Tier 3 – Individualized Assessment and Intervention

Professional Tools and Resources for Behavior Analysts

hosted at Science of Behavior – www.scienceofbehavior.com

This page is a work in progress.

Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) Methods, Tools and Forms are used at the highest or Third Tier of Multi-Tier Support Systems (MTSS) to develop Intensive, Individualized Interventions

The FBA is a more comprehensive problem-solving process for individual students. The outcome of a FBA is an efficient and effective Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).

The FBA is warranted when:

  • There has been inadequate or poor response to intervention that was based on less formal, indirect assessment and planning methods.
  • The behavior of concern is especially problematic or persistent.
  • The causes for the behavior of concern are complex and may be difficult to identify.

The FBA may NOT be warranted when multiple students are experiencing behavior challenges in the same setting. Please refer to the Tier 2: Class/Group and Tier 1: Schoolwide tabs to determine if alternative strategies are appropriate.

Helpful perspectives about the function-based model of assessment and intervention:

  • The student’s behavior is challenging, not the student.
  • Challenging behavior produces a desired outcome for the student.
  • Challenging behavior can be changed.
  • The most important place for educators to address challenging behavior is the classroom or environments in which it occurs now.
  • Challenging behavior can be reduced by changing variables within the current environment that trigger and support the behavior.

The above perspectives are from Chandler and Dahlquist: – Functional Assessment: Strategies to Prevent and Remediate Challenging Behavior in School Settings

The information provided below is intended to support problem solving teams during the information gathering process necessary for conducting a FBA:

  • Important: Always consult with qualified professionals at your school !!!
  • An FBA-BIP should never be prepared by a single educator! A school problem solving team should always be involved.
  • In some cases, the team will need to reach out for help from a professional with advanced training and supervised experience in behavioral assessment, intervention, and consultation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Click here for answers to questions like: How Do We Get Training? What Is an FBA? Who Needs It? How Do We Do It? What Are the Standards for an Acceptable FBA-BIP?

Interactive Guides for Beginning a Functional Behavior Assessment
Selecting the Target Behavior
Forms, Tips and Tools

HCPS Form SB89040 for Recording the FBA and BIP Effective January 26, 2010

  • Save, print and write information on the form.PDF form Save, type on the form, and save again to edit later.
  • This form expands as you type and allows deletion of unnecessary content.MS Word form Save, type on the form, and save again to edit later.
  • This form is the same as above with basic editing tips added.
  • THIS VERSION IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR FIRST TIME USERS!MS Word form Save, type on on the form, and save again to edit later.
  • This form is the same as above with advanced tips added in the right margin.MS Word form

Your team may use the TATE to assess and improve an FBA and BIP. The results may provide evidence of your team’s efforts to produce a good quality FBA and BIP.

Technical Adequacy Evaluation of FBA-BIP (TATE):
Scoring Tool –  Scoring Rubric
Additional TATE materials, including poor and improved examples, are available here.

Note: Professionals often disagree about the components of a high quality FBA-BIP. For example, a 20-page FBA-BIP that scores well on the TATE may be less effective than a 4-page document based on a brief functional analysis (i.e., systematic hypotheses testing) and a few targeted procedures derived from that analysis.

SECTION TIPS NOT INCLUDED – MIGHT ADD ELOPEMENT ARTICLE, CRISIS MANAGEMENT INFO

Tip Pages – Planning team meetings and related tasks:

  • Depending on each case, the agendae for some meetings may be combined (e.g., meetings 2 and 3, 4 and 5).
  • Team meeting #1: Sample Agenda/Invitation Facilitator’s Guide
  • Materials for team meetings 2, 3, 4, and 5 are UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

Florida Department of Education (DOE) Form to Record the FBA and BIP

  • This form expands so you can type more details.

Record Review (This is an indirect method for gathering limited historical information. This method also may be helpful for identifying some preferred items or activities that may serve as reinforcers.)

Structured Interview (This is an indirect method for screening, developing preliminary hypotheses and gathering related information, such as preferred items or activities that may serve as reinforcers.)

  • Highest recommendation for an interview form:
  • This 2009 tool may be used to develop a preliminary hypothesis about behavior function. The open-ended format is intended to support additional queries of the informant to gather useful information. The next step is testing the hypothesis through functional analysis (see below).
  • Recommended screening/interview form:
  • This tool was published in 2013 and is available to problem solving teams as a screening device. The FAST should never be used as the primary means to develop a hypothesis about behavior function.
  • Other interview forms:
  • Suggestions for conducting interviews:

Scatter Plot Analysis (direct observation method for associating events and times of day with the target behavior; does not identify related consequences; may be useful for determining periods with high probability of target behavior occurrence and planning direct observations for A-B-C Pattern Analysis – see below)

A-B-C Pattern Analysis (highly recommended direct observation method for naturalistic, uncontrolled, descriptive assessment; useful for developing tentative hypotheses and comparing hypotheses that were based on interviews, and analyzing related discrepancies)

Home-School-Behavior Record Click here for a form that can be customized for a student and used to simplify and improve the quality of communication between the home and school. Important information can be shared about possible factors (setting events) that could increase or decrease problem or replacement behaviors.

Hypothesis Development and Intervention Planning for Behavior Challenges
  • Printable, tri-fold pamphlets with Intervention Strategies for Students Who Exhibit Behavior Challenges to:
  • Deficits in Academic Performance/Motivation (“Won’t do”) versus Ability (“Can’t Do”)
      • Click here for information about conducting a functional assessment, developing and testing hypotheses, and selecting interventions. Read the References document first for information about each resource.o
Functional Analysis
  • Descriptive assessment in the most commonly practiced form of Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) in K-12 schools. It relies on the indirect and direct methods described above to form a tentative hypothesis (or best “guess-timate”) of the functions of the behavior.
    • Functional Analysis is a more precise FBA method for scientifically testing hypotheses in order to most accurately identify the functions of target behaviors. During Functional Analysis, environmental conditions or variables (e.g., attention, task demands, escape) are systematically controlled (e.g., presented or withdrawn) and the target behavior is carefully measured.
  • The resulting data are analyzed to identify the environmental conditions that are most likely maintaining the target behavior.
  • This method of analysis can be used to test hypotheses and select those interventions that are most likely to produce desired behavior changes.
  • Interview-Informed Synthesized Contingency Analysis (IISCA) – Dr. Greg Hanley provides an excellent video introduction to this efficient model for conducting a functional analysis and selecting effective interventions. Visit www.practicalfunctionalassessment.com or click here for more information.
  • 90 functional analyses conducted in public schools. Click here to read the summary article by Mueller, Nkosi, and Hine.

Functional analysis often requires direct consultation and oversight from a professional with advanced training and supervised experience in Behavior Analysis. How to get help for your team

2016-07-28 Presentations

  • Developing School-Based Behavior Teams