Functional Behavior Assessment

Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) is an evidence-based practice used to understand the purpose or function of a specific interfering behavior exhibited by a toddler. Unlike typical challenging behavior that all children exhibit, interfering behaviors that require an FBA negatively impact the family’s quality of life due to intensity, duration, type, and impact on safety, learning, and the toddler’s development. FBA is a systematic set of strategies that consists of describing the interfering or problem behavior, identifying antecedent or consequent events that control the behavior, developing a hypothesis of the behavior, and testing the hypothesis. Data collection is an important part of the FBA process. Often, practitioners or interventionists use functional communication training (FCT), differential reinforcement, response interruption/redirection, extinction, and antecedent-based intervention (ABI) to address these behaviors in toddlers with ASD.