Function-Based Assessments

Once challenging behaviors have been identified, timely and accurate assessment of the level, severity, and maintaining variables related to the challenging behavior is critical to matching appropriate type and levels of care. Of key importance is identifying the target behavior in need of treatment and the environmental variables responsible for its maintenance. The use of indirect, direct, and experimental assessment, often packaged into what is termed a functional behavioral assessment (FBA), provides:

• means for an objective measure of challenging behavior
• understanding of behavioral function
• a prescription for later development of a treatment plan/intervention.

FBAs are comprised of various procedures that assess the environmental variables suspected to evoke and maintain challenging behavior in the natural environment. These assessment procedures are based on a number of key assumptions (Dunlap et al., 1991; Horner & Carr, 1997; Martens & Ardoin, 2010; O’Neill et al., 1997; Sullivan et al., 2021):

(a) the focus of the assessment is on challenging behavior itself, rather than viewing challenging behavior as a sign indicating an underlying disorder, (b) challenging behavior varies systematically across environmental situations and has been learned from past experiences, (c) through repeated measurement predictable patterns of challenging behavior can be identified, and (d) the contingencies supporting challenging behavior that are identified through functional assessment can be modified during treatment.

Overall, the purpose of the functional assessment is to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the behavioral treatment (Horner, 1994). Treatments based on the function of challenging behavior have consistently been shown to be more effective than non-function-based interventions (Didden et al., 1997; Iwata et al., 1994; Saini et al., 2021).