Functional Behavioral Assessments

The first step in developing a valid behavioral treatment plan is to determine why the problem behavior occurs. This assessment is vital in determining what treatment to implement in order to effectively decrease the problem behavior. This assessment has two components: a functional assessment interview, in which the Behavior Analyst will ask you specific questions about the problem behavior, and direct observations will be conducted. Then Behavior Analyst will actually try to arrange situations in order to provoke the problem behavior to occur. Although this may seem unusual, it is necessary in order to accurately determine what the maintaining function of the behavior is.