Learn More About Functional Assessments
Click here to see a precursor study to learn more about functional assessments and safety!
Functional Assessment of Problem Behavior: Dispelling Myths, Overcoming Implementation Obstacles, and Developing New Lore…
What is a functional assessment of problem behavior? Despite the availability of a variety of functional assessment forms, you can’t hold it in your hand—it is a process that involves a lot of highly discriminated, professional behavior. More precisely, it is a process by which the variables influencing problem behavior are identified. Why engage the process? Because it allows you to identify an effective treatment for severe problem behavior.
Hundreds of studies have shown the efficacy of treatments for problem behavior based on an understanding of its function. Assertions regarding the legitimacy of different types of functional assessment vary substantially across published articles, and best practices regarding the functional assessment process are sometimes difficult to cull from the empirical literature or from published discussions of the behavioral assessment process. A number of myths regarding the functional assessment process, which appear to be pervasive within different behavior-analytic research and practice communities, will be reviewed in the context of an attempt to develop new lore regarding the functional assessment process. Frequently described obstacles to implementing a critical aspect of the functional assessment process, the functional analysis, will be reviewed in the context of solutions for overcoming them. Finally, the aspects of the functional assessment process that should be exported to others versus those features that should remain the sole technological property of behavior analysts will be discussed.
Practice Codes are outlined by @BACB
Behav Anal Pract. 2012 Summer; 5(1): 54–72. doi: 10.1007/BF03391818
PMCID: PMC3546636 PMID: 23326630