functional behavioral assessment

These are usually used when there is disruptive or oppositional-defiant behavior. It usually begins with the teacher or whomever is concerned, taking some data on behavior. What occurs, when it occurs and the conditions under which it occurs. Then the team meets to consider this data and to put their heads together to look for patterns. The team attempts to hypothesize that kinds of situations trigger the undesirable behavior that they want to extinguish. Then the team selects some replacement behaviors to teach. A plan to accomplish this is created and agreed upon, involving parents and school personnel.

In the case of a child who is disorganized (not really a behavior problem) or stands in class to work……….I am not sure I would think an FBA would be warranted. Organization is a problem for a number of people. Good teachers try to build this into their day. Parents should work nightly at home with their disorganized child to see to it that binder and backpack are organized, that homework is all in its place, etc. Teacher needs to support at school. Child may have to clean desk weekly or more often. This does not take an FBA to figure out.

Why does she stand? Well, disorganization is frequently found in ADHD and ADHD-like disorders, which might include nonverbal learning disorder and some high functioning autism like Aspergers. Then, you could ask her why she stands to work.

If standing is not disruptive, and I don’t see why it should be, then I really don’t know why you would conduct an FBA. Let her stand, build in stretch breaks, take her to your physician and let him or her in on this little dilemma, and place her out of the way in the classroom where standing won’t obstruct anyone’s view.

Leah,

It sounds to me like an OT assessment might be more useful. Perhaps she stands because her desk and chair are not a good fit. Maybe she needs a straight back chair, rather than the standard plastic school chair. (Those plastic chairs encourage a hips-forward posture that can make it harder to write.)

Andrea

Thanks for your responses. I did mention it to her private OT today. She checked for neck strength b/c Jami told me DUH - when I asked her :-) that when she works on specific tasks (she hasn’t niced specifically which ones) that she has to “hunch over a certain way” and hold her head sideways to do it. It’s easier to stand and “it doesn’t make my neck hurt”. When the private OT checked for neck strength she said Jami was well within normal limits however there was 1 exercise that she said “hurt a lot”. Said it might be worth watching and asking.

Odd, isn’t it that a school psych would suggest a func beh assessment for that?

My daughter age 10, said, :”Mom, just put it in my IEP that I can stand sometimes when I working”.

Am I creating a monster or an advocate?

There is some good information on FBA’s at www.behavioradvisor.com. Does sound strange that this was suggested for standing while working, but sometimes we throw things out in a brainstorming sort of way. The goal of FBA is to change behavior. If it is determined that a skill deficit (i.e. organization) is the cause of the behavior, then the plan would have to include who, how, and when the behavior would be taught. Key to the concept of FBA is that the replacement behavior (what you want the kid to do) has to serve the same function as the target behavior (what you are trying to change).

Your daughter sounds really wise. She also has grasped the concept of advocacy - good for her! I am a sped teacher on secondary level and I personally stand a lot at school and home. Drives my family crazy but it is more comfortable to me. Put her in the back of the room and forget the FBA - that would be totally inappropriate for this situation. You can’t believe what the meetings to review a FBA is like - you don’t want to go there!

Turning the head sideways to do near work is one of the signs on the checklist for vision issues. So is hunching over and problems with copying from the board.

My son had some of his vision issues remediated by OT. He still had an unremediated ocular motor problem despite many issues like slanted writing being remediated through OT.

She does have visual processing issues. Honestly, they have improved tremendously thanks to the private OT. I will mention this to her school OT as well - maybe I can get her time increased (Ha!) or at least get them to see the “continuing need”. She has quite an arsenal of comensatory strategies for most things. She used to tell me her “neck hurt” when she copied from the board, etc. (I think it’s partly tension because of how hard it is) And, yes, she’s becoming quite the advocate. One of her teachers told me recently she is becoming quite the “empowered female”. I thought that was great! I even take her to her own IEP meetings now.

Thanks for all the feedback. It’s one of the best things about this BB. As you can see, I had NO idea what they were talking about and learned it is not the way to go just by a few posts.

Hats off!

However, I’ll go on record as stating that that can simply be written into teh IEP as a goal. disorganization is not really a mystery, so usually it is addressed with interventions written into the IEP. Really serious behavior issues that stump the classroom teacher and have NOT responded much to more typical interventions are usually the kind we target for a functional behavior assessment.

FBAs are very time consuming to do correctly and really don’t need to be overused. When we can sit around the table and discuss an issue, ask the child for feedback, and create a reasonable plan then we do that.

I’d be perfectly happy for the child to stand when she needs to. Or, if another type of assessment is in order, then order it. I have encountered people who want to FBA everything and I’ve even seen one ordered that came up empty handed. Nothing wrong, just parents demanding the FBA to make sure. We need to use our good judgement.

Issues with copying from the board are usually related to accomodation dysfuntion. This is a problem with focusing. What happens is that the child has difficulty when they are required to change focus from near to far quickly. The eyes just don’t adjust the focus in a timely manner. This is one of my son’s many ocular issues.

The way they are treating this in VT is to have him read small print close then somewhat larger print a few feet away. He has a small card with letters on it then a larger sheet of paper hung on the wall with larger letters on it. He says one letter on the card then says the letter on the wall. He finds this difficult.

My son’s OT, whom I respect, didn’t understand the need for VT. I am somewhat sorry that I listened to her instead of addressing this issue earlier.

Honestly, I don’t WANT anymore testing on my daughter. She needs organizational strategies though, b/c they are not providing any and I’m very concerned re: middle school (She start 5th grade next year) Any suggestion on specific organizational goals I can put on her IEP? She’s in general ed and I don’t want to “burden” my teacher with making her spend lots of 1:1 time with Jami and Jami is acutely aware that she is “different” and doesn’t want the extra attention. Any good, specific, discreet interventions? I know, I know, I’m probably asking for too much under the descreet category.

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I agree with the poster who suggested checking out furniture. I find some plastic chairs kill my back. Perhaps just a straight chair and a taller desk would help; if you can find one, the old-fashioned desk with a sloped wooden surface, like a drawing table, is really good (that’s why draftsmen use it).

Also, as a former middle school and high school and college teacher, no, I don’t want students standing. Sorry, but there always two or three smart-alecks in a class who will use any possible excuse to disrupt, and if one kid stands up and sits down you will have these troublemakers jumping up and down like a jack-in-the-box and the rest of the class in hysterical laughter. She would be better to have furniture and placement adjusted appropriately so she doesn’t stand out.