Root Causes of Problems at School

When kids encounter difficulties at school, it’s not always due to academic issues. Often, behavior problems are the root cause of their struggles. Students might disrupt the class, become withdrawn, or skip school altogether. To assist these students, schools utilize a tool called Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) to identify and understand problematic behaviors and to devise potential solutions. Federal law mandates that students must receive an FBA before being suspended for 10 or more days, expelled, or placed in a more restrictive educational environment. However, due to the crowding and understaffing at many school districts, families often need to ensure this evaluation is conducted. Many families resort to hiring expensive educational advocates to secure publicly funded services, leaving many who cannot afford the extra expense without free and appropriate public education.

For students whose behaviors interfere with their learning, the start of the behavior intervention process is the Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA). FBA stands for Functional Behavior Assessment. FBA allows educators to then develop a behavior intervention plan (BIP) that is individualized, relevant, and more likely to succeed in supporting the student’s positive behavior. It’s a method of understanding the root cause, or function, of behavior. An FBA’s purpose is to identify the specific motivation behind a behavior targeted for increase or decrease. Everything humans do results in one of four general functions: to access something we like (e.g., money, toys), escape from something we don’t like (e.g., extra work tasks), get another person’s attention (e.g., soliciting praise, starting a conversation), or some kind of sensory payoff (e.g., the sensation of listening to music or sitting in a massage chair). Everything we do has a purpose, a motivation behind it – even the things people do that occur “randomly” or “unpredictably”. Knowing which category.

“Behavior” refers to everything a person does: sleeping, talking, thinking, dressing, yelling, focusing, crying and reading are all examples of behavior. Traditionally, FBAs are performed when a person is exhibiting behaviors that are dangerous, socially inappropriate, or interfere with the individual’s ability to learn in their natural environment (where they live, go to school, work, etc.) Children with special needs exhibit challenging behaviors more often and more intensely than their typically developing peers, but every child acts out at different stages of development. All parents can benefit from learning to understand behavior patterns, identify the purpose the behavior serves for the child, and how to reduce challenging behaviors while augmenting new skills that make challenging behavior less likely to occur in the future.

Consider this example. Everyone is familiar with the child who’s crying for candy at the grocery store, with their embarrassed parent who doesn’t want to cause a scene. The parent gives in, buys the candy, and gives it to the child. The child stops crying – success! Right? There’s one significant problem here: this child has just been taught by their parent that crying at the store is an effective way to get some candy. The candy acts as a reinforcer, or reward, for the crying that immediately preceded it. The payoff, or function, of crying is access to candy. The parent’s behavior of providing the candy is subsequently rewarded by the sudden absence of crying. This circular interaction is called a behavior trap, and even the savviest parents get stuck in it.

Humans tend to repeat behaviors that work. The crying may have ceased in the moment, but the next time they visit the store, the exact same situation is likely to occur, all things being relatively equal. All too often, a second mistake is made: the application of punishments without respect to the identified function. A child who cries, is spanked and yelled at, and receives candy anyway is now a child who cries for candy and gets beaten for it, even though the parent is the one in control of the reinforcer. The problem hasn’t been solved; it’s only been made worse.

Now think of a child who is avoiding their work and is put in time-out. Time-out, in this particular instance, is completely counterproductive, because now the child doesn’t have to do their work for some time. They earned themself a break without having to learn how to request one or seek help with their work. To truly reduce challenging behavior and not just stop it in the moment, the intervention applied must match the identified function. Behavior change procedures that do not consider function are doomed to fail. They are especially dangerous because they tend to stop behavior in the moment, leading parents to think that the consequence was effective, and they also do not teach the child what to do instead. Only through modeling and reinforcement do we learn how to behave appropriately in society.

An FBA is a process involving a series of observations, parent interviews, and data collection to identify behavior function and replacement behaviors and develop a function-based intervention plan with antecedent and consequence modifications spelled out. These assessments are usually administered by behavior analysts or school psychologists for children with chronic behavioral problems, but the science and techniques are useful for every family. Once you can take a step back, observe, and assess whether how you’re responding is helping or hurting a situation, your effectiveness as a parent will improve. Fewer challenging behaviors and parents with a new sense of understanding make life so much easier day-to-day for everyone involved!

Due to its thorough and personalized approach, this assessment is typically viewed as a component of a Tier 3 intervention within a school’s multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS).