Best Outcomes: Person-centered and Self-directed

Positive Behavioral Supports (PBS)

The Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)

A PBS team needs to gather information about why the challenging behavior is happening. To do this, they complete what is called a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA). An FBA is a process used to determine the function or purpose a challenging behavior serves for the focus-child. In other words: It helps us understand what the child “gets out of” the challenging behavior.

A problem behavior often either helps the child obtain something such as attention or it helps the child escape from something such as a change in routine, a transition or a difficult task. And always keep In mind that doing an FBA in worth the effort!!! A Behavior Plan based on an FBA is TWICE as likely to succeed as one that is not based on an FBA

An FBA helps us understand the purpose a certain behavior serves for a child by helping us see what “sets up” a child for problem behavior, what event(s) actually “trigger” the behavior and what the “outcome” of the behavior is through the eyes of the child. The key concepts, then, are the following:

• Setting events – The context of the behavior: Specific days, times, people, places, activities, medication, sleep patterns, changes in schedule etc.
• Triggers – The immediate events that happen right before the behavior occurs: Demands, transitions, interruptions, high or low stimulation etc.
• Maintaining Outcomes – The immediate consequence of the behavior through the eyes of the child: Getting out of a difficult task, escaping a difficult situation, getting attention or help etc.

When the FBA is completed, the team uses it to determine the following things:

• Is there a consistent pattern to the behavior? In other words, when, where and with whom does the problem behavior tend to occur?
• What events seem to set the child up for problem behavior?
• What events tend to trigger the problem behavior?
• What are the outcomes that may be reinforcing the problem behavior?

Using the information from the FBA, the team can then make an “educated guess” about why the behavior is happening. This is sometimes called the hypothesis. Here is an example of a hypothesis:

“When Bobby is tired and upset about something and is asked to do a task he does not like to do, he will cry and kick in order to avoid having to do the task.”

Once an FBA is completed then a support plan can be built.

The goal of a PBS plan is to make the challenging behavior no longer effective or necessary. This is often done by changing the environment around the child or by teaching the child new communication skills to use to get his or her needs met in a more appropriate way. The plan that is developed aims a reducing the frequency, duration and intensity of the problem behavior.

Strategies that a team uses might include the following types of interventions:

• Altering environments to reduce the likelihood of setting events and triggers occurring
• Increasing predictability and scheduling to reduce the Impact of transitions and changes in the focus child’s routine
• Increasing opportunities for choice making to augment the focus-child’s sense of control
• Appreciating positive behaviors to help enhance the focus-child’s self-esteem
• Teaching replacement skills (for example, better communication skills) that help the focus-child achieve the same outcomes with more appropriate behaviors

Before a PBS plan is implemented, the team always makes sure the plan is a “good fit” for both the focus-child and all the members of the team.

• On a “goodness of fit” checklist, there might be the following questions:
• Is the plan logically linked to the FBA?
• Does the plan fit the child’s pattern of life?
• Is the plan respectful of the family’s culture and values?
• Does everyone who will be implementing the plan feel comfortable with it?
• Does the plan take into consideration the requirements of the
• settings where it will be implemented?
• Are the resources in place for the plan’s successful implementation?
• Does the plan build on the child’s strengths?

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