Hey FBA-ers! Welcome to our very FIRST blog post!
We know FBAs can be daunting and time consuming. We need practical strategies to help us get meaningful information about the student's patterns of behavior and to pick the most efficient tool to maximize your time. A differentiated approach to FBA allows us to efficiently and effectively consider the complexities an identified behavior may present.
The ultimate goal of an FBA is to better understand the behavior. We call this the "hypothesis statement" or the "ABC Pathway." This becomes the foundation of a behavior plan. An FBA is complete when the following are documented:
- a clear and measurable definition of the behavior
- events that predict when the behavior will and will not occur
- consequences that maintain the behavior
- one or more hypothesis statement about the function maintaining the behavior
- direct observation (such as ABC data) that supports/confirms the hypothesis
For some behaviors, simply using the existing information provides enough evidence to meet these criteria. In this case, there is no need to proceed with more assessment components; we can generate a hypothesis statement that has been confirmed and use this to determine high-impact strategies in the behavior plan that meet the student's need/function. In this situation, the "Worksheet for Function Based Behavior Support Planning" may be adequate. Of course, we must continue measuring the behavior to make sure our interventions are working!
Sometimes, the intensity of the behavior may be so severe and unsafe that it requires more careful assessment to ensure we have a powerful plan in place. Other times, existing information provides conflicting evidence, and teams are unsure if their hypothesis statement is accurate. In these instances, more assessment components should be used, making the FBA more complex.
Assessment components can be found in the links under the FBA tab.
Also, see the Differentiated FBA Comparison Chart.
Happy FBA-ing!
We know FBAs can be daunting and time consuming. We need practical strategies to help us get meaningful information about the student's patterns of behavior and to pick the most efficient tool to maximize your time. A differentiated approach to FBA allows us to efficiently and effectively consider the complexities an identified behavior may present.
The ultimate goal of an FBA is to better understand the behavior. We call this the "hypothesis statement" or the "ABC Pathway." This becomes the foundation of a behavior plan. An FBA is complete when the following are documented:
- a clear and measurable definition of the behavior
- events that predict when the behavior will and will not occur
- consequences that maintain the behavior
- one or more hypothesis statement about the function maintaining the behavior
- direct observation (such as ABC data) that supports/confirms the hypothesis
For some behaviors, simply using the existing information provides enough evidence to meet these criteria. In this case, there is no need to proceed with more assessment components; we can generate a hypothesis statement that has been confirmed and use this to determine high-impact strategies in the behavior plan that meet the student's need/function. In this situation, the "Worksheet for Function Based Behavior Support Planning" may be adequate. Of course, we must continue measuring the behavior to make sure our interventions are working!
Sometimes, the intensity of the behavior may be so severe and unsafe that it requires more careful assessment to ensure we have a powerful plan in place. Other times, existing information provides conflicting evidence, and teams are unsure if their hypothesis statement is accurate. In these instances, more assessment components should be used, making the FBA more complex.
Assessment components can be found in the links under the FBA tab.
Also, see the Differentiated FBA Comparison Chart.
Happy FBA-ing!