Develop a theory about the purpo

Drawing upon the information that emerges from the previous steps, you can compare and analyze the data to determine whether or not there are any stimulus-response patterns associated with the behavior (e.g., whenever the student does not get her way, she reacts in a certain way). This analysis will help decide what purpose the behavior is serving for the student. Use the who-what-where-when information to think about situations in which the behavior occurs, or doesn’t occur.

Before any plan is set in motion, the school-based intervention team or IEP team needs to formulate a plausible explanation (hypothesis) for the student's challenging behavior. Once a consistent pattern is noted, the school-based intervention team, IEP team, or special education evaluation should be able to hypothesize about the function of the behavior (s). This hypothesis predicts the general conditions under which the behavior is most likely to occur, as well as the probable consequences that serve to maintain it. Only when the relevance of the behavior is known is it possible to speculate about the true function of the behavior and establish a positive behavior support plan.

It is then desirable to manipulate various conditions to verify the assumptions made by the team regarding the function of the behavior. Accommodations might be made, for example, to provide positive peer attention as a consequence of appropriate behaviors. If this manipulation changes the behavior, the team can assume their hypothesis was correct; if the behavior remains unchanged following the environmental manipulation, a new hypothesis needs to be formulated.

Two types of challenging behaviors, which interfere with teaching and learning, frequently overlap, and may require PBS, are off task behavior and defiant/aggressive behavior. Consequently, to guide the FBA process we offer the following considerations:

1. Off Task Behavior - There are three general causes for off-task behavior:

a. The student gains something. For example, he/she may gain adult/peer attention or access to preferred activities, such as playing with peers, toys, or other material, etc. Consequently, intervention (s) should try to minimize &/or eliminate these gains for the off-task behavior (s) &/or increase the likelihood of these gains for on-task behavior (s)

b. The student avoids or escapes something. For example, he/she may avoid academic tasks that they find boring or frustrating, which suggests that assigned academic tasks may have to be modified. Research demonstrates a close relationship between off-task behavior and the difficulty of academic tasks. If the curriculum is too difficult relative to the student's academic skill level, &/or the instructional strategies are inappropriate for the student, excessive performance demands are created. This may then result in higher levels of off-task behavior to escape difficult and frustrating academic tasks. Conversely, fewer off-task behaviors are noted when students work on academic tasks on his/her instructional level. Therefore, a curriculum-based assessment (CBA) can be utilized to determine mastery, instructional, and frustration levels for each subject that the student exhibits significant off-task behaviors.

c. The student's off-task behavior (s) may be a response to a physiological need, such as a student with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), fatigue, hunger, etc., which may require a medical or an agency intervention.

2. Aggressive and Defiant Behavior - Research demonstrates that aggressive and defiant behavior in students may be due to an array of causes, including:

a. Selective attention to and interpretation of social cues as 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.

b. Retaliation against those who present obstacles to his/her desired goals and are less interested in being socially accepted. Consequently, when experiencing academic and social frustrations many of these students become angry and act out inappropriately instead of utilizing more adaptive techniques to overcome the frustrating obstacles.

c. Value aggressive behavior because it leads to perceived positive outcomes and the student believes the circumstances justify its use. For example, many students would rather have negative attention than no attention at all because in many cases the students may lack the academic &/or skills necessary to behave pro-socially and may have to be taught them. In other situations, aggressive behavior may result in the student being removed from the school setting, which the student may perceive as a positive outcome, at least in the short run.

The above analysis should then be integrated into special education reports, positive behavioral supports (PBS), or Behavioral Intervention Plans (BIP). In addition, by following the above guidelines, the evaluator would comply with IDEA’s mandate for an FBA under certain disciplinary situations.


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