FBA and beyond

FBA can be a very useful assessment.  Any BCBA should be familiar with this assessment and use it with any new case when determining the function of the behavior in question.  When taking on a new case a BCBA or behavioral specialist should never assume what the function of a behavior is.  Most assumptions of functions that has no supportive data usually have to be repeated or start over more often, thus doing more work at the beginning of taking on a new client can save one from doing lots more work later on.  This particular assessment seemed to have the right approach to FBAs.  There should always be some sort of baseline data collected before the FBA is done.  How would one know if the treatment worked if you don’t have a baseline.  After one has a good baseline then they can proceed with the FBA.  This particular FBA form covered all parts of the behavior and seemed like it would work well in a team setting.  It is always important to involve a team in the process of a behavior plane.  The more impute one has the more likely you are to have accurate behavior plan.  Also, the more people involved in the process the more likely it is that everyone will follow the plan that will ultimately help the student.