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BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENTS, INTERVENTIONS: NO CHOICE BUT TO DO THEM RIGHT

February 19, 2000

There are two compelling reasons for a school to master the relatively new art of conducting functional behavioral assessments and, from them, designing effective behavioral intervention plans, according to a trio of scholars from the University of Kentucky. First, very simply, it is now required by law, under the amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act passed in 1997. Second, even though the process takes time, patience, money and cooperation, if it is done right it will save even more time and money and ultimately help the students, the scholars argue.

Drs. Kristine Jolivette, Michael Nelson and Terrance Scott, based at Kentucky's Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling, presented their case to teachers and administrators Thursday via the Internet in a training session sponsored by the Council for Exceptional Children.

"We all know this is a new game and a new thing that we're being asked to do," Nelson said. "It's complex, its demanding and we're going to have to figure this out as we go along. Our hope is that ideally every school eventually will have a team that is ready and able to support staff who are working with kids with challenging behaviors."

Typical problem behaviors, such as aggressive or disruptive actions, rarely are solved simply by the teacher giving the student a command or making a small change in the environment. More often, students use problem behaviors specifically to get something, perhaps attention or power, or avoid something, such as having to perform in front of the class, where the student has a chance to fail. Recognizing that students typically act out for a reason, the Kentucky scholars advocate a 10-step functional behavioral assessment plan to determine what the behavior is and what is prompting the student to act that way. A second 10-step plan guides educators in setting up interventions to help the student reprogram the behavior but still achieve the student's desired goal. Attention, for example, can be granted in the form of praise and positive encouragement, if the student learns to use the appropriate behaviors. Both plans are outlined in detail in papers available from the Kentucky Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling.

Worth the Time and Money

Following two 10-step programs sounds like a lot of time, energy and money, particularly for schools with limited amounts of each, teachers said during the web training session. But the scholars argue a plan that takes a standardized, systematic approach to examining all the things that impact a student's behavior and developing hypotheses based on all of that information yields the most effective long-term results. If educators use a more random approach, Scott argues, "What we find is we are actually spending more money by throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the kid and nothing works. So [in that case], what we've done is we've brought in every specialist to try a new plan on the kid, and we end up putting the kid in more restrictive settings that are really expensive. And we end up having all kinds of special ed. and special services and supplements involved," Scott said.

NEWS BRIEF: NASP UPDATES BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS GUIDE February 19, 2000

"We may need to do that with some of these kids anyway, but what we find is that if we go through a systematic process like this, the probability of having an effective intervention is much greater."

Even following the 10-step plans closely, educators should use their judgment about what steps require the most effort, Scott said. "Don't do any more of the process than you have to to get the kind of outcome you want. Once you get into the process and the intervention planning, I think all of the steps are necessary, but the degree or the scope with which you implement this depends upon the scope with which the problem presents itself," Scott said.

Scott and his colleagues did not set a specific amount of time functional behavioral assessments and intervention plans should take -- largely because that varies with each student. The 10-step plans are learning experiences for the teams. "What we're learning to do, we think, is to work smarter around kids with challenging behavior so that, in the long run, we don't diminish our capacity as teams or practitioners to understand problem behaviors and to intervene with it appropriately and proactively," Nelson said.

"Proactive" is a word on which most of the group's work has centered. Although the new IDEA discipline provisions mandate functional behavioral assessments and intervention plans when a change in placement is needed or services must be suspended, the Kentucky scholars advocate conducting these evaluations before the situation gets that serious. "Early intervention does not mean preschool only," Scott said. "Early intervention means anywhere in school, or anywhere in life, find these kids when they first start displaying their problems and intervene early in that chain. Once kids have had a while to display problem behaviors and practice them, they get much better at them and they're harder for us to get rid of."

Setting up for Success

Fittingly, "success" is the key to making the assessments and the interventions successful. The student must experience success, and feel there is the potential for success, in an intervention, or the process will be an uphill struggle. Being realistic about the motivating factors behind the student's behavior and about what a reasonable goal is, the team can set that student up for success, the scholars noted.

"Whether it be academics or social behaviors, we want to say 'Where do we want them to be, where are they now, and what can we start teaching tomorrow that would make them successful?'" Scott explained. "Every time a kid fails at the new behavior you're trying to teach them, they're less likely to continue trying it in the future. Probably the kinds of kids we're talking about have failed over and over and over again, and they really probably don't have any reason to believe that what you're teaching them is going to work."

Part of that process is taking note of appropriate behaviors the student uses, and the scholars advocate paying particular attention to that during the assessment process. "One thing that I think we just cannot stress enough is that students who display inappropriate behavior also display a great deal of appropriate behavior, and we really need to capture that and use a lot of that data and incorporate it" into interventions, Jolivette said.

In observations that are designed to pick up the problem behaviors, observers can note the results a student gets from using appropriate behavior and, if that feedback is not positive, the intervention process may include increasing the instances of positive reinforcement.

Success Begets Success

The success-based approach should also be applied to addressing multiple problem behaviors in one student, Jolivette added. The first question to ask when considering how to approach multiple behaviors is "If we intervene with one and are successful, will some of the others go away?" she said. "Look at them and see are there some inappropriate behaviors that are triggering more inappropriate behaviors, and then get those initial ones first."

For cases in which such a chain reaction may not be obvious, Scott advocates tackling the behavior that, when redirected, will have the biggest impact on the student's life. "You always have to look at the big picture, all the things that are going on in the child's life and all the problems they are exhibiting and prioritize," he said, noting the focus on success for the student is still key. "Don't do more than what you feel like you can really do well."

The law may also help assessment and intervention teams prioritize which behaviors to address first, Nelson added. According to the new IDEA rules, if a student's behavior warrants a change in placement or the disruption of services, that is automatically the first behavior to be addressed by the team. "Unfortunately, the law is stated in such a way that it sort of suggests you should be reactive. That is, after the kid has been suspended or after the kid's been moved to an alternative placement, then you do a functional assessment," Nelson said.

Team Approach

Besides their worries about the cost of these assessment and intervention processes, schools and educators may shy away from following the plan closely because of time constraints. Because every teacher, school psychologist, administrator and other school staff member already has a pile of work to do, the Kentucky scholars argue, taking a truly cooperative, team approach is the only way to make the process work. "Kids' behaviors are not the special ed. teacher's problems, they're not the regular ed. teacher's problems, they're not the principal or the counselor or anybody else's problems," Scott noted. "They're all of our problems. We all need to take responsibility for playing a part in this."

Since functional behavioral assessments are now officially a part of the student's individualized education plan, the typical assessment and intervention team is comprised of the same people who make up the IEP team, Jolivette said. "What we want is a pool of experts who know this student and who can take a referral behavior, go through the assessment process and use the assessment data to decide specific interventions for that student," she said. Appointing a member of the team to be a facilitator is also helpful, she said. That person should be someone with the least amount of contact with the student, so the person can remain neutral and objective, she said. Once the team sets a plan of action, the facilitator can make sure each person's responsibility is balanced and can follow up with each team member to keep everyone on track.8