12
Running Head: FUNCTIONAL BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT
Functional behavioral assessment in a classroom setting
Karin Schumacher Dyke
Wilmington College
Functional behavioral assessment in a classroom setting
The following paper depicts a target student, hereafter referred to by the pseudonym J, in a first grade classroom in Milford Exempted Village Schools. The child is considered to have difficulties in his classroom related to behavioral goals that are keeping him from having success in the school environment. In order to remediate the behavioral difficulties, data collection in the form of a functional behavior assessment (FBA) assists in pinpointing the issues of concern that leads to a hypothesis about what is motivating J’s behavior and possibilities for addressing the concerns. Finally, a solution is sought to address the behavior and attempts are made and observed to test if a given intervention is helpful. The following are specifics about the process conducted.
Setting and Participant
When?
The schedules of observation were set in advance and conducted on the following dates: September twenty-fourth, October first, October eighth, and October fifteenth. I was a visitor in this first grade classroom. I was allotted 20 hours to complete any work and observations that I might need for completing an FBA observation and class field work requirement. Because each visit in the classroom lasted for five hours, I was able to conduct multiple observations with J. I ended up with a total of 5 classroom observations providing me 11 data points.
The initial observation on September twenty-fourth lasted for an hour and was conducted during the times of 9:15am until 10:15am. Being able to be an observer for this amount of time was unusual as I regularly assisted the lead teacher and had shorter periods of time to observe J. However, during this first day of observation, the classroom teacher suggested that I go observe J in his music special conducted in another room with the whole class. Subsequent to this observation, I was able to conduct a second observation on this same date for ten minutes in duration from 12:15pm until 12:25 pm. Lastly; I conducted my final observation on this first date from 2:15 pm until 2:25 pm. These initial observations steered me to determine that student J was exhibiting the most amount of teacher identified behavior, J falling out of his seat, directly after lunch recess, starting at 12:15. Therefore, this allowed me to make arrangements with the classroom teacher to have regular observation times for each weekly scheduled classroom visit beginning at 12:15 as permitted. Therefore, I was able to conduct my classroom observations with as much regularity as the attendance of J would allow. The dates that I collected data at 12:15 pm were as follows: September twenty-fourth, October eighth, and October fifteenth. During those times, the school day was typical and allowed me to observe J’s consistent patterns.
Where?
A drawing of the classroom is included in Appendix A of this document.
Who?
This Milford Elementary School has the distinction of being one of the few in the State of Ohio as being a Hall of Fame school as rated by the state of Ohio. This school also boasts its availability to community partners with the school offering use of the building after school hours to its partners. The school provides child care before and after the regular school day. As a kindergarten through sixth grade school, there are 552 students. The school is rated as excellent with distinction in its State of Ohio school report card.
In the first grade classroom where J is a student, there are 16 students, one classroom teacher, and one classroom aide that is designated to exclusively assist a student with Down’s syndrome for the full day. J comes from a single parent family and his mother has residential custody. When parent teacher conferences were held last year, J’s kindergarten year of school, both parents attended according to his former kindergarten teacher.
J is an active, white, six year old boy who has been diagnosed as having sensory integrative disorder. It is observed by his classroom teacher that J just seems to have a hard time, “knowing where his body is in space.” This results in poor motor control which often demonstrates itself in falls and scrapes. This description of poor motor coordination is consistent with the general symptomology of sensory integrative disorder as described by Byrne and FAAN (2009).
Procedures
Conducting Observation
For J’s observations I employed direct observation and to record data, used an antecedent-behavior-consequence (ABC) chart. Direct observation is utilized when the observer directly observes the child in a first-hand fashion as opposed to asking others to make evaluation of the child from prior experience (Alter, Conroy, Mancil, & Haydon, 2008). ABC charts are used successfully with direct observation methods.
Alter et al. (2008) suggested that ABC charts are particularly effective when performing direct observation because of its ability to be reliably triangulated with other assessment sources. Thus, the use of ABC charts to record data from directly observing J is well suited for this project. Walker, Shea and Bauer (2007) further described that ABC charts are commonly used in the classroom and thus, accessible to those performing student observations. They described that at least 10 incidents of the behavior are required to find a pattern. In accordance with this, I created an ABC chart consistent with recommendations. The ABC chart and detailed account of the data is provided in Appendix B.
As I observed J, I was permitted to always be in a seat toward the back of the room behind J so that I would be unable to be viewed, for the most part, by J and also by J’s peers. The classroom teacher and I collaborated and decided that we would try using an exercise ball to replace J’s more traditional wooden classroom chair.
Results
In general, when I observed J in the classroom, I did so during transition times, specifically, most often, at the time that J was coming back from lunch recess. The behavior that I measured was defined as, “falling out of seat” behavior. I counted how many times J either fell as the result of getting up from his seat or when J initiated sitting down.
I originally observed that the behavior was most evident during transition times in the school environment. J appeared to fall down more when he was initiating sitting down in his chair such as when the teacher instructed students go to their seats before an activity began. J’s falls also were observed when J got out of his chair which happened most often upon teacher request to physically move from his seat to another location. This appeared with particular regularity when J had just had an extended period of strenuous activity prior to initiation of sitting down, for example when he had just returned from lunch recess.
Discussion/Analysis
J’s behavior was a result of motor clumsiness due to his sensory integration disorder. His behavior increased during times when he was physically transitioning from place to place or activity to activity. I base this on my observations in various settings, but primarily at times when J would be at his most tired (right after lunch recess) and that he would be most prone to body disorganization. While observing during a one hour classroom period, J fell approximately every 15 minutes; however this greatly escalated to falling about twice during approximate 15 minute observations after strenuous physical activity that he would engage in during lunch recess. This demonstrates a significant two fold increase in falling down behavior.
When I asked the classroom teacher if the same pattern was visible during other days that I was not available to observe, she stated, “you know, now that I think of it, there really is an evident pattern here! Yes, I have observed this pattern in J on other days.” I believe that the function of behavior was biological in nature-J just simply lacks the motor coordination to be able to navigate where his body is in space in comparison with his typical peers of the same age. Frey and Wilhite (2005) refer to J’s behavioral motivations as one of survival because of the impact of falling on the physical well being of J. Thus, due to J’s sensory integration disorder, he is less physically capable of sitting in the same chairs as his peers.
I then decided to implement an exercise ball to replace J’s regular wooden classroom chair. I was able to obtain an exercise chair and bring it on the last day of my time in the classroom. Exercise balls used with children with sensory integration are recognized as being a successful intervention in research. For example, Schilling and Swartz (2004) suggested that not only are exercise balls more well suited to all children’s bodies, but exercise balls when used in the place of the more conventional wooden classroom chair have shown promise in assisting children with sensory integration disorders to maintain more time in their chairs.
I felt that the chair might be worth trying and the classroom teacher agreed. On October fifteenth, I maintained my regular schedule of observation: the time right after lunch recess from 12:15 until 12:35. I compared this new data with the data that I was able to obtain before trying the exercise ball chair. There was little to do to train J to use the exercise ball. He had seen one at his home and was excited about getting to use the different chair. The intervention proved successful as evidenced by the data.
Before the exercise ball was used, J fell out of his seat up to 2 times during about a 15 minute time span. After the intervention, the only time J fell appeared to be due to his being off of the exercise ball chair. He did not fall at all either on initiation of being seated or from getting up out of his seat. It is worth mentioning, however, that the limited time I had in the classroom prevented me from truly observing if the exercise ball was an enduring intervention for J. However, I am encouraged by the results that I observed. It is my recommendation that the exercise ball be used with consistency with J over a longer period of time to observe the long lasting results of this intervention. I believe that the exercise ball shows promise in assisting J with being able to sit more consistently in his chair without risking falls.
References
Alter, P.J., Conroy, M.A., Mancil, G.R., & Haydon, T. (2008). A comparison of functional
behavior assessment methodologies with young children: Descriptive methods and
functional analysis. Journal of Behavior Education, 17, 200-219.
Byrne, M.W. & FAAN (2009). Sensory processing disorder: Any of a nurse practitioner’s
business? Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 21, 314-321.
Frey L.M., & Wilhite, K. (2005). Our five basic needs: Application for understanding the
function of behavior. Intervention in School and Clinic, 40, 156-160.
Schilling, D.L. & Schwartz, I.S. (2004). Alternative seating for young children with autism
spectrum disorder: Effects on classroom behavior. Journal of Autism and Developmental
Disorders, 34, 423-432.
Walker, J.E., Shea, T.M., & Bauer, A.M. (2007). Behavior management: A practical approach
for educators (9th ed.). Columbus, OH: Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall.
Appendix A
Appendix B
ABC Chart (I did not actually have the opportunity to observe in a classroom.
However, if I were providing the original form, as you will for this portion of the assignment, parts of the original form in all likelihood would have been handwritten unless I as the observer had a laptop computer to use at the time of the observations to record the antecedent, behavior consequence data)
1. 9/24/09: 9:15am until 10:15am
4 total falls
2. 9/24/09: 12:15pm until 12:25 pm
2 total falls
3. 9/24/09: 2:15 until 2:25
0 total falls
4. 10/8/09: 12:15-12: 35
2 total falls
5. 10/15/09: 12:15-12:40
Intervention Phase: one fall when not using exercise ball chair, no falls when using exercise ball chair
Operational Definition of Behavior: Falling out of chair either upon initiation of getting into seat or upon getting out of seat.
Observer: K. Dyke / Time: Noted above
Activity: Primarily observed during transition periods / Class Period: N/A; elementary school, however, student was observed during a music class, during a math game activity, and on multiple occasions during transition from lunch recess
ANTECEDENT / BEHAVIOR / CONSEQUENCE
Data Point 1
Observation 1, 9:17 - J walks through the door in music class / J sits in an assigned steel backed chair and falls to the floor / Teacher present asks J to take his seat
Data Point 2
Observation 1, 9:25 – While getting up for activity, J falls to the floor / J looks around to see if he has been observed and then goes to activity / J appears to be limping just a little when walking over to activity
Data Point 3
Observation 1, 10:05 – J falls into his chair and then onto the floor when going to sit down after classroom activity, / J’s partner nudges him and helps him up / J’s teacher asks him if he’s OK
Data Point 4
Observation 1, 10:14 – J’s row is called to line up / J in his attempt to get up falls down / J cries and appears to have skinned knee. Teacher sends he and a buddy to the nurse.
Data Point 5
Observation 2, 12:16 – As J attempts to sit in his seat, he falls down / Teacher leans over and quietly asks, “are you OK?” / J gets up and back into chair