The Power of an FBA

The power of a good Functional Behavioral Assessment simply cannot be understated. It is the basis for a truly individualized behavior plan. FBA’s can be created for any child, disabled or not, in order to create a more relaxed and successful atmosphere at school, and can also help home life become easier for all family members.

We know that when negative behaviors are more under control, the child with ASD can be better engaged in useful activities such as academics and social interactions. This accomplishment has far reaching and long term affects in the life of this particular student, who will not only be better prepared to move on to the next grade academically, but will also have many opportunities to practice learned social skills and to develop new ones. Success, behaviorally, also means a lower level of anxiety, and a higher level of self-esteem and confidence, and those traits will continue to help him/her all through life.

One of the most difficult hurdles to including children with ASD in typical classroom settings may be the inappropriate behavior they often exhibit can create barriers. These behaviors can be problematic for teachers trying to teach a lesson to the class and maintain some control over the group while encouraging an atmosphere of interest and fun. Reducing the number and severity of behaviors benefits the teacher by freeing her teaching time from being spent on managing behavior. It also reduces the stress these children can create by exhibiting behaviors that teachers may feel ‘come out of nowhere’ by enabling him/her to read the signs that a breakdown is imminent and prevent such an episode from reaching that stage (Myles and Southwick, 1999). In fact, if teachers are using commonly-known negative consequences such as ‘time out’, or being ‘spoken to’ by the principal, (‘reactive’ strategies rather than ‘proactive’), they may actually be worsening their own situation, without even realizing it.

Example:
Joey can’t stand the children in his math class; not only are they unruly with their unpredictable whispering and joking which the teacher, Ms. Martin, doesn‘t seem to notice, but they are also prone to copying off his paper because he’s so smart. They have the nerve to take credit for his work! When he is around this group of kids, his anxiety and frustration level reach a high point in the day, and he has trouble managing his usual level of good control. Once in a while, he loses his temper and has an outburst. What he learns from this repeating situation is that if he loses control, he will get sent to finish his work in the office. Joey finds the office to be a quiet, orderly, predictable, and friendly environment. He has no trouble maintaining his control there, and feels relaxed and comfortable. The teacher thinks he will ‘learn a lesson’ by being ostracized and segregated from the rest of the class. She, therefore, expects him to maintain better behavior in the future to avoid such an embarrassing event again. What she doesn’t realize is that because he prefers this setting, he now makes a point of acting out in a variety of ways for the purpose of being sent to his safe and happy environment! He is now becoming disruptive almost every day, is prone to bullying other students, uses foul language, and the teacher has no idea what has brought about Joey’s horrendous lack of respect and decorum.

Had this teacher and the team conducted an FBA to find out why he exhibited “loss of temper control” in her classroom, they may have avoided his downward spiral and given him more acceptable options. Who would have benefited? The teacher would no longer have to waste class time dealing with his outbursts. The other children would not lose lesson time or have the opportunity to see him in such a negative light. Joey would not have experienced such distress, nor would he have learned a poor strategy for dealing with any unwelcome environment. In addition, the secondary effects of his poor behavioral control are that his grades have suffered, his chance at social acceptance has been diminished, the teacher now vehemently dislikes him, and his mother is frantic over reports of his unacceptable behavior.