Mahshid Ghaemmaghami, M.A.D.S., BCBA, has been applying the practical functional assessment and skill-based treatment process in an outpatient clinic, schools, and homes since 2012. In this detailed vignette, which includes videos of functional analysis and treatment sessions, she describes the process when applied with a young boy diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and ADHD.
Board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) are often called upon when the problem behavior of a particular child occurs more consistently, frequently, and/or intensely than the problem behavior exhibited by their similarly-aged peers. In other words, BCBAs typically work directly with a single child, conducting functional assessments to understand why the child is engaging in problem behavior. The…
Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) has been repeatedly shown to be an effective means of stimulating development of young children with autism. From the child’s perspective, there are always two significant changes when an EIBI program is introduced into the home. The first is that there are a lot more reinforcing activities now available to the…
A popular way to address problem behavior is to do so proactively or, said another way, to make changes to the antecedents of problem behavior. The proactive approach has intuitive appeal–Why wait for problem behavior to occur to address it when you could arrange the environment so that problem behavior does not occur in the first…
The practical functional assessment process is often initiated when the problem behavior is extremely dangerous to either the person engaging in the problem behavior (e.g., a self-injurious behavior like high intensity head banging) or to those who provide care to the person engaging in the problem behavior (e.g., severe aggression routinely leading to care provider injury).…
Practical Functional Assessment 