What is Functional Assessment of Behaviour - Why Do I need it?
Most Practical and Useful of All
Base your effort on a functional assessment - and your intervention is twice as likely to be useful.
Said another way, get a functional assessment of behaviour and your path to change can be easier. Not always true in every case of course, but the general wisdom holds. The more we get what is happening - the easier it is to make changes.
Struggling with a behavioural problem is no fun, and can be dangerous to health and safety. The path to change and learning can sometimes be hard. Therapy is here to make this process a bit more manageable.
Solid Assessments are Key
By useful we mean that behaviour support based on solid assessment and intervention planning seeks to
1. increase safety wherever possible,
2. provide insight and hope,
3. create options and choices, and
4. reduce behaviours of concern and/or change environments and supports that then contribute to changes in behaviours.
In many cases these positive outcomes are documented by the behavioural therapist. This is accepting the fact that every situation is unique and that there are no guarantees.
Vital Assistance - Key Insights
Research and professional practice - over many years - shows that counselling and behaviour support assessments and interventions provide significant assistance to clients, families, and staff.
Smith et al (2016) looked at the relationship between biological setting events and problem behaviours.
Then they worked through a "functional analysis of each participant’s problem behaviour in relation to two context factors: fatigue and task demands."
By implementing a multi-component intervention to address both the biological setting factor and the behaviours of concern they reported a dramatic reduction in problem behaviour. The implications show that understanding and assisting with setting events contributes to addressing behaviours of concern.
No doubt life is complex at times - we simplify things so the path is a bit easier.
What You Know, What You Need to Know
In behaviour support, what you know is often not enough. People in everyday life miss the boat. That is natural. We are not trained to see what is underlying in behavioural patterns.
Specialists are trained and with experience to pick up on the patterns, to investigate the data, to uncover the motivations. These insights help sort what is happening. More important - how to make changes more easily.
Source: Christopher E. Smith, Edward G. Carr, Lauren J. Moskowitz, 2016, Fatigue as a biological setting event for severe problem behavior in autism spectrum disorder, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 23, March 2016, Pages 131–144.
Dr Jo and Dr Dwayne are senior counsellor psychotherapists and behaviour specialists - focused on real life therapy with people in everyday life via your smart phone or devices. They work on zoom, facetime or your fav apps. They reach out across Australia and are paid via your NDIS Funding Package Plan. Their private books are closed at the moment but let them know if you are interested in therapy - maybe they can find room to assist. Contact via the form on home page.
Great thing about assessment is - the therapist does the hard work.