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| Statewide Parent Advocacy Network |
Assess the causes of off-task behavior (s)
Challenging behaviors by the same &/or different students can look the same; however, their causes can be different. A challenging behavior can have multiple causes, related to the person misbehaving &/or the time, location, frequency, and duration of the misbehavior. For example, the following students all engage in shouting, cursing, threatening peers, refusing to do what's requested, throwing objects, hitting class mates, etc.); however, they exemplify a few of the many causes of similar aggressive and defiant behavior:
1. Joan - 16 year old 10th grade girl who reads at a 2nd grade level and feels embarrassed when asked to read aloud.
2. Abdulah - 12 year old 7th grade boy who doesn't know how to deal with academic &/or social frustrations.
3. Juana - 8 year old, bright 3rd grade student who is bored with academics, which she perceives as too easy.
4. Mike - 9 year old, 5th grade student with a medical diagnosis of "ADHD" and poor impulse control.
Therefore, focusing only on what the behavior looks like will not provide sufficient guidance in developing a plan to decrease &/or eliminate the challenging behavior. These plans should focus on the cause (s) of the challenging behavior. The FBA needs to discover the underlying cause, motivation, or function of the challenging behavior, which needs to be addressed. Although a challenging behavior (e.g., fighting, cursing, etc.) may be judged inappropriate, the function (e.g., getting adult attention) may not be.
There is a whole array of research-based strategies that school-based staff and parents can use to address a student’s behavioral problems. Deciding on which interventions to utilize should be predicated on assessing the cause (s) for the student’s challenging behavior and the functions served by that behavior. The assessment can utilize a variety information gathering tools, such as tests, interviews, formal observations, etc. to collect the following information. In fact, as was evident in the previous section, the gathered information began to assess the causes of the challenging behavior. In this section, we provide additional resources, techniques, and tools for stakeholders to assess the causes of the challenging behavior:
The following case studies provided by the Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice, include examples of students' challenging behavior and a summary analysis of the functions, which these behaviors may be serving for each identified student:
1. Indirect Means
There is an array of strategies, which stakeholders (teachers, administrators, counselors, parents, CST, etc.) should utilize, including a functional behavioral assessment (FBA), before a BIP (PBS) is required. These prior interventions, if any, and their results should be considered and utilized in developing a BIP (PBS) and noted in the IEP's Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Perfromance (PLAAFP) statement of a student with a disability. The following examples of prior interventions should be considered in the BIP (PBS) development and illustrate what may be included in the PLAAFP section of the IEP:
a. Previous interventions - Delineate previous interventions (if any) to address the challenging behavior (s) and the result, including the specific student's response (s).
"School-based administration has suspended student four times for 8 days because of fighting this school year and classroom teacher has spoken to parent 15 times about inappropriate behaviors. The student's fighting and other inappropriate behaviors have not decreased."
"The teacher has also given student failing grades in Math and English because of minimal homework, classroom participation and poor test grades. As a result, the student has repeatedly skipped class and refuses to even take class tests."
"When his/her parent makes a demand the child avoids compliance with a variety of techniques, such as ignoring the demand or arguing with the parent. The parent then makes more harsh demands that lead to escalating arguments, whining, and threats. If the parent fails to enforce the demand, the child "wins" because he/she didn't comply or the parent stops bothering him/her. On the other hand, the parent can respond to the child's continued noncompliance with increased verbal and physical aggression until the child eventually complies. In either case, coercive behavior is reinforced, and thus is likely to be repeated. As aggression becomes effective in controlling others and reducing or eliminating events perceived to be aversive, coercion skills are repeatedly practiced, often at the expense of learning and practicing pro-social adaptive behaviors." (Research reveals that these types of parent-child interactions are noted with aggressive and defiant children, which have significant implications for the development and implementation of BIPs (PBS).)
The above examples highlight a limitation of many behavioral interventions - they frequently apply consequences instead of changing antecedent factors that cause or contribute to the challenging behavior (s).
b. Interviews, Questionnaires, Checklists
The following teacher and parent questionnaires can provide guidance on where and how direct student observations should collect data, as well as additional information on the possible functional causes of the student's challenging behavior:
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TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRE |
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1. The
specific off task behavior (s) student engages in, which are of
particular concern and/or which interfere with their learning and/or
the learning of others:
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| 2. These behaviors are most likely to occur at _________(time), during __________________________________________(subjects) and _________________(activities), in _________________(physical settings) and
with ______________________________(people). |
| 3. These behaviors are least likely to occur at __________________ (time), during ______________________________(subjects) and __________________________________(activities), in ___________________________________________(physical settings) and with ________________________ (people). |
| 4. By engaging in these behaviors, student avoids: |
| 5. By engaging in these off task behaviors student gains: |
| 6. What seems to trigger the student’s off task behavior? |
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7. The
student doesn’t engage in more adaptive behavior, because they seem to
be lacking the following academic, cognitive, social skills:
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| 8. The student doesn’t engage in more adaptive
behaviors, even though they seem to have the necessary academic,
cognitive, social skills to perform the desired
behavior,
because:
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| 9. Right after STUDENT engages in the off task
behavior, the (circle) (teacher ignores the behavior, teacher warns
the student, teacher reprimands student,
student is given time-out,
student loses privileges such as______________, (circle) (student is
sent to the office), (teacher communicates with student’s parents),
(student is given
an in-school suspension),
(student is given an out-of-school suspension),
(classmates get angry with student), (classmates laugh at
student), (classmates give student attention), (classmates ignore
student), other).
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| 10. In order to address student's off task
behavior (s), the teacher (school) has (list interventions):
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| 11. There have been some successes when:
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PARENT QUESTIONNAIRE |
| 1. The specific off task
behavior(s) your child engages in, which are of particular concern:
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| 2. These behaviors are most likely to occur at _________(time), during __________________________________________(activities), in _________________(physical settings) and
with ______________________________(people). |
| 3. These behaviors are least likely to occur at __________________ (time), during ______________________________(activities), in ________________________(physical settings) and with ________________________ (people). |
| 4. By engaging in these behaviors, your child avoids: |
| 5. By engaging in these off task behaviors your childgains: |
| 6. What seems to trigger your child’s off task behavior? |
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7. Your
child doesn’t engage in more adaptive behavior, because they seem to be
lacking the following academic, cognitive, social skills:
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| 8. Your child doesn’t engage in more adaptive
behaviors, even though they seem to have the necessary academic,
cognitive, social skills to perform the desired behavior,
because:
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| 9. Right after your child engages in the off task
behavior, what happens?
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| 10. In order to address your child's off task behavior (s), you have
(list interventions):
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| 11. There have been some successes when:
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Additional Interview Forms and Questionnaires
The Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice provided the following interviews and questionnaires, including examples, which can assist in a functional behavioral Assessment (FBA):
1. Problem Behavior Questionnaire
a. Sample student's Problem Behavior Questionnaire
2. Functional Assessment Interview Form
a. Sample student's Functional Assessment Interview
Identify the ABCs of the challenging behavior (s) - The above questionnaires begin to assist in the identification of the ABCs of the challenging behavior. On a simplistic level, behavior (B) is a result of antecedent events (A) and the consequences (C) of the behavior (s). The antecedent events are events or actions that immediately precede and may trigger a challenging behavior. These antecedents can be the setting that the student is in, such as a particular classroom, with a particular group of students, or an unstructured activity. The consequences are events or actions that occur as a result of the problem behavior and reinforce it. For the most part, these consequences consist of something the student gains &/or avoids by the behavior.
The Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice provided a simple ABC observation Form and two samples, which can be referenced and utilized when observing a student's challenging behavior:
a. Sample 1
b. Sample 2
Direct Measurement of Challenging Behavior
The following form can be used to observe and make a preliminary analysis of the causes for the student’s challenging behavior (s):
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Observation & Data Collection Form to Assess the Causes of Challenging Behavior (Identify Challenging Behavior) |
| Student's Name: Date of Observation: |
| Antecedents | Challenging Behavior | Consequences |
| Interval | Subject | Task | Gain | Avoid | |
| Key - Based on the challenging behavior, a key should be set up identifying shortcut notes for each of the above categories. |
This approach enables us to begin the analysis by answering the following questions:
· What does the student avoid, or escape, by the identified behavior?
· What does student gain by the identified behavior (s)?
· What are the events that precede the identified behavior (s)?
· What tends to be happening when the identified behavior (s) occur?
· What seems to trigger the identified behavior (s)?
· What happens right after the inappropriate behavior (s) occur?
3. Cognitive considerations - We can add a cognitive component to the above functional analysis with a form like the following:
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Cognitive Considerations in Analyzing the Causes of a Student's Challenging Behavior (Identify Behaviors) |
| Student's Name: Date of Observation: |
| Antecedent Events | Student's Thoughts | Challenging Behavior | Student's Thoughts | Consequences of Behavior | Student's Thoughts |
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| Sample Student Functional Behavioral Assessment - Cognitive Considerations in ABC Model |
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(Antecedent) - Right before you exhibited challenging behavior (e.g., threw the toy, hit student, called out), what were you thinking? |
| (Antecedent) - Right before you exhibited challenging behavior, what were you asked to do and how did you feel? |
| (During Challenging Behavior) - When you are engaged in the challenging behavior, what were you thinking? |
| (During Challenging Behavior) - When you are engaged in the challenging behavior, how did you feel? |
| (Consequence) What happened after you engaged in the challenging behavior and what were you thinking? |
| (Consequence) What happened after you engaged in the challenging behavior and how did you feel? |
4. Additional functional causes of off task behavior (s) may be identified by answering the following questions, utilizing a variety of techniques, such as interviews, observations, &/or more formal assessments:
· What are the expectations, which have determined that the off task behavior is problematic?
· What problem (s) is the student's off task behavior solving for them?
· When, where and with whom are the off task behavior (s) most likely to occur?
· When, where and with whom are the off task behavior (s) least likely to occur?
· Does a skill deficit contribute to the off task behavior (s)?
· Does a performance deficit contribute to the off task behavior (s)?
· Which biological, social, affective and/or environmental factors initiate, sustain or end the off task behavior?
· What is the intensity, frequency, and duration of the off task behavior (s)?
· Which specific positive appropriate behavior (s) could replace the off task behavior (s)?
· What preferred items, activities, or people could be used as incentives in an intervention for this child to increase on task behaviors?
· What are some strengths and abilities of the student, which can be used as a basis of positive change?
Answering the above questions should provide a good understanding of the nature, scope, and possible cause (s) of the student's off task
behavior (s), which can then lead to a solid basis to develop an effective behavioral intervention plan.
For example, the FBA may reveal that a student who is aggressive & defiant may:
1. Selectively attend to and interpret social cues as being hostile, threats to their pride, &/or obstacles to attaining desired outcomes. This is most prevalent with ambiguous cues &/or when the student is emotionally aroused
2. Retaliate against those who present obstacles to his/her desired goals and are less interested in being socially accepted
3. Value aggressive behavior because it leads to positive outcomes and the student believes the circumstances justify its use.
4. Become angry & act out when experiencing academic and social frustrations.
5. Be attempting to get attention from peers &/or school authorities with the inappropriate behavior because they can’t get it with pro social behavior and they would rather have negative attention than no attention at all.
Research identifies the above possible causes for aggressive and defiant behavior, which should be noted in the PLAAFP section of the IEP, if the student is classified.
PREVENTING AND ADDRESSING CHALLENGING BEHAVIOR
Revised on October 15, 2005
