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Title: Functional Behavioral Assessment for Students with Autism


1
Functional Behavioral Assessment for Students
with Autism
  • Mediasite Presentation
  • September 19, 2008
  • Marge Resan, Education Consultant
  • Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction

2
Autism in Wisconsin Schools
  • The numbers of children with autism receiving
    special education services in Wisconsin based on
    December 1 child count
  • 1992-93 203
  • 2002-03 3,079
  • 2003-04 3,669
  • 2005-06 5085
  • 2006-07 5635
  • 2007-08 6217
  • Since 2002 more than doubled.

3
Autism in Wisconsin Schools
  • What are the reasons for this increase?
  • Better medical identification?
  • Better educational identification?
  • Corresponding decline in other disability areas?
  • A true increase in incidence?

4
Autism in Wisconsin Schools
  • We dont know
  • 2008 - California Department of Public Health
    study seems to point to a true increase in
    incidence.
  • Numbers increased January 1995-March 2007.
  • Increases continued after mercury removed from
    vaccines in 1999.

5
Autism in Wisconsin Schools
  • Autism spectrum disorders are
  • Developmental disabilities.
  • Usually evident before age three.
  • Neurological disorders.

6
Autism in Wisconsin Schools
  • Autism is considered a spectrum disorder, meaning
    physical differences in the brains of individuals
    with autism create
  • Vastly differing neurological experiences
  • A wide continuum of symptoms
  • A range in severity
  • Wide variability among students.

7
Autism in Wisconsin Schools
  • Autism spectrum disorders occur across all
    socioeconomic, ethnic, cultural and geographic
    groups.
  • The incidence of autism spectrum disorders is
    higher among males than females.

8
Autism in Wisconsin Schools
  • When students with autism present behavior
    challenges,
  • Schools are at often a loss as to how to manage
    those behaviors.
  • Each student has a different sensory,
    communication and learning profile.
  • Behaviors can be very different and difficult to
    understand.
  • All behavior is communication!

9
Why do behavior challenges occur so commonly
among individuals with autism spectrum disorders?
  • Difficulties with Communication Skills
  • From Wisconsin Administrative Code, PI 11
  • The child displays problems which extend beyond
    speech and language to other aspects of social
    communication, both receptively and
    expressively.
  • Understanding meaning of others language is
    difficult. Sharing thoughts and feelings, making
    requests or making needs known is difficult.
  • Not that the child does not want to communicate

10
Why do behavior challenges occur so commonly
among individuals with autism spectrum disorders?
  • Difficulties with Social Skills
  • The child displays difficulties or differences
    or both in interacting with people and events.
    The child may be unable to establish and maintain
    reciprocal relationships with people.
  • Understanding and relating to others, including
    peers, is difficult.
  • Not that the child does not want to establish and
    maintain social relationships

11
Why do behavior challenges occur so commonly
among individuals with autism spectrum disorders?
  • Restricted Interests / Movement Differences
  • The child displays marked distress over changes,
    insistence on following routines, and a
    persistent preoccupation with or attachment to
    objects.
  • Perseverant thinking and impaired ability to
    process symbolic information may be present.
  • Familiar areas of special interest or expertise
    become focus.
  • Sometimes child become stuck.
  • Not that the child wants to be stubborn or
    inflexible

12
Why do behavior challenges occur so commonly
among individuals with autism spectrum disorders?
  • Sensory Processing Differences
  • The child exhibits unusual, inconsistent,
    repetitive or unconventional responses to sounds,
    sights, smells, tastes, touch or movement.
  • Childs neurology makes sensory system hypo or
    hyper sensitive.
  • Not that the child chooses to react negatively or
    to be compelled to seek out certain sensory
    experiences

13
Neurology of Autism
  • We know that autism is a neurological issue. Its
    basis is within the brain. Individuals with
    autism have a different sort of neurology that
    creates a very different experience.
  • Different as compared to individuals with more
    typical neurology
  • And different as compared to other individuals
    with autism.

14
Neurology of Autism
  • Like being a Mac in a PC World (Notbohm)
  • Important to keep in mind This differently
    structured neurology is not indicative of the
    students ability.

15
Neurology of Autism
  • Multiple studies have found children with autism
    have increased white matter in their brains. (Dr.
    Martha Herbert, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Eric
    Courchesne University of California-San Diego)
  • Studies have used Magnetic Resonance Imagery
    (MRI) to study brains of children with autism.
  • White matter is the part of the brain that
    carries information from one section of the brain
    to another.

16
Neurology of Autism
  • This increase is located in areas of the brain
    that are close to each other and on the same side
    of the brain.
  • Since there is an increase in connections running
    within each brain half as compared to between
    brain halves, it may be harder for information on
    one side of the brain to be shared with the other.

17
Neurology of Autism
  • Brain areas are often bigger on the side to which
    they are lateralized (perhaps to handle their
    increased work load).
  • For example, language function is lateralized to
    the left brain, and the areas of the brain which
    handle language processing are correspondingly
    bigger on the left than the right side.
  • Studies have shown that children with autism have
    a reversal of the brain asymmetry - there are
    more areas that are bigger on the right than the
    left side of the brain, making the brain size
    biased overall to the right half.

18
Neurology of Autism
  • This is opposite of what is found in the brains
    of typically developing children.
  • Very similar changes are seen in the brains of
    children with language impairment disorders.
  • The similarity between the disorders highlights
    the fact that the anatomical problems may
    underlie the inability to process complex
    information such as language.

19
Neurology of Autism
  • Another set of findings
  • Dr. Margaret Bauman, a pediatric neurologist at
    Harvard Medical School, has examined postmortem
    tissue from the brains of nearly 30 autistic
    individuals who died between the ages of 5 and
    74.
  • Found striking abnormalities in the limbic
    system, an area that includes the amygdala (the
    brain's primitive emotional center) and the
    hippocampus (a seahorse-shaped structure critical
    to memory).

20
Neurology of Autism
  • Baumans work shows the cells in the limbic
    system of individuals with autism are atypically
    small and tightly packed together, compared with
    the cells in the limbic system of their more
    neurologically typical counterparts.
  • University of Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Edwin Hook
    comments that these cells look unusually immature
    "as if waiting for a signal to grow up."

21
So what does this mean to our work as educators?
  • We know that there are physical,
  • neurological bases for the differences
  • in children with ASDs.
  • If this is a physical, neurological
  • difference, then it is reasonable to
  • believe that behaviors are usually
  • not indicative of the childs intent to
    misbehave.
  • The child is unable to process the relevant
    information in the expected manner this is why
    we see behaviors.
  • The childs neurology does not support the
    expectations.

22
So what does this mean to our work as educators?
  • Is this to say children with autism never have
    behaviors on purpose?
  • No but it is far less damaging to
    educator/child relationship to presume that
    behavior is related to neurology and not
    intentional.

23
Looking at Functional Behavioral Assessment
through the Autism Lens
  • DPI Information Update Bulletin No. 07.01
    Addressing the Behavioral Needs of Students with
    Disabilities
  • Available at http//dpi.wi.gov/sped/bul07-01.html

24
What does the law require when a childs behavior
impedes his or her learning or that of others?
  • Individualized Education Program (IEP) team is to
    consider the use of positive behavioral
    interventions and supports and other strategies
    to address that behavior.
  • IEP team must think about supports and
    interventions that will facilitate appropriate
    behavior.
  • IEP team must include a plan to teach the child
    strategies to manage his or her behavior
    positively.

25
What is functional behavioral assessment?
  • A continuous, systematic process for identifying
  • The purpose or function of the behavior, and
  • The variables that influence the behavior.
  • Leads to components of an effective behavioral
    intervention plan.
  • Based on paradigm of Antecedent gt Behavior gt
    Response or Consequence

26
Paradigm of Antecedent gt Behavior gt Response or
Consequence
  • Antecedent that which precedes behavior of
    concern.
  • External factors such as settings, tasks, people,
    activities, and events.
  • In regular education history class on days with
    are cooperative group activities.
  • During journal time when paraeducator is
    prompting student to free write.
  • On rainy days in the lunch room when the noise
    level is high.

27
Paradigm of Antecedent gt Behavior gt Response or
Consequence
  • Antecedents may also include internal factors
    such as the childs neurology, mood, medical
    condition.
  • Dont overlook possible medical conditions!

28
Paradigm of Antecedent gt Behavior gt Response or
Consequence
  • Behavior
  • Important to define the behavior in OBSERVABLE,
    FACTUAL terms.
  • Everyone supporting the student must understand
    the definition of the behavior.

29
Paradigm of Antecedent gt Behavior gt Response or
Consequence
  • Compare terms
  • Disruptive classroom behavior to rises from
    seat and paces quickly around perimeter of room.
  • Verbal outburst to to face reddens, hands
    begin to shake, student shouts phrases such as
    Im going to throw this chair.
  • Self-injury to Repeatedly strikes forehead
    with ball of right hand with enough force to
    leave red marks.

30
Paradigm of Antecedent gt Behavior gt Response or
Consequence
  • Response or Consequence that which follows the
    behavior of concern
  • What does the student do? What do others do?
    What else happens?
  • Other students in cooperative group move away
    from and ignore student.
  • Para removes student from room and activity
    ends.
  • Student appears sleepy (eyes close, slumps in
    chair) and begins to cry.

31
What are some of the common functions of behavior?
  • We must keep in mind the unique characteristics
    of students with autism when we consider
    functions of behavior.
  • Refocus your camera
  • Crucial to address this question by viewing
    behavior through our lens of autism.

32
What are some of the common functions of behavior?
  • Some common functions of behavior
  • Seeking attention common, but often inaccurate
    if its the only function considered.
  • Escape or avoidance avoiding a particular
    activity, person, group, unpleasant situation,
    uncomfortable, overwhelming or painful sensory
    stimuli, etc.

33
What are some of the common functions of behavior?
  • Common functions of behavior (cont.)
  • Justice or revenge Not common among students
    with autism!
  • Acceptance and affiliation belonging or gaining
    acceptance to a group, desire to belong when
    rules of hidden curriculum are not understood.

34
What are some of the common functions of behavior?
  • Common functions of behavior (cont.)
  • Power or control Control environments, control
    overwhelming sensory situations, gain control
    over highly stressful situations.
  • Expression of self seeking to announce
    independence and/or individuality, attempt to
    communicate.

35
What are some of the common functions of behavior?
  • Common functions of behavior (cont.)
  • Access to tangible rewards or personal
    gratification Tangible reinforcement (food,
    money, etc.), sensory input, approval from peers,
    etc.
  • Others we need to be observant, thorough and
    open-minded.
  • Remember that behavior is communication!
  • Behaviors often serve more multiple functions.

36
When must schools conduct FBAs?
  • Per IDEA
  • Legally required when a disciplinary change of
    placement occurs and the behavior is determined
    to be a manifestation of the disability.
  • If there is a change of placement and the
    behavior is not a manifestation of the
    disability, an FBA should be conducted as
    appropriate.

37
When must schools conduct FBAs?
  • Per DPI Directives
  • As part of an Individualized Education Program
    (IEP) team meeting required after the first
    unanticipated instance of the use of physical
    restraint or seclusion/time out.
  • WDPI Directives for the Appropriate Use of
    Seclusion and Physical Restraint in Special
    Education Programs available at
  • http//dpi.wi.gov/sped/doc/secrestrgd.doc

38
When must schools conduct FBAs?
  • It is good practice to conduct FBA
  • Whenever behaviors are a concern.
  • When current programming is not effective.
  • When student or others are at risk of harm or
    exclusion.
  • When a more restrictive placement or a more
    intrusive intervention is contemplated.
  • Whenever there are repeated and serious behavior
    problems.
  • Can and should be used any time we seek to better
    understand what a child is doing!

39
Is the FBA process the same in every situation?
  • Short answer No!
  • No specific format is required.
  • You will choose the format on a case-by-case
    basis.
  • Tools available to help you get started available
    at http//dpi.wi.gov/sped/sbfba.html

40
How do we begin to collect data about the
behavior?
  • Use both direct and indirect methods of data
    collection.
  • Indirect methods Talking to the individuals who
    know the student best. Understand that this
    information is filtered through the interviewees
    (their experience, emotion, relationship to the
    student).
  • Also includes review of records and work samples.

41
Data Collection
  • Direct methods Observe the student in typical
    activities and routines. Know that these are
    only snapshots and might not be authentic.
  • Both types of data are necessary to verify each
    other! No one source of information can stand
    alone.

42
Some tips for Observations
  • Observe student across settings and at a variety
    of different times.
  • Keep the recording system as simple as possible.
  • Accurately define behavior you must know what
    you are looking for!
  • Get appropriate background info.

43
Skill Deficits v. Performance Deficits
  • Is the behavior a skill deficit or a performance
    deficit?
  • Skill deficit Student cannot do this. Lacks
    necessary information or component skill.
  • Performance deficit Motivation, might perform
    skill on one setting but has not generalized to
    another, etc.
  • Caution You often cannot tell! Which
    assumption provides the least potential damage to
    the relationship?

44
What are the crucial dimensions of behavior?
  • Frequency how often the behavior occurs
  • Topography the description of the behavior
    what it looks like (in seat, on task)
  • Duration how long the behavior lasts
  • Latency the amount of time that elapses between
    A and B for example, the amount of time
    between a teacher giving a direction and the
    student complying with that direction

45
What are the crucial dimensions of behavior?
  • Magnitude force or power of the behavior (5
    minute tantrum vs. a 30 minute tantrum mumbling
    vs. talking loudly)
  • Locus where the behavior occurs (gym class vs.
    English class structured time vs. unstructured
    time).

46
How do we incorporate FBA results into the IEP?
  • Per IDEA, if the students behavior is
    interfering with his/her learning or that of
    others, the IEP must address the behavior.
  • FBA provides baseline data for appropriately
    addressing the students behavioral needs.

47
How do we incorporate FBA results into the IEP?
  • Can include FBA results in Present Level of
    Performance
  • FBA results can provide basis for annual goals
  • Be mindful of IDEAs emphasis on positive
    interventions, strategies and supports.

48
What are positive behavioral interventions and
supports?
  • IEP team cannot develop appropriate strategies,
    supports and interventions unless the meaning
    behind the behavior is understood.
  • Strategies and supports based on functional
    behavioral assessment.
  • Attempt to understand the purpose of a problem
    behavior so it can be replaced with new
    appropriate behaviors.

49
What are positive behavioral interventions and
supports?
  • Developmentally, chronologically, cognitively and
    functionally appropriate for the student.
  • Positive Behavioral Interventions Supports
    focus on
  • Modifying environmental factors to try to prevent
    challenging behaviors
  • Addressing behavior programmatically by teaching
    replacement behaviors and skills.
  • Promote long-term, lasting behavior change.

50
What are positive behavioral interventions and
supports?
  • Not about fixing the student. Its fixing
    student skill deficiencies, classroom settings,
    instructional delivery and/or curricular
    adaptations to support the students success.
  • Not crisis management!

51
A few words on the importance of relationships
  • We cannot underestimate the importance of
    relationships!
  • All students need to feel trust in their
    relationships with school staff.
  • Students can best show their true ability in the
    context of a strong, supportive relationship.
  • We need to be mindful of this. Take care of your
    relationships with all students.
  • We make mistakes. We can also make amends!

52
Resources
  • Donnellan, Anne, et. al. (1988) Progress Without
    Punishment. Teachers College Press
  • Fein, Deborah, et. al. (2007) Autism in Your
    Classroom A General Educators Guide to Students
    with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Woodbine House.
  • Glasberg, Beth A. (2006) Functional Behavior
    Assessment for People with Autism Making Sense
    of Seemingly Senseless Behavior. Woodbine House
  • Nothbom, Ellen (2006) Ten Things Your Student
    with Autism Wishes You Knew. Future Horizons, Inc.

53
Resources, cont.
  • Myles, Brenda Smith, et. al. (1999) Asperger
    Syndrome and Difficult Moments Practical
    Solutions for Tantrums, Rage, and meltdowns.
    Autism Asperger Publishing Co.
  • Myles, Brenda Smith, et. al. (2000) Asperger
    Syndrome and Sensory Issues Practical Solutions
    for Making Sense of the World.
  • Kranowitz, Carol Stock. (2005) The Out-of-Sync
    Child Recognizing and Coping with Sensory
    Processing Disorder. Berkeley Publishing Group

54
Questions?
  • Marge Resan
  • Education Consultant Autism
  • Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
  • Phone (608) 267-9158
  • Email margaret.resan_at_dpi.wi.gov
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