Functional behavior assessment

Functional behavior assessment (FBA) is an ongoing process of collecting information with a goal of identifying the environmental variables that control a problem or target behavior. The purpose of the assessment is to prove and aid the effectiveness of the interventions or treatments used to help eliminate the problem behavior. Through functional behavior assessments, we have learned that there are complex patterns to people's seemingly unproductive behaviors. It is important to not only pay attention to consequences that follow the behavior but also the antecedent that evokes the behavior. More work needs to be done in the future with functional assessment including balancing precision and efficiency, being more specific with variables involved and a more smooth transition from assessment to intervention.[1]

  1. ^ Horner, Robert H (1994). "Functional Assessment: Contributions and Future Directions". Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 27 (2): 401–404. doi:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-401. PMC 1297816. PMID 16795831.