If you see this happening in your school I urge you to speak up.  Please don’t let this happen to another child.

So you have seen the terms functional analysis or maybe your school wants to write a behavior support plan for you child and you want to know what all this means. You’re curious if there is a difference between functional analysis and functional analysis assessment or you’ve seen the terms functional behavior assessment and want to know is it the same as functional behavioral assessment.

There are four steps to conducting a Functional Behavior Assessment.

A functional behavior assessment is the term often used by behavior analysts and can be found in such books as Applied Behavior Analysis by Cooper Heron and Heward. A functional behavioral assessment is the term used by PENT or anyone following the PENT guidelines for writing behavior support plans.1. gather information.
2. interpret the information and form a hypothesis
3. test the hypothesis using functional analysis
4. Develop an intervention based on the function of the behavior

In the first step in conducting a Functional Behavior Assessment there are many ways to gather data. These include but are not limited to:

1. Interviews with parents, teachers, caregivers, or the person who’s behavior is in question.
2. Observations in the setting where the behavior occurs
3. Antecedent Behavior Consequence data- This means you are looking for what happens before (antecedent) and after (consequence) the behavior occurs.

Once you have gathered the data you will move onto forming a hypothesis as to why the behavior occurs. For example if the problem behavior occurs in high demand situations and the behavior results in escape from the task at hand then we might hypothesize that escape maintains the behavior.

Now you are ready to test your hypothesis with a functional analysis. Many people confuse these terms just remember that a functional analysis is just one step in the functional behavior assessment. A functional analysis includes contingent attention, contingent escape, alone, and a control condition. The conditions are presented systematically and the problem behavior is recorded in each condition.

Once this has been completed you are ready to develop your intervention plan. When you write your goals you will want to have three goals for the problem behavior

1. One goal to increase the general positive behavior that is expected
2. A goal to decrease the specific problem behavior
3. Lastly a goal to replace the problem behavior with a more socially acceptable functionally equivalent replacement behavior

1.  Specify a goal

2.  Begin self monitoring

3.  Create contingencies that will compete with natural contingencies

4.  Go public with the commitment to change

5.  Get a self management partner

6.  Continually evaluate and redesign the program as needed

Applied Behavior Analysis (2nd Edition)

I walked away from the Calaba conference with three books.  My favorite being Visual Support for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders by Vera Bernard-Opitz and Anne Haussler.  This book is full of ideas and tons of pictures.  What I like most is it has tons of ideas for lower functioning children.  I also picked up Visual Strategies for Improving Communication by Linda Hodgdon and lastly I picked up Social Skills Solutions A Hands on Manual for Teaching Social Skills to Children with Autism by Kelly McKinnon and Janis Krempa.

Which presentations have you seen, any recomendations? So far I have really enjoyed Sean Surfas, and have come back to hear his second presentation. We are getting started late, a slight mix up in the start time and the presentation is up on his lap top. He will be presenting on Interventions for the Reduction of antisocial Behavior. Overall excellent presentation.

How technology is Changing the field of Applied Behavior Analysis. This presentation is coming across as a sales pitch. We are only half an hour through Im hoping it gets better. So far they have not spoken about ABA. It has taken an hour but finally this presentation has gotten a little better.

Finally my favorite presentation by far was by Stephanie Peterson.  I think this was because I walked away with something I could implement with the students I work with.  I already have a student who is now choosing work with a high quality reinforcer instead of no work with a lower quality reinforcer.

Play the new sight word app “What” available now in the app store.  Available in English, Spanish and German.  Choose from three or 6 answer choices and choose from a variety of different categories.

The concept of waiting is often extremely difficult for some children with autism. Often we try using timers and schedules or even counting to 10 yet it doesn’t appear that the student is quite grasping the concept of waiting. I don’t want you to stop using your timers or schedules but lets add in an incentive for waiting.  Here following is a fun game you can play to practice waiting.  Notice I said practice.  You are probably going to have to do this many times before your child gets it and then you are going to have to generalize it to other situations.  Here goes:

Materials:
1. timer either the one that beeps or the visual one
2. treats like popcorn or m&m’s
3. container for treats you can use a see through plastic bag if you want

Procedure:
Get two cups or plastic bags.  In the first cup put one piece of popcorn and in the second cup put 10 pieces of popcorn.  You can use the candy or the plastic bag for this, the set up is the same one piece in the first bag and 10 pieces in the next bag.  Decide if you are going to use a timer or if you are going to count to a specific number.  Either way is fine and will depend on your child or if you have a timer.  Have your child in a distraction free environment and tell your child he needs to wait a minute, or 10 seconds before he can eat the popcorn.  Give your child the cup that has 1 piece in it and set the timer or start counting to 10.  If your child eats the popcorn the game is over, no big deal, no tantrum.

If your child is able to wait and not eat the popcorn have them give you the cup and then you give them the other cup that has more popcorn in it and tell them they can eat it.  If your child is successful you can start to change the variable such as having them wait longer, changing the environment,  making the item they have in front of them more tempting, sometimes giving them more sometimes not giving them more even if they did wait.  You can then add in a schedule in which some of the activities might be 10 minutes or 40 minutes long and they have to wait until those activities are done before they get what ever it is that they are waiting for.  Now is also a good time to add in first then statements.

If your child was not able to wait or didn’t quite understand what was going on this is ok.  You are also going to change the variables so that is becomes easier to wait.  One of the things you might try is reducing the wait time.   You might also hold the cup with the piece of popcorn in it with them so they can’t eat it.  When the timer goes off help them using hand over hand to give you the cup and then you give them the other cup you have prepared.

Another variation which might be easier to teach is to place the piece of candy on the child’s desk.  You then sit down with the child and help them sit with their hands in their lap.  When the timer goes off you pour the other pieces of candy onto their plate. You practice this 2x and then on the third trial you do not hold the child’s hands.  They will have an opportunity to either wait for more candy or eat the one pice you gave them.

If your child is still not understanding you could start with something they do not like.  Place the string bean on a paper plate in front of them, when the timer goes off they hand you the plate or string bean and you hand them the treat.  Once they master this over several sessions put an item on the plate that is moderately preferred but not something they love.  Give the instructions to wait and when the time is up have them exchange the item for something they like.

The key here is if your child can wait you want to expand on this and generalize it.  If however  they are having trouble with waiting you want to keep making it easier until they are successful.  Once the child is successful then you have something to work with and you can expand on this.

Sometimes you find something so amazing you are blown away. Watch this video on Jake. At age 2 Jake was diagnosed with autism, at age 8 he is sitting in on college classes, at 10 years old it took him less than 2 weeks to teach himself all of high school math, and by 13 he is published in a journal.  He has perfect memory for numbers and math but not for where things are left in the house.

I was recently flipping through  Behavioral Intervention for Young Children With Autism: A Manual for Parents and Professionals  by Catherine Maurice, Gina Green and Stephen Luce.  In their book they have an excellent chapter on selecting teaching programs.  This particular chapter was written by Bridget Ann Taylor and Kelly Ann McDonough.  Here are the highlights:

Assess your child’s skills and deficits

Is the skill demonstrated upon your verbal instruction?
Is the skill demonstrated without your assistance?
Is the skill demonstrated reliably over time?
Are all components of the skill demonstrated?
Is the skill demonstrated with several different people, in several different contexts, with various stimuli?

Selecting a Program

Does you child have the necessary prerequisite skills for this program?
Is this program developmentally/age appropriate for your child?
Will this skill help to reduce problem behaviors?
Will this skill lead to the teaching of other skills?
Is this skill likely to generalize?
Will your child acquire this skill within a reasonable time frame?
Is this an important skill for you and your family?
Is this a skill that your child can use through out the day?

In addition to this chapter you will find tons of information that is very parent friendly, non technical and practical to implement at home