Functional Behavior Assessment Positive Behavior Support

1
Functional Behavior Assessment Positive Behavior
Support

• Training Technical Assistance Center
• Virginia Tech

2
Discipline, Special Education, Positive
Behavior Support

• Goals of discipline, suspension, and expulsion
• Compliance/Deterrence
• Punishment
• Rapid gain of control/Suppression
• Goals of Positive Behavior Support
• Determine the function of misbehavior
• Prevention
• Teaching
• Improving quality of life

3
Behavior Plans in IEPs

• in the case of a child whose behavior impedes
  his or her learning or that of others, consider,
  when appropriate, strategies including positive
  behavioral interventions, strategies, and
  supports to address behavior.

4
How does PBS differ from traditional approaches
to discipline?

• Not a canned approach (i.e., assertive
  discipline)
• Not behavior modification or token economy
• Completely individualized, including the
  assessment

5
How does PBS differ from traditional approaches
to discipline?

• Traditional approach
• Remediate problem behavior
• Positive Behavior Support
• Remediate deficient environments
• Remediate deficient behavior repertoires
• Social skills
• Problem-solving
• Communication skills
• Ted Carr

6
Who needs positive behavior support?

• Students who exhibit chronic and significant
  behavior difficulties.
• Students for whom traditional behavior management
  or school-wide discipline procedures are
  ineffective.
• Students with IEPs whose behavior impedes their
  own learning or the learning of others.

7
Who needs to be involved?

• Family
• Teachers, both general and special education
• Other support staff (counselors, related service,
  paraprofessionals, cafeteria aides)
• Administrators
• Student
• IEP Teams

8
Responsibilities of the Team

• Setting the ground rules
• Modeling appropriate language and attitudes
• Strong facilitation
• Keepers of the culture
• Shift the emotional message

9
Shift the Questions

• Ex Matthew pushes, hugs, runs into other
  students in the hall.
• Not What do we do when the behavior occurs?
• Instead Why does Matthew push students in the
  hall?
• And What does Matthew need to get down the
  hall successfully?

10
Step-by Step Procedures
11

• Functional Behavior Assessment
• Define behavior
• Collect data
• Determine the function of the behavior
• Behavior Intervention Plan
• Make changes to the environment to include
  prevention and meeting the students needs
• Teach replacement behavior
• Determine reactive strategies (ignore, redirect,
  crisis plan if needed)
• Collect data
• Review and revise

12
All Behavior Communicates

• Figuring out what the behavior communicates is
  the key to solving the problem.

13
Functional Behavior Assessment

• Determine the function and communicative
  intent of the behavior.
• The form of the behavior doesnt really matter,
  its the function.

14
Define the target behavior

• An adequate description of the behavior will be
  the basis for collecting data and designing a
  plan.
• A sound description will produce a common
  understanding of the problem.
• Do not attempt to describe all of the difficult
  behaviors. Choose the one(s) needing the most
  immediate attention.

15
Define the target behavior

• Often we categorize behavior, rather than
  describing it. For example
• aggressive instead of hits and pushes
• impulsive instead of shouts out in class
• non-compliant instead of leaves the room
• disrespectful instead of uses bad language
• States of mind rather than observable behavior

16
Define the target behavior

• Action-object description
• What the person is doing - toward whom are they
  doing it to?
• Rebecca plays in the corner by herself. Tom
  makes verbal threats to the teacher.
• Dont say what shes not doing, say what she is
  doing. Brandy doesnt do her work. What is
  she doing when shes not doing her work? (potted
  plant test)

17
Prioritize Challenging Behavior

• Obviously, some behaviors are top priority! Work
  on these first.

18
Activity

• Using the flip chart, list behaviors of concern
  for your student.
• Do not use real names.
• Focus on the behavior and the current situation.
• Include age and nature of the students
  disability.
• Prioritize behaviors of concern.

Gives the teacher dirty looks.
19
Stop!

• Verify the seriousness of the problem!

20
Before we conduct a functional behavior
assessment

• When a student struggles academically, we look
  for instructional solutions. We should take the
  same approach for behavior difficulties.
• Change instruction before you develop a
  complicated plan.
• Check for meaningfulness

21
The teacher has a powerful influence on student
responses

• Need to capture the students experience,
  especially the teachers behavior.
• You wont necessarily get that perspective from
  the teacher.
• Observe and interview the student.

22
More factors to consider before initiating an FBA

• Amount of time the teacher is engaged in direct
  instruction.
• Amount of time student of concern is actively
  engaged in instruction.
• The number of student opportunities and
  percentages of responses to instruction.
• The quantity and quality of positive feedback
  given to the student.

23
We need to help teachers

• Monitor their instructional styles and
  performance.
• Make adjustments to teaching.
• Monitor their own behavior.
• Understand why behavior is maintained.
• Understand how poor rapport is a risk factor for
  misbehavior.

24
Gathering information about the behavior

• You will be answering these questions
• What is the function of the behavior?
• What does the behavior communicate?
• What need(s) does the behavior meet?
• You will discover what places, people, things, or
  activities seem to trigger the behavior to help
  you understand what purpose the behavior might be
  serving for the child.
• You will also be closely examining setting events
  which lead to problem behavior.

25
Assess Setting Events/Risk Factors

• Social setting events
• Poor rapport - staff
• Poor rapport - peers
• Staff turnover
• Recent negative interactions

26
Assess Setting Events/Risk Factors

• Biological setting events
• Fatigue
• Physical pain and discomfort
• Hunger/thirst
• Medication
• Movement

27
Assess Setting Events/Risk Factors

• Physical setting events
• Noise
• Humidity
• Temperature
• Crowding
• Architecture/seating arrangements

28
Gathering information about the behavior

• Who?
• Helps you see if particular people or groups are
  connected to the problem behavior.
• What?
• Helps you discover the activities related to the
  behavior.

29
Gathering information about the behavior

• When?
• Helps you figure out times and schedules related
  to the problem.
• Where?
• Helps you understand places related to the
  problem.

30
As a team, you will need to

• Decide on a data collection scheme
• Timeline
• Responsibilities

31
Activity

• Considering your students schedule and needs
• Who will collect data?
• What will they use to collect data?
• How much data do you need and how did you make
  that decision?

32
Summarize data!!
33
Function of Behavior

• Your job is to figure out the communicative
  intent of the behavior so you can teach an
  alternative (acceptable) way for the student to
  communicate his/her needs.
• Even if a student has good verbal abilities and
  adequate cognitive skills, his/her misbehavior
  still acts as a communicative message.

34
The students needs are legitimate.

• It is the behavior used to communicate those
  needs that is not.

35
Possible Functions

• Attention
• Escape
• Something tangible
• Sensory stimulation
• Control
• Acceptance
• Play

36
Specificity of Function

• escape is too generalescape from what?
• Type of task
• Feedback
• Novelty vs. repetitiveness
• Attention
• From whom?
• When?

37
Designing Behavior Intervention Plans
38
Guidelines for Developing Positive Behavior
Supports

• Any positive supports should be based on a
  functional analysis of the challenging behavior.
• Positive supports should focus on developing
  competence rather than compliance.
• Any intervention procedure should be consistent
  with the long-term goals of community membership.

39
Guidelines for Developing Positive Behavior
Supports

• Positive supports should build toward
  self-monitoring and self-management.
• The individual should be involved in all
  decisions about the design and implementation of
  the positive supports.
• Positive supports should be designed and
  implemented to protect the rights and dignity of
  the individual.

40
Overall Intervention Strategy

• Traditional Approach
• Remediate problem behavior
• Positive Behavior Support
• Remediate deficient environments
• Remediate deficient behavior repertoires (social
  skills, problem-solving skills, communication
  skills)

41
Guiding Principles

• Teaching (supporting and developing skills) is
  the heart of the approach, not problem behavior
  suppression.
• Redesigning environments (modifying the context)
  is the heart of approach, not contingency
  management.
• PBS is ultimately about prevention, not crisis
  management.
• A support plan vs. a control plan.

42
Step-by-Step

• PREVENT
• TEACH
• REACT

43
PREVENT

• Has the immediate affect of decreasing the
  problem behavior and allows you to re-teach
  appropriate behavior.
• Changes the system that the child is embedded in.
• Most of the treatment occurs when the behavior
  doesnt occur.

44
Two types of preventative strategies

• Permanent environmental changes
• Ongoing negative patterns and interactions
• Temporary environmental adjustments
• Immediately decrease problem behavior
• Gives opportunity to teach new skills
• Shape behavior back to normalized routine
• Varies widely depending on students needs

45
Prevention strategies are the most important
component of your behavior intervention plans.
46
Review your list and eliminate those that are

• Stigmatizing
• Impossible
• Undignified or disrespectful
• Inappropriate for other reasons the team agrees
  upon.
• Record best ideas.

47
TEACH

• Misbehavior generally occurs for two reasons
• Skill deficits or performance deficits.
• Remember, diagnosis matters.

48
Replacement Behavior

• Fair-pair rule
• For every behavior you decrease, you must
  increase behavior.
• Cant leave a child in a vacuum of no behavior.
• Cant stamp out behaviors in individuals.

49
Principal of Functional Equivalence

• Behavior Problem (hitting)
• Communication (hello)

ATTENTION
If you strengthen one, the other behavior
becomes irrelevant.
50
When a functionally equivalent response is
taught, one should see a decrease in the
frequency of the problem behavior.
51
(No Transcript)
52
(No Transcript)
53
(No Transcript)
54
REACT

• Effective reactive strategies reduce the
  intensity and frequency of the behavior because
  it is no longer effective, efficient, or
  desirable.

55
Unfortunately, typical discipline strategies rely
almost entirely on this component.
56

• Behavior consequences.
• Reactive strategies alone will not be effective
  for students with significant behavior
  difficulties.
• PBS uses reactive strategies to decrease (not
  punish) the frequency and severity of the problem
  behavior.

57
Why alternatives to punishment?

• Has weak generalization
• Misbehavior reoccurs in the absence of the
  punisher
• Escape/avoidance of the punishing situation may
  induce undesired behaviors, i.e. cutting class,
  ignoring work, dropping out

58
Why alternatives to punishment?

• Students learn creative/devious ways to avoid
  punishment, i.e., sneaky behavior
• Does not teach the appropriate response for a
  particular situation
• Identifies the punished individual as undesirable
  in the eyes of peers

59
Why alternatives to punishment?

• May create emotional behaviors that interfere
  with learning
• Ineffectiveness
• Can be a precursor to abuse

60
(No Transcript)
61
Ideas for reactive strategies

• Ignoring
• Do NOT ignore the student, ignore the behavior.
• Redirection
• Break the cycle of the behavior
• Presenting feedback
• Non-threatening what to do next

62
Ideas for reactive strategies

• Active listening
• what do you need?
• Stimulus control
• If your reaction escalates behavior, its not a
  good reactive strategy.
• Interpositioning
• Use close proximity only if it works
• Self-Control

63
Activity

• Use the reactive strategies worksheet to
  record
• Supportive reactions
• Reactions to avoid

64
Crisis Management

• When you are at your worst, I need to be at my
  best.
• Dan Hobbs

65
Summary

• PREVENT
• TEACH
• REACT

66
Keys to success

• Build a relationship with the student
• Dont forget the team, especially the parents and
  student.
• Administrator support
• Adequate planning

67
Keys to success

• Champion and model
• Diagnosis matters
• Flexibility
• Staff support

68
Common Concerns

• Fairness
• Why should we invest all this time?
• What about variables beyond our control (family,
  disability, medication)?
• Its not my responsibility.

69

• Insanity doing the same thing over and over
  again and expecting different results.
• Albert Einstein