1. F UNCTIONAL A NALYSIS Justin Daigle, MA, BCBA, LBA Program Director Therapy Center of Acadiana

3. B ACKGROUND  Skinner & “ Functions of Behavior ”  Research discovers 4 functions  Practitioners could only guess  Brian Iwata & et al. creates “Functional Analysis”

5. C LARIFICATIONS  Function – Why a behavior is occurring (the “why”)  Topography – The type of behavior (the “what”)

6. C LARIFICATIONS  Different topographies can serve different functions

7. T HE R EAL F UNCTIONS  Social Positive  Social Negative  Automatic Positive  Automatic Negative

8. C LASSES  Response Class – Different topographies of behavior that serve the same function  Example: I hit to get your attention. I kick to get your attention. Hitting and Kicking for attention belong to the same response class.

9. C LASSES  Stimulus Class – Two stimuli that share some common bond. Most frequently that they evoke the same behavior or function.  Example: A stop sign and a red light are two different stimuli that evoke the same behavior.

10. C LASSES  If you intervene on a specific topography  Other topographies will most likely stay unchanged  Unless they are in the same response class  But there is no guarantee  Behavioral Contrast

11. FBA VS. FA  Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is any scientific assessment that gives support to the function of a behavior.  Examples:  Functional Analysis  ABC Data  Direct Observation  Indirect Observation

12. FBA VS. FA  Functional Analysis (FA) is just one type of FBA  It’s the most accurate  Has the most proven success rate (research based)

13. P ROBLEMS WITH FBA AntecedentBehaviorConsequence HomeSneeze“Bless you” SchoolSneeze“Bless you” WorkSneeze“Bless you” AloneSneeze“Bless you” SessionSneeze“Bless you” ChurchSneeze“Bless you”  Does the consequence control the behavior?

14. P ROBLEMS WITH FBA AntecedentBehaviorConsequence “Do This” Justin There Blue Shirt 10:00am School Day Feeling Ill Mom brought Raining HitIgnore  Which Antecedent controls the behavior?

15. T HE FAST  Please see handout

16. G ENERAL N OTES  All of the conditions of a FA are overly strict and rigid.  It’s important to control any extra variables so that the data you take is as accurate as possible.

17. C ONCEPTUAL  Behavior increases when reinforced  Behaviors have functions  A given behavior (with a function) will be reinforced by that function (ie. Attention behavior will be reinforced by attention)

18. C ONCEPTUAL  If we deliver an attention reinforcer for a problematic behavior and the behavior increases, then we know the behavior is attention maintained.

19. D EFINING B EHAVIOR  Function Analysis work best of you focus on one specific topography.  However, in practice, it becomes a problem to run multiple FA’s for different topographies. Therefore, we often observe multiple behaviors during one FA.

20. D EFINING B EHAVIOR  You should have a clear definition of what counts as an instance of each target behavior.

21. C ONDITIONS  1) Alone/Ignore  2) Attention  3) Escape  4) Play (Baseline and Pairing)  5) Access (Optional)  Repeat all conditions at least 3 times  Can be either 10mins or 15mins long

22. A LONE /I GNORE  Alone – Client is left alone in a bare room. Client is monitored via camera or through a one-way mirror.  Ignore – Client is left in a room with an adult who does nothing and never attends to any behavior.

23. A TTENTION  Attention – Client plays with a few toys. Professional ignores. If client emits a targeted behavior, professional gives attention in the form of mild chastising such as “Don’t do that”.

24. E SCAPE  Escape – Client enters a bare room. Professional immediately begins to deliver SDs that have been observed in the client’s repertoire. Professional stops only when client engages in target behavior

25. P LAY  Play – Client plays with a few toys. Professional ignores. Using a FT schedule (every 30 seconds) the professional will give specific praise to the student.

26. A CCESS (O PTIONAL )  Access – Client enters a bare room. Professional has a reinforcing item. Professional plays with item until the client engages in a target behavior. Then, the client is granted access to the item.

27. ORDERING  The order of the conditions are important.  Each condition creates a MO for the next condition.

28. E THICAL C ONCERNS  Keep the client and the behavior separate!

29. E THICAL C ONCERNS  These conditions are created to increase problematic behavior, so expect it. If you were put in these conditions, we would see similar behaviors.

30. E THICAL C ONCERNS  Keep the safety of the client and yourself as a top priority.

31. D OWNFALLS  Requires explicit informed consent  Emotional process for parents, clients, and instructors

32. D OWNFALLS  May temporally increase a problematic behavior  Hard to explain why we want to increase problematic behavior  Some behaviors are too severe

33. D OWNFALLS  FA rely on contrived settings and may not elicit the behaviors seen in natural environments  Time, effort, professional expertise, and ethical considerations

35. I NTERVENING  Once you know the function, then you can develop an intervention plan that will be effective.  Refer to handout (pg. 517 of white book)  Remember that Antecedent Interventions are just as effective as Extinction or Punishment.

37. F INAL N OTES  Notice how the handout lays out interventions for Attention, Access (tangible), and Escape

38. F INAL N OTES  Until recently, the only research on Automatic Interventions has been around Response Interrupt and Re-Direction (RIRD)

39. F INAL N OTES  In Spring of 2012, first research surfacing about other forms of intervention (see handout) – including research conducted at TCA