Services Provided By: Caption First, Inc

VCU WEBCAST Services Provided By: Caption First, Inc. >> CAROL SCHALL: Thank you. As Teri mentioned, our topic today is: Function matters; how to determine why a student demonstrates problem behavior. As part of this presentation, we will also review how to take that information toward the development of a positive behavior support plan. My name is Carol Schall. I am the director of the Technical Assistance Division at the Virginia Commonwealth University Autism Center for Excellence. When we are completing an FBA, it is important to understand that we are assessing the function of challenging behavior. We are not assessing the student's functioning level or the individual's abilities. In this case, what we are looking at is, how does the individual's behavior occur in the context of their social and physical environment. It's important to note at this point, before we start into the process, that this is an evidence-based practice that is appropriate for all ages of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. I have in the next few slides a few citations from the literature. The literature is strongest for elementary age students with ASD. Nevertheless, this is an appropriate and evidence-based strategy to use across all disability types and all ages. In fact, Dr. Carr in 1999 with his colleagues completed a metananalysis of Functional Behavior Assessment that demonstrated the strength of this procedure, and how useful it is for all students with disabilities across all ages. The salient features of an FBA include the definition of the behavior that is most challenging. This is an important aspect. As we work through the process, we will take a moment to really talk about how we define behavior. We want to avoid generic terms that don't really define what is happening at the time that the problem behavior is occurring. Additionally, our findings will be based on two different types of assessments: Indirect assessment, where we interview those closest to the behavior; and direct assessment, where we observe the behavior in the context in which it occurs. We are going to work from the place of using a hypothesis when we are concluding our assessment. This hypothesis, as all hypotheses, are a scientific guess based on our observation and our assessment material. Finally, we will plug this assessment information into a competing behavior model, and that will be the bridge that takes us from an assessment to positive behavior support planning. As we look at the functions of behavior, we have to begin understanding our assumptions. Our first assumption, and probably our most important assumption, is that behavior, whether it's challenging or not, serves a function for that person in that environment. Also the individual is using the behavior at the particular time because it works well to assist them in accomplishing that function. This is true of all of our behavior. Some of you may have engaged in challenging behavior yourselves at one time or 2

another. For example, many people will sometimes exceed the speed limit when they are driving. That behavior is a problem, because when you are exceeding the speed limit, you are putting others at risk in the area where you are driving. When you think about your own function, your own reason for displaying that problem behavior, what you will discover is that there are reasons for you to speed. Sometimes those reasons might be personal. It just feels good to go fast. At other times there might be very tangible reasons. For example, you have to get somewhere and you want to be on time. Those, that challenging behavior serves a function for you at the time that it's occurring. Therefore, our behavior is influenced by the antecedents that precede the behavior and the consequences that occur after the behavior. In fact, those antecedents and consequences really influence the repeat of the behavior. And therefore, when we are looking at problem behavior and we are completing a Functional Behavior Assessment, we have to keep in mind that we are looking at and exploring these antecedents and consequences. Finally, there are four functions. When I say that behavior serves a function, one of the things you may be thinking currently is, gosh, behavior is communicating constantly and there are millions of things that any one behavior could communicate. In fact, these functions narrow down to four. And they are attention; individuals who use challenging behavior sometimes do so to seek attention from those they want. Escape; sometimes individuals who are displaying challenging behavior are displaying that behavior to escape an unpleasant situation. In fact, those first two, attention and escape, account for much of the problem behavior that you will see in a school setting. They also account for behavior that you might see at a work setting. A third function of behavior is tangible. This is the classic 2-year-old tantrum in the grocery store, when the 2-year-old throws themselves to the floor and cries and screams and whines to attempt to get behavior -- excuse me, to attempt to get candy. They are seeking a particular tangible outcome. Their behavior serves a purpose to assist them in getting that outcome. This function occurs less in school, because the tangible reinforcement that is available to students is frequently scheduled into the day. For example, lunchtime is the time when students can get access to tangible items. It does, however, occur when it comes to reward time, when students display tantrum behavior, crying, screaming, yelling, kicking, in order to get access to computer. That might be considered a tangibly motivated problem behavior. The final function is a sensory function. This is a rare function. We see it very rarely in school. It sometimes does occur particularly with self-stimulatory behavior. If a behavior is self-stimulatory in nature, and therefore, the person is receiving sensory feedback, we would only intervene if that behavior interferes with that person's success in the current environment, or becomes dangerous to the person or those 3

around them. Most self-stimulatory behavior does not rise to that category. And so, unless it's really disruptive or really dangerous to the person or others around them, we frequently don't address self-stimulatory or sensory behavior. Once you have identified the function of the problem behavior, you will use the competing behavior model to plug that information in, and assist you in identifying the new behaviors that you will teach to replace the problem behavior. You will notice on the chart before you that the antecedent is in the purple box. That antecedent will remain the same throughout your assessment and your intervention phase. You will plug in the information you collected about the function of the behavior in the red boxes. You will identify the problem behavior, and then you will identify the function of that behavior next to the problem behavior. In order to help you plan efficiently, you will then move to the yellow boxes, where you will identify a replacement behavior. When you first identify that replacement behavior, you want to make sure that it serves the same function that the problem behavior previously served. Imagine that a student was displaying a challenging behavior to avoid or escape a task. A reasonable replacement behavior that serves the same function would be to request another task, or request a break at the moment that a problem task is presented. Now, that replacement behavior serves the same function, in that the student learns that they can acquire a break and avoid tasks by asking for a break. That may not be your final goal, however. So you may have a desired behavior in the green boxes at the bottom of the screen, that you really would like the person to demonstrate. In the case of task avoidance, it might be that you want that student to attempt a difficult task in order to learn new skills. You cannot teach the student to attempt until they learn to trust you by asking for a break. So the third aspect of our chart, the second behavior that you will teach, is attempting a task. In order to make this palatable, you may have to enhance the reinforcement attempting a difficult task. For a student who displays challenging behavior, they may need additional reinforcement early on when attempting a new task. The next few slides demonstrate a number of the articles and a number of the research-based information available on the topic of Functional Behavior Assessment. I'll just page through these various articles very quickly. If you would like copies of these articles, you can search them through a university library, and you will be able to access these articles on your handout after this presentation. As you can see through the articles listed on the screens, there is a lot more information on FBA for elementary age students. As I noted earlier, however, this is a practice that is evidence-based across the age range, even though there isn't as much literature in the later ages. The next section of this Webcast will demonstrate how to complete a Functional Behavior Assessment, using a case study 4

approach. The steps for completing a Functional Behavior Assessment are before you on the screen right now. They include defining the behavior, in direct assessment, which is interviewing the team members and the stakeholders who have the most knowledge about the problem behavior. You always include a direct assessment. Direct assessment is an observation in the environment where the behavior occurs. You cannot complete a Functional Behavior Assessment without directly observing the behaviors. There has been some research that suggests that interviews alone are incorrect in the identification of the function of the behavior between 50 to 75 percent of the time. The purpose of the interview is to get a very clear picture of what is occurring and to assist you in identifying where you must observe in order to see the problem behavior. Without observation, you have not completed a Functional Behavior Assessment. You may be able to meet with a team and summarize your findings. However, you will not be able to meet with the team simply to complete a Functional Behavior Assessment without having direct observation data. I will show you how we collect direct observation data in a moment. Finally, you will develop a hypothesis and test that hypothesis. A hypothesis scientifically speaking is an educated guess. This hypothesis is based on your interviews with team members and your observation in the environment in which the behavior occurs. But a hypothesis is not a confirmed actual theorem. So therefore, once you have developed a hypothesis, it's important in the FBA process to take a moment and test your findings to confirm that what you have learned about the behavior holds. The first step as I mentioned is identifying the behavior, and that may seem simple on the surface. However, we want to make sure that we have a very clear definition of that problem behavior. There are a number of tests that are important to subject your behavioral definition to, in order to assure that you have a found definition of the problem behavior. The first test is the count test. This test simply asks you to consider whether or not you can count the behavior as it's described. Using this test, it's important for me to note that if you have a behavior such as tantrum, it's going to be difficult to count it, because not all team members will have the same definition of "tantrum." Additionally, in order to be able to count the behavior, you must know when it begins and when it ends. Using a term like tantrum, makes it difficult for you to identify exactly precisely when a behavior begins and ends. Compare that word, tantrum, to a definition where you might describe a tantrum as screaming and yelling, "I want" repeatedly in the grocery store. It's going to be difficult for me to count tantrum. But if my definition is screaming and yelling, "I want" in the middle of the grocery store, I can certainly count when that behavior begins and ends, because I can identify exactly precisely what 5

the behavior is, and where it occurs. Therefore, the count test is our first and most important test. Again, that test exists to make sure that we are able to measure the behavior that we are concerned about. The next test is the charades or stranger test. This test requires that we consider our definition and ask ourselves, would a stranger be able to identify the behavior based on our definition? Earlier, I used the term, screaming and yelling. Well, what I think of as screaming and yelling may not be clear to everyone. So I might want to qualify that with the quote, "I want, I want cereal, I want candy." When I qualify the word, screaming and yelling, with a quote, it helps the stranger understand exactly what behavior we are talking about. I use the charades test as well to describe the same aspect of behavioral definition. This is because I want the people reading about the behavior to be able to demonstrate it. So could they pick up this definition and act that behavior out in a game of charades, that is what the charades test is. The third test is the potato test. If a potato can do, can display the behavior, it is not a behavior. So using the potatoes test, consider lying still without moving. Well, a potato can lie still and not move. Therefore, that is not really a behavior. Behaviors involve the movement of muscles and the movement of glands. So if a person is being, quote, noncompliant, again, that is not a behavior, but that is a description, noncompliant, that is not, that does not pass the count test, the charades test or the potato test. We want to describe that behavior in much much more detail. So I have a description at the bottom of the screen, where we have noncompliant, lazy or refuses to work. I can put a potato on this table and tell it to do something and it would refuse to work. So this first description is not a behavioral description. The second one, the sub-bullet, sits with head down when commanded or directed to begin work is, does pass the count test, the charades test and the potato test. Sits with head down on the desk, when commanded or directed to begin work, that is a behavioral description that passes the count test, the charades or strangers test and the potato test. The final test is the so-what test. So what if someone sits with their head down, when they are commanded to work. Maybe the work is stupid. Maybe they are not feeling well. There are circumstances where that would be an appropriate response. The so-what test, however, challenges us to consider, is this behavior really disruptive and impactful in that student's educational program? If the student always responds to all work by putting their heads down, when commanded to direct or when commanded or directed to begin work, then that person does need a behavioral intervention because they are not able to learn. So the so-what test asks us, is this behavior severe enough to warrant intervention? Is this behavior disruptive? Is this behavior a risk to the person themselves or others? And a risk in that it might cause harm? And then finally, might this behavior result in a change in placement, if the person doesn't cease doing the behavior. 6

There are behaviors that are not terribly severe on their face, but when we consider their impact to the person, they become much more severe. I once worked with a team that described a problem behavior where an individual took the heel of their hand and hit a book three times before turning a page. When I inquired about that and they wanted to change this behavior, they wanted to know what should we do to stop this behavior, my first question was: Can I count the behavior? In fact it is a clear description, take the heel of my hand, bang it along the page of a book three times, I could count it. I could act it out. Strangers who looked at that could identify that behavior. It passed the potato test. The potato doesn't have a hand, can't take that heel and move it, of the hand and move it up and down. The test that I was not sure about for this behavior was the so-what test. So what if he takes his hand and hits a page three times before he turns the page? How impactful is that behavior? I said to the team, how often does this occur? They informed me, every time he turns a page, he hits it three times with the heel of his hand. I said, well, how long does he take to do this behavior? Is he hitting it very slowly so that it takes him a minute to two minutes to turn a page? They said no, it's very quick. 1, 2, 3, he is done and he turns the page. Then I said, does it happen so often that he can't keep up with class? They said no, he is a very bright young man with autism and as long as he gets his 1, 2, 3 in, he can keep up. My final question for them with the so-what test was, how long on the very worst day when this behavior occurs, how long does it take him, if you add up all the times that he hits his hand on the desk across the entire day. They said total it's probably about five minutes of his entire day. At that point I determined that although this behavior passed the first three tests, it did not pass the so-what test. So what if he spends five minutes out of his entire school day hitting his hand on the book. It is just an odd or eccentric behavior that doesn't really impact his life and doesn't lead to him not being able to learn. So that behavior was not considered a behavior for intervention, because it didn't pass the so-what test. These tests are very important, when we consider what are the behaviors that are most important for us to intervene. If you think about how difficult it is to change your own behavior, and if you think about a child or a young person in school and consider that you probably can only change maybe to (beep) three behaviors in any one school year, making sure that we select those behaviors carefully is an important aspect of our work. (Beep). When we are identifying the behavior, as I mentioned earlier, it is important to have a very clear behavioral definition. In order to help you do that, I have two examples how you might go about describing or explaining a behavior. The first example is tantrum. The tool that I'm using here is a dichotomous description or T square. On one side of the screen, you will see I have the words "looks like." On the right side of the 7

screen, you will see I have the words, "sounds like." When you are defining a behavior, you want to make sure that you understand exactly and precisely what the behavior looks like and sounds like when it's occurring. So for this behavior, tantrum, I'm going to demonstrate how you might describe what it looks like and sounds like. For this behavior, for this particular person, a tantrum looks like the person on the floor, failing arms and legs grabbing at desired objects or items, hitting others who come within two feet and staying on the floor. This description is much more precise and behaviorally oriented than the first word, tantrum. Now, that alone may not be enough, because that could be a game that the person is playing, pretending to swim. So we add in the sounds like feature as well. This behavior tantrum for this individual sounds like crying, screaming, saying, I want, saying no! or roaring. You can see by having looks like and sounds like together, we have a precise behavioral definition of tantrum. This is a very helpful tool, when you are sitting with a team at that first step and you are interviewing that team to identify the behavior, this is a very good way to go about it, using the looks like and sounds like definition method. The second method is one that I used with an individual who described her behavior. She was coming to me privately and she described her behavior as hyper. What we did was we used this word webbing technique. This is a technique that is frequently used in English classes to assist students who are writing a paper on a topic to begin to organize their thoughts about what they might want to say. In this case, the individual that I was working with described their behavior as hyper. I was not clear about what she meant when she said, I feel hyper. So I said, tell me what hyper means to you. She said, I ask repeated questions over and over again. I scratch at my eyes and wrists out of habit. I can't move when I'm hyper because I'm too focused on finding out the answers to my questions. I cry a lot. I stare at others. I won't listen or move. Now, out of those, I understood repeated questions, scratching at eyes and wrists, refusing to move, staring at others, and crying. But I needed clarification on just won't listen or move. I said what do you do when you are not listening or moving? She said I sit with my head in my hands and I don't respond when other people talk to me. This method word webbing helped me with this less understandable behavior, hyper. It helped me understand what she was talking about. Given this web, I was also able to begin to target the specific behaviors that pass the so-what test as well. So you can see, I can count sitting with head in hands, crying, asking repeated questions, scratching at eyes and wrists and staring, I can count those behaviors. They pass the potato test. They pass the charades test but now I have to apply the so-what test to each of these behaviors. You can say crying doesn't pass the so-what test because it's not particularly impactful. A lot of people cry. It's a common human experience. In fact, it may be a helpful behavior when 8

you are trying to demonstrate that you are having a difficult time. Asking questions might not pass the so-what test because that is a good thing to do. But scratching eyes and wrists presents a point of harm for this person. So that is the behavior that passes the so-what test. When we talk about hyper, we want to be clear about the exact behaviors that we are talking about. In order to demonstrate this, I have a case study. Andrew is a 16-year-old young man with autism and also he has some, an intellectual disability. Andrew at the age of 16 is not using words to communicate at this point, but he is using a combination of sign language and pictures. He receives his academics in a special education setting, where he is in a self-contained classroom. However, he goes to electives with his peers, he attends music, art, physical education and computer with his general education peers. Andrew displays behavior that his special education teacher describes as attention seeking. That behavior, attention- seeking, does not pass the so-what test, stranger test, charades test, potato test or the count test, because I have no clue at this point in the case what that behavior looks like or sounds like. So I clearly have to meet with his team and get more information. The interesting aspect of Andrew's behavior is that he doesn't seem to display this behavior in general education settings. It only appears to occur in his special education classroom. The first step in completing a Functional Behavior Assessment on Andrew's behavior is to define the behavior and to begin to collect informal and formal data about the conditions under which this behavior occurs. That means that I'm going to have to sit down with his teacher, his instructional assistants, some of his general education teachers and learn more about Andrew as well as his problem behavior. I ask you to consider at this point in the Webcast what questions you might have about attention-seeking behavior. I want you to keep in mind that sometimes when you ask questions of people who are coming to you for help, they might take offense at the way you are phrasing the questions, so you have to be careful with that. In order to help you with this task, I have listed ten questions that were originally published in a wonderful little booklet called, Assessing Problem Behaviors, by Demchak and Bossert. This publication may still be available through what was then referred to as the American Association on Mental Retardation, and their research to practice theories. It is now, that organization is now referred to as the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. If you are searching for this title, you would have to look under their new Website. As you look at these questions though, these ten questions are fairly good questions that would help you identify some more information about this, quote, attention- seeking behavior. I've published these questions citing where they come from, for your help. The interview questions they 9

have included, include the two on the screen before you right now. For each problem behavior, specify the activities or settings in which the behavior typically occurs. In Andrew's case, the teacher was not particularly clear on the activities. She described that it happened at various times across the school day in the special education classroom. But it did not happen in the general education classroom. So you have some idea about the settings, but you are not clear on the activities at this point. Also, there was not a particular notation about time of day, except that they did not, the behavior did not occur in general education classrooms. The second question, what typically happens when the behavior occurs, the teacher described that she had to clean up, because Andrew frequently threw things. She had him help her pick up. She also said that she redirected him to work, that she continually asked him to come to work when he was displaying this, quote, attention seeking behavior, and that she sometimes used visual supports to cue him and prompt him. She did not note that there were particular events that always or frequently occurred before the behavior occurred. But she did note that they seem to occur more often when she asked Andrew to do particular tasks in the classroom. She said that if she wanted to have a good day with Andrew, with no problem behavior at all, she would never ask him to do any work in the classroom. She said again that if she let Andrew do whatever he wanted, he would not display these problem behaviors. She also noted that she had to be with him pretty frequently. So in order to avoid the problem behavior occurring, it took a lot of intensive intervention and interaction from his teacher as well as letting him do whatever he wanted to do, letting him choose activities in the classroom. She said she wasn't sure in reference to question number 6, whether or not Andrew was communicating with his behavior except that he required a lot of attention. She also noted that Andrew had a seizure disorder. However, the behavior occurred less often when he was feeling ill, and did not seem to be correlated with seizures in any way. Regarding question 8, she did note that Andrew did have moods and sometimes she could tell the way he came in the classroom that he was going to have a rougher day than others. She also noted that in regards to question 9, that the behavior did seem to be influenced by environmental factors, that if there was someone else in the classroom who was requiring a lot of the teacher's attention, Andrew was more likely to display this problem behavior. Finally as it relation to question 10, she said that she did not know if there were outside events that seemed to influence this behavior. At this point in our Functional Behavior Assessment of Andrew's behavior, we understand some facts that might help us understand his behavior, but as you can see, even though we have asked a lot of questions, we don't have enough information to propose a scientifically based hypothesis. The next step in our process is to interview Andrew. There are two ways I find helpful to do this. The first is an ABC or antecedent behavior consequence chart. Sometimes I collect that ABC data on a chart that specifically shows that. 10

I'll show you an example in a second. At other times, I use the method developed by Dr. Carr and colleagues using note cards. Sometimes I'll hand a teacher a number of note cards and ask the teacher to write down every single specific point and piece of data or information about a problem behavior that occurred in a classroom. Sometimes when I get a lot of rich information from the note cards, I'm able to get a better picture of what is happening in the classroom. In Andrew's case, because the teacher didn't have much information about the particular behavior, I went in and observed Andrew in his classroom. On the screen before you now is the antecedent behavior consequence chart that I used to observe Andrew and to try to figure out the function of his behavior. When I entered the classroom, Andrew was playing in a tunnel. He had his teacher's attention. His teacher was interacting with him. There was a knock on the door and the teacher left Andrew to answer the door. As you follow this chart across, we are going to move from the left to the right. What you will see is I note the antecedent in the far left- hand column. The middle column always has Andrew's behavior. The right-hand column describes what happened after the behavior occurred. On the far left-hand side, you see the knock on the door. The teacher leaves to answer the door. Next Andrew runs from the tunnel to the TV in the classroom. The aide who is also in the classroom says to Andrew, no TV now, Andrew. The aide then walks over to Andrew. Andrew jumps on a chair, near the TV, and reaches for the TV. This was a TV that was up in the corner of the classroom. The aide says to Andrew, we don't want you to get hurt. Then the aide helps Andrew down. Andrew runs from the aide, picks up the bean box in the classroom and dumps it all over the floor. The aide walks to Andrew, gets a broom, and says, now we have to sweep. The aide helps Andrew sweep with hand over hand prompting, actually holding Andrew's hands on the broom and helping him sweep. Andrew sweeps three to four times with hand over hand assistance. The teacher returns to the room, gets Andrew, while the aide completes the sweeping task. Now, as you look at this behavioral sequence, you can see that there is an escalation from the time that the teacher leaves until the time that the teacher returns. This slide represents probably about three minutes of problem behavior. One of the things that I want to tell you about the way we collect data when we are observing is you have to be a very quick writer, and you have to be able to capture the details very quickly. As you look at this episode, I could have just described Andrew's behavior. He ran from the tunnel, ran to the TV, dumped the bean box and then he swept up with assistance. But that wouldn't exactly tell you the function of the behavior. You have to be able to, in order to assess the function of the behavior, look at the antecedent and the consequences. This behavior does appear to serve the function of seeking attention. But we now have a much better definition of the behavior. He 11

runs to the TV, he dumps the bean box and he sweeps. So we see that the problem behaviors here are the running from the classroom, and dumping the bean box. When we look at this behavior in this way, you can see how much more rich data and how much more able we are to assess the function with this kind of data, versus a general description. The second behavior that I observed in the classroom was not an attention-seeking behavior. As we read through this one, it will span across two slides, but I want you to notice that this behavior serves a different function. So by naming the behavior, attention seeking, we may have missed what these behaviors mean. In this case, Andrew is on the floor with the bean box. The teacher says, time to come to work, come here, Andrew. The teacher then repeats, computer time, Andrew. Andrew shakes his head no. The teacher says, okay, I'll play the new game. The teacher leaves to play on the computer. Andrew sits at the bean box playing with the beans. The aide takes the bean box from Andrew. The teacher is sitting at the computer playing on the computer. Andrew is sitting on the floor happily staring off with nothing to do. The teacher gets pictures from the envelope by Andrew's picture schedule, and shows Andrew, first computer, then video. Andrew runs from the teacher, bangs on the window, takes his shoes off and throws them, takes his socks off and throws them. The teacher says, get your shoes and socks on and starts hand over hand prompting. The teacher walks away, back to the computer, Andrew throws the bean box. The teacher walks back to Andrew and says firmly, no. Helps Andrew pick up the beans. The one on one aide arrives from break. Andrew looks up and laughs. The aide finishes the cleanup task with Andrew. The aide gets the first band strip, first play computer, then play. Andrew walks to the computer. The aide provides praise. In this case, we have a sequence of behaviors that include just sitting on the floor shaking head no, playing with the bean box, taking shoes and socks off, throwing them, and then throwing the bean box. This cluster of behaviors does not serve to seek attention, however. This cluster of behaviors is best described to serve to escape the computer work. When the reinforcer of play is shown to Andrew, he then complies with the task, because he was seeking to play originally, when the teacher tried to offer him a video that was not an effective reinforcer for him. It was worth it to him. He was willing to risk the consequence of his behavior in order to continue to play. With Andrew we have two different sequences of behaviors, one functions to seek attention, the other functions to escape a task. When you look at this question on this next slide, what did Andrew get or avoid that he was willing to pay the cost of his behavior. In the first sequence, he was seeking attention. In the second sequence, he was seeking to avoid work. Once we understand what he gets or avoids, we can begin to think about how we might respond differently to Andrew in both of those circumstances. We can also begin to ask ourselves what does Andrew need to learn in order to be more successful in this environment. This is how we format our hypothesis statement, at the point 12

that we have observed Andrew and we have a better idea of the function of his behavior, we can then form our hypothesis statement. Here is a sample hypothesis statement in the box. When Joe is asked to complete a handwriting task, he will scream and fall to the floor to avoid or escape the task. Now, that is Joe's behavior. Andrew's behavior as we saw was similar but not exactly the same. I want you to notice that this hypothesis statement has three very important parts. First of all, every hypothesis statement should start with the word, "when." When we look at this hypothesis statement, it says Joe is asked to complete a handwriting task. That is the antecedent or the trigger that resulted in the problem behavior. The next part of the hypothesis statement says the student will, he or she will or the student. Here we describe the behavior. I want you the notice that we are not using the word tantrum. Hopefully at this point in the Webcast you have forever stricken that word from your vocabulary. At this point what you are saying, you are seeing, is that the behavior here is screaming and falling to the floor. We want our behavioral description next. Finally, we have the words, in order to. This is where we place our function. In order to fall to the floor, excuse me, in order to escape the task. Now, when you see this hypothesis statement, sometimes teachers get confused and treat it as a goal statement. They sometimes write, when Andrew is asked to complete a handwriting task, he will complete the task in order to receive a point or a star on his sticker chart. This is, the hypothesis statement is not a goal. That is an incorrect use of this statement. This statement is a summary in one sentence of our assessment or analysis of the function, the function of the behavior that we are looking at. In Andrew's case, we would have two statements, because we have two functions of behavior. Finally, we might want to describe some of the life circumstances that are impacting the student. We might have after our sentences, that describe the function of the behavior, we might have a sentence that describes where the student is in their life at this point. To close out Andrew's case, I have a hypothesis statement that I formulated for Andrew in relationship to his, quote, attention seeking behavior. Our hypothesis for Andrew based on our observation and collecting data is this: When Andrew has his teacher's attention, and that is, that attention is withdrawn, Andrew will run to other activities in the classroom and throw items, in order to gain his teacher's attention. In this case, we can see that the hypothesis is a quick summary of the assessment data that we have completed. As I noted, that is not Andrew's only problem behavior. He has another function to his behavior. The next slide demonstrates that function. Again, we see that we begin with this same sequence, when Andrew will, in order to. So when, he is asked to transition from a desired activity to a less desired activity, Andrew will sit without moving, run away and throw 13

items, in order to avoid leaving the desired activity. Again, we see that Andrew's behavior was just not attention- seeking. It also functioned to help him avoid or escape tasks. Again, we go back to the competing behavior model. I want you to consider and maybe even sketch on a piece of paper nearby this competing behavior model because we now understand the antecedent to the escape motivated behavior is a demand that he engage in a task. The problem behavior is sitting, running around the room and throwing things. The function of the behavior is that he avoids the task. What would a direct replacement behavior be for this problem behavior that resulted in Andrew avoiding the task? Well, a direct replacement behavior would be to offer Andrew a choice and say, do you want to do this now? His answer might be no. You might of Andrew the opportunity to ask for three more minutes of play and he would then still avoid the problem behavior or still avoid the task. Then, a third option would be to have Andrew put his schedule together, and have him identify when he is going to do particular work, and when he is going to play. So he has more control over his schedule. I know you're thinking right now, if I just let Andrew avoid his work, he will never get work done and he will never learn. So there is a desired behavior here. The desired behavior is having Andrew attempt the computer task. In order to make that an enticing option, we first have to teach Andrew to trust us. Right now his behavior functions extremely well. It is a very highly efficient behavior. As soon as he throws the bean box and there are beans everywhere, he knows that he is going to delay doing the difficult task because he has to clean up the bean box. By teaching him to ask for a break, we have eliminated the length of time that he might have to delay engaging in the task. Now when we call him to the computer station to work on the computer, we probably have to also enhance the reinforcement available to him, because he is really pretty adept at avoiding tasks. We want to make sure when we ask him to come to the computer that there is something in it for him. This is how the competing behavior model assists us in making this step from assessment into intervention. I want to take a moment to talk about data collection, because when we are intervening with behaviors, we do have fairly significant challenges related to keeping track of the behaviors and assessing whether or not we are being effective. There are two types of data collection that we are actually collecting. The first is to assess the behavior. I want you to notice that when I showed you the antecedent behavior consequence chart, that was pretty extensive. I would not suggest that you take that data every day. That data, that kind of rich detailed data, that shows me the situation in analog time, is important for us to assess the function of behavior. But once we understand the function of the behavior, we should stop that type of data collection. We should only collect that kind of data for about two weeks, or until we understand the function of that behavior. To assess whether or not our intervention is successful and the behavior is decreasing, we want to collect a quicker form of 14

data. The types of data we want to collect to assess whether or not our intervention is successful is called frequency, intensity, duration and/or location data. We want to know if the behavior is actually decreasing as a result of our intervention, teaching the new skills that we identified in the competing behavior model. So we want to get a quick snapshot of the frequency or the intensity of the behavior to assist us in understanding whether we are having a good impact. We want to graph this data so we can keep track of the trend. We want to collect this data as long as the intervention is in place. Here is an example of a graph that we might use to help us understand whether or not we are being effective. On the X axis -- wait, this is the X axis. On the Y axis, we want to look at the measure of the behavior. Here I've noted FID or frequency intensity and duration of the behavior. Let's imagine that we are counting the frequency of Andrew's throwing. And we estimate that per week, there were ten throwing episodes during our baseline. Our baseline is the period before we start to intervene. Let's say that we have four weeks of data, that tells us that Andrew's throwing behavior ranges between nine times to 12 times a week prior to an intervention. During this time, we complete our assessment. We identify that Andrew throws things when he is trying to avoid a task. So we begin to teach Andrew to ask for a break to avoid tasks, and we see a nice decrease, where we go from a range of nine to 12 times per week, down to five to one time per week. We can see that trend is down. So if we continue that intervention, we would expect we might even get to zero. That would be a good outcome for us. Now, sometimes, something might happen. The teacher is out for a period of time. There is a change in classroom. Andrew goes on to the next classroom. And they stop the intervention. So it's a return to baseline. When we see this kind of data, where we see higher rates of problem behavior then we implement an intervention and the behavior decreases, then we remove that intervention and the behavior increases again, what that tells us is that our intervention was most likely effective in decreasing that problem behavior. If we saw this graph, we would want to continue to do that intervention. So it's important for us to collect this data to be able to report using a graph the success or to revise our plans based on the lack of success that we are having intervening with the problem behavior. Couple of tips though, as we look at this kind of data collection. First, in real life, you don't have to return to baseline. If you have a successful intervention, that is effective in decreasing a problem behavior, continue to do it. Don't return to baseline, unless there is some reason outside of your control that requires that you do so, or results in a return to baseline. Secondly, when you look at that graph, if you see three points with no change, you should review your strategy and ask yourself whether or not it's an effective strategy. Perhaps you may need to tweak your strategy a little bit. 15

Definitely at five points with no change or the behavior is becoming worse, you should adjust or change your strategy, or complete your assessment a second time. The final tip when it comes to data collection is, Goldilocks. If you remember the story of Goldilocks and the three bears, everywhere she went she encountered something that was too much or too little before she got to the just right amount. We are going to use that Goldilocks rule, not too much, not too little, just right, when it comes to collecting data. It is possible to get overwhelmed with data and to collect data constantly, so much so that you are not able to teach. But, you want to be able to collect the just right amount of data, not so much that you can't be intervening and teaching, and not so little that you don't have a picture of the behavior, the just right amount. In order to help you with this, I have a sample data collection sheet, that you might use for Andrew. In this sample data collection sheet, you begin with any episode of problem behavior that might occur with Andrew by noting the date that it occurred, the start time of the behavior, and the end time of the behavior. Right away, I've got time. I've got the duration that a behavior occurred. Next, using circles, I'm going to go to my key at the top of the page, and I'm going to circle the numbers that describe the antecedents that are present. In this case, you can see that I have identified five antecedents that I know, a 6th might be unknown. I might not know what triggered the behavior. Then a 7th for another antecedent where I can write in the antecedent, that occurred in the environment. The first five are direction, or task, that would be the first one. Denied access, that would be being told no when he wanted something. A transition between activities, Andrew is left alone, or attention is removed. So by circling simply with a pencil, I can quickly note that in the very first behavior that we looked at, attention was removed from Andrew, and so he displayed a problem behavior as a result of that. Next, I want to note the behavior that occurred. Again I'm going to be able to circle fairly easily. So number one is throwing items. Number two, taking clothes off. Number three, climbing on furniture. Number four, sitting when given a direction. Then there might be other behaviors that I need to describe. Again, by using circles, I can very quickly note the behaviors that occurred. Finally, I want to note consequences that were used so that I could begin to assess whether or not there is a correlation between increased behavior with certain consequences. And in this case, the teacher used hand over hand prompting to help Andrew clean up. If you remember this episode from the chart that I showed you earlier, that very first episode was a behavior that functioned to achieve attention. When we give hand over hand prompting, we are giving attention. So it could be that what you find out by collecting this data is that you are inadvertently reinforcing a problem 16

behavior with the way you respond. This data collection helps you fill in the graph that you are going to look at. The final thing that I want to talk about as it relates to data, is data analysis. When we are reviewing the data, a good way to review it would be the six Ms. Say you encounter a period of time where you see three dots with no change or the behavior is getting worse. You want to ask yourself about these six Ms. To keep it consistent with the M theory, I used gender specific terms, and please forgive me that; it just makes it easier to remember if we talk about six Ms versus six different characteristics. So the first M is ma'am. This refers to the teacher. Is the teacher following the behavioral intervention with fidelity. Is the teacher implementing the behavioral intervention correctly? That is the question here. Or has something happened in the environment to cause the people interacting with Andrew to not implement the intervention well. If you see three dots in a row that haven't moved or are getting worse, you might ask yourself about that. Method: Does the method that you are using to intervene match the skill and the learning style of the student? I said earlier that Andrew is not a person who uses a lot of words. What if we decided in teaching a replacement behavior to teach him to say with his mouth, with his words, break. And we don't see a change in the behavior because he is trying to say a word that he is not really able to say. Instead we would use pictures or sign. So that is where you want to look at your method. Machine: What if Andrew was a student who used an iPad to communicate? What if he used an augmentative communication device and that device wasn't working? We might see an increase in the problem behavior because he is not able to communicate what he needs to communicate. Materials: Let's say we are teaching Andrew to ask for a break, but we are using a picture on the classroom board. That might not be an appropriate material to the task when he is sitting at a desk, and we want him to demonstrate that new behavior of asking for a break. You have to ask yourself, are the materials appropriate? If he is not making progress, it might be the materials that are inappropriate. Motivation: This relates to reinforcer. Remember when I said earlier that if we want to teach Andrew to attempt difficult work, we have to increase the reinforcement available to him. Maybe the reinforcer that we are using is not strong enough to entice him to attempt the work. So we want to look at motivation. The final M in this six Ms also is a gender specific term and this refers to mother nature. There might be some event outside of your control that is influencing Andrew's behavior, and resulting in him responding differently. In this case, let's imagine that he was sick, and suddenly you see a lot more behavior for a week or so related to him trying to avoid tasks. It might be that that behavior occurs because Andrew is sick, and there is nothing you can do about that, except to decrease the demands on him at that time. 17

I have a number of graphs that I want to close with, just to note that it's not always clear and easy to figure out what is going on. As you look at the graph before you right now, what you can see is that the intervention actually results in a worsening of the behavior. This is clearly a case where you do not want to consider the intervention, and if you saw this data, you would want to go back and make sure to reassess the function of the behavior. This would be an indication that maybe you got something wrong in your assessment. It could also indicate that circumstances have changed pretty dramatically. This also shows a significant increase in the behavior that is probably most likely due to the intervention. In this case, you would not want to continue this intervention if you were attempting to decrease this problem behavior. This is an interesting case. As you look at this graph, what you see is that if these lines called phase change lines were not in the graph, this looks like if this were a continuous line, it would have continued to go down. In this case, you might conclude that the intervention really didn't have an effect, the behavior itself was on its way down because of something that Andrew was doing, separate from the intervention itself. In any case, if this is the behavior that you want to decrease, this is a good graph to see, because that means you are on your way down. Finally, if you see this kind of graph where you have a problem behavior, you implement an intervention, and then at the return to baseline the behavior doesn't return, what you may conclude here is that you only needed that intervention for a short period of time, and you don't need to continue it. In closing, it's important that we define the behavior well. This is really how we are going to understand the function of the behavior, by observing that behavior in the environment, a first step there is the definition of the behavior. Secondly, I want to caution you, as we saw with Andrew, it's possible to have a behavior that means different things in different environments. So you are not looking for a 100 percent correlation between the behavior and a function. It's possible for behaviors to have multiple functions. So you have to look out for dual functions. I want to take a moment to talk about, quote, internally motivated behavior. I said earlier that this is rare, that it's rare that we see behavior that is motivated by sensory function. That behavior is frequently among the most difficult to assess, because it occurs at all times, and if you were looking at your assessment data, you wouldn't necessarily see any correlation. You would see it occurring to escape tasks, occurring to seek attention, and occurring when the person is just left alone. When you see high rates of behavior that don't appear to be correlated to particular functions, that is when you really want to say to yourself, this might be an internally motivated behavior. We didn't talk much about this in this Webcast, but there is a behavioral sequence that occurs where we talk about slow 18

triggers or setting events. These are events that occur well before the behavior occurs, and well before the antecedent that increased the possibility that the behavior will occur. I mentioned earlier that Andrew's teacher noted that she could tell that he had moods. Mood is an internal chemical process, where your brain is responding differently, and increases the probability of problem behavior. A lot of us when we have bad mood days, we are more than likely to maybe argue or be forgetful or speed or engage in other problem behavior. That mood is a setting event that increases the likelihood that a problem behavior would occur. On those kind of days, when you see mood or illness or change in schedule or some other slow triggers or setting events that are present, you may have to increase the intensity of reinforcement available, or change your plan for the day. Finally, a word about teaching and collecting data. It's nearly impossible for you as a person to teach while you are also collecting, particularly the intensive kind of behavior. Remember the chart that I showed on Andrew which had every single event that occurred within about a five-minute period of time? You can't teach and collect that kind of data. So you may need help from a school psychologist, a social worker, maybe a teacher mentor in your building, or someone else who could come in and assist you in observing while you are teaching. These kinds of assessments are difficult to do without that kind of support and help. Today's topic in the Webcast was how to complete a Functional Behavior Assessment, and how to begin to move from functional behavior assessments into intervention. In a future Webcast, I will address how we develop interventions as a result of the hypothesis that we developed from the Functional Behavior Assessment. Now I turn it over to Teri, who will describe the next Webcast in our series. Thank you very much. I look forward to seeing you during the chat. ******