Education Assignment, ABC DAT and FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT SCREENING TOOL
Functional Behavior Assessment Report
(REMEMBER YOU WILL HAVE A COVER PAGE!)
Summary
This Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) was completed for a 6 year old male, “Willie
Nelson” (a pseudonym), who will be a first grader at Georgia On My Mind Elementary School
during the next academic year. During the period of time that this FBA was completed, Willie
was attending the school’s summer school program for children entering first grade from
Kindergarten. Summer school runs from 7:45am-11:45am daily, with one teacher and one
special education teaching assistant in the room. Summer school dates for 2022 were June
6-July 1. Willie was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) when he was 3 years old
and receives special education services in his general education classroom throughout the
school day. For this assessment, both indirect and direct assessment methods were used to
hypothesize the function of his challenging behaviors. The Functional Assessment Screening
Tool (FAST; author, year) was complete on 6/19/22 by Willie’s general education teacher.
Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) data were collected by the teaching assistant from
6/13-6/24/22, resulting in 6 episodes of behavior. ABC data were collected in the first grade
classroom, the hallway, the gym, playground, lunchroom, and the art and music rooms.
Target Behavior
Willie is generally a well behaved, joyful youngster who plays appropriately with peers
and is respectful to adults. However, on occasion, Willie will demonstrate what staff refer to as
“tantrum” behavior. During a tantrum, Willie will scream and cry (loud vocalization that is audible
from the hallway or the next room), and often throw himself to the floor and kick his feet (from a
walking, standing, or seated position). He has kicked others who approach him during these
moments, but staff believe these kicks are unintentional because Willie always flails his feet
about when he is engaged in a tantrum on the floor. Data reveals that these incidents occur on
average 2-3 times per week. For purposes of this FBA, “tantrum” was defined as any incident
including both screaming or crying and throwing himself to the floor (with or without feet flailing).
Incidents of screaming alone, crying alone, or falling to the floor without vocalizations were not
counted as “tantrum behaviors”.
FAST Results
The FAST (author, year) was completed as a structured interview between this assessor
and Willie’s general education teacher, Mrs. D’Angelo during via Zoom meeting on Sunday,
June 19, 2022. The FAST contains 27 yes/no questions designed to identify the most and least
likely circumstances in which a challenging behavior might occur. Below are the graphed data
from the FAST assessment.
Results from the FAST indicate that Willie’s tantruming behavior is most likely earning
him some environmental, “social” consequence, such as attention, a tangible, or escape. The
FAST results do not support an “automatic” function of behavior, meaning that the tantrums do
not appear to Mrs. D’Angelo as either sensory or pain attenuation type behaviors. Results from
the FAST are to be taken in consideration with all other data, given their reliance on recollection
and perception (Boutot, year).
ABC-R Data Analysis & Hypothesized Function
In order to gather objective data on the environmental variables potentially associated
with Willie’s tantrum behavior, an Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (ABC) chart was
completed. This chart, completed by Ms. Koepke, the special education teaching assistant
assigned to Willie’s classroom, contains information about the date and time of each incident;
the location and activities during each incident; if applicable, who was present or involved in the
incident; the antecedent (what occurs immediately prior to the incident); the behavior (in this
case, “tantrums” as previously defined); the consequences (what happens immediately after the
behavior); and the student’s response to the consequence (e.g., did it continue, escalate, or
stop). When an ABC data sheet contains student response data, it may be called an ABC-R
chart (Boutot, year). Following a 1 hour training, Ms. Koepke collected data on each tantrum
incident (that she was present to view) for 9 consecutive summer school days.
Results from an analysis of the ABC-R data indicate that the most common antecedents
to Willie’s tantrums were being denied access to something, when another student took
something he wanted, or when told it was time to put something he was playing with away.
There were no other antecedents to the tantrum behaviors. The most common consequence to
Willie’s tantrum was staff attention, followed by peer attention. Often the staff attention involved
asking Willie what he wanted, or offering him a “first-then” option (e.g., “first get back in your
seat and then you can have your iPad”). There were no other consequences to his tantrums.
When staff offered the “first-then” option, his tantrum would stop (though twice he did continue
to cry for a period of a few minutes) and he would comply with their requests.
Based on the data from this ABC-R, it appears that the function of Willie’s tantrum
behavior is “access to tangible”. What this means is that when Willie is told he cannot have
something, or is told to put something he wants to continue engaging with away, he engages in
tantrum behaviors to access (or to continue to have access) that item. Tangible appears to be
the most likely function of the tantrum behavior due to the fact that in each incident, the behavior
continued (or escalated) when he was offered an alternative choice, but stopped once he was
offered a method of obtaining the desired item. The ABC-R data sheet is provided in the
appendix to this report.
FA Procedures & Hypothetical Results
Functional analysis (FA) procedures are commonly used by behavior analysts and others to
confirm a hypothesized function of behavior that was identified through an FBA process. In
order to confirm that the function of Willlie’s behavior is, in fact, access to tangible, the following
FA procedures will be undertaken.
Tangible Condition
To assess if his behavior serves a tangible function, we will first conduct a preference
assessment of known or suspected preferred items, to determine which are his top 2-3
preferred items. For each item, we will give Willie free access for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes of
free time with each item, we will tell Willie, “it’s time to put X (item) away now”. If Willie engages
in tantrum behavior, we will immediately tell him, “Okay, you can have 5 more minutes”. If the
behavior stops after we give him the extra time, we can surmise that the behavior is serving a
tangible function. If the tantrum behavior either does not occur, or it continues or escalates after
being given the extra time, we can then determine the function is likely not tangible access. This
condition will be repeated across four sessions.
Escape Condition
To assess if his behavior serves an escape function, meaning that he engages in the
tantrums to escape a task or activity, we will first place a somewhat challenging demand on
Willie. For example, we might ask him to write some sight words, as we know that he has
expressed displeasure with writing tasks. If Willie engages in a tantrum after this demand has
been placed, we will tell him, “that’s okay, you do not have to finish writing”. To confirm that the
behavior is related to an escape function, we would expect to see Willie tantrum soon after the
demand is placed, but stop as soon as he is told he no longer needs complete the task. If the
behavior either does not occur following a task demand, or it continues or escalates after being
told he need not continue, we would surmise that the function is not escape. The escape
condition will be repeated across four sessions.
Attention Condition
To assess for an attention function, we will provide Willie with a relatively easy, but not
highly preferred task (such as putting together a puzzle). During this task, we will sit near Willie,
but provide no attention to him. We will say something to the effect of “you do the puzzle, Willie,
and I will be right here answering emails”. If Willie engages in tantrum behavior, we will
immediately give him attention. This attention may be in the form of a redirection, such as
“Shhh, Willie, you are disturbing others” or “It’s okay, Willie” or similar. If tantrum behavior serves
an attention function, we would expect to see the behavior soon after we deny attention, and
stop once attention is provided. If the behavior is not related to attention, we would see the
behavior either not occur during the attention condition, or to continue or escalate following the
provision of attention. We will repeat the attention condition will be repeated across four
sessions.
Play Condition
To assess for an automatic function, we will complete what is known as the “play” or
“control” condition. During this condition, Willie will have access to his preferred items, along
with attention and no task demands. For example, we will sit with Willie and his favorite toys
(e.g., the musical instruments) and talk to him, praise him, play with him, but not ask him any
questions or ask him to complete any specific tasks. If Willie does not engage in the tantrum
behavior during the play condition, we can presume that the behavior does not serve an
automatic function of either access to “feel good” or sensory stimulation or relief from
uncomfortable stimulation. However, if Willie does engage in the behavior during the play
condition, the assumption is that the behavior serves at least a partial automatic function,
though whether it is for stimulation or relief cannot be known. The play condition will be
repeated across four sessions.
FA Procedures, Setting, and Hypothetical Results
All FA conditions will be completed in Willie’s first grade classroom, by this assessor or
the special education teaching assistant, under my direction. Each condition will be repeated for
four sessions, alternating session by condition so that no two conditions occur in two sequential
sessions. The data sheet to be used is located in the appendix. For each session, the number of
tantrum behaviors will be counted as a frequency count. The total number of behaviors, per
session, will be graphed. The graph below depicts hypothetical data indicating a tangible
function.
References
References in APA format here. Alphabetical order based on first authors’ last name.
Appendix
FAST Protocol/Results
ABC-R Data
Date/Time Activity/Setting / People
Antecedent Behavior Consequence Response
6/13, 9:53-9:56am
Transitioning from Centers to desks for independent work
Teacher rang the “put away” bell
Tantrum - cry, flop onto his back from a seated position on the floor.
TA came over to try to calm; after 2.5 minutes offered “first get in your desk and then you can earn the instruments”
Behavior continued until “first-then” and it stopped.
6/14, 8:01-8:02am
Finishing breakfast, moving to morning circle
Teacher signaled time to clean up breakfast and move to carpet
Tantrum - fall to floor and scream
TA asked what he wanted, “more breakfast”; TA told him he could finish his breakfast first and then join the morning circle
Stopped
6/16, 11:10-11:12am
Moving from playground back to classroom
Teacher blew the “end of recess” whistle
Tantrum - ran onto the grass, dropped to the ground and cried.
Teacher called to him that recess was over and it was nearly time to go home; TA went to him and told him that if he came inside right now, he could ask his grandma to let him swing before they went home after school.
Behavior continued until offered the option of asking grandma for more swing time, then it stopped.
6/20, 10:15-10:16
Working with another student on the iPad
Other student asked for his turn and took the iPad
Tantrum - fell to floor, kicked other student (accidentally?), and screamed
Student gave him back the iPad
Stopped
6/22, 9:55-9:56am
Transitioning from Centers to desks for independent work
Teacher rang the “put away” bell
Tantrum - cry, fell to the floor (was walking with iPad)
TA offered “first-then” for work then iPad
Stopped
6/24, 8:56-8:57am
Transition from music room back to classroom
Music teacher told class to line up to go back to first grade
Tantrum - scream, flop onto his back from a seated position on the floor
TA asked him what he wanted; he stated “more music”. Music teacher told him he could pick on instrument to take back to class until the end of the day.
Stopped
FA Data Collection Sheet