or attempting to escape a situation. They know that these behaviors accomplish something in the youngster's mind.

The final step in the process is the intervention plan. This plan involves creating an atmosphere conducive to promoting positive behaviors and then rewarding this child for his cooperation. Sometimes this plan includes restructuring teaching methods, changing the physical environment, varying or stabilizing routines, and changing consequences for continued inappropriate behavior. The appropriate person will sit with your child to discuss the changes being made and what will be expected of him going forward.

Not all children have an easy time. Adjusting to a classroom with rules, lessons, and tests can be extremely difficult for some. Sometimes it takes a team of adults to create the possibility of academic success for these special youngsters.




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