Functional Behavioral Assessment Short Paper

Functional Behavioral Assessment Short Paper

ECE 201 Intro to Early Childhood Behavior Management

Functional Behavior Assessment Short Paper

When it come to early childhood education, field behavior management is an very important topic. In this paper I will discussion the challenging a teacher may have with students that display behavior issues on a frequent basis. In order for a teacher to figure out a plan for that student, the teacher will need to know the purpose of the behavior. During my research I came across an article that early childhood teachers must have a behavior management plan to manage some student negative behaviors within the classroom setting. There can be different behavior problem such as harm to their self, as well as other, learning problem that can even damage physical environment. All these problems could cause a student to be alone and not be around other students.

A teacher in early childhood education must figure out the behavior issues with the student, when it makes occurs and how often it happens? Teachers have many plans when it comes to deal with a child with challenging behavior. According to Kaiser & Sklar Rasminsky (2012), you should write down information about a student and record the information on a daily basis. Make sure you write down the time and date of that information that you gather on the student. The teachers need to determine the purpose of this behavior. This will help the teachers to determine when the behavior happens or what is going on at the time whether it s during an activity or playing with others. Once you have gathered all the information on that student the teacher is able to say how many time it happen throughout the day and after a week or two observing that student, the teacher is able to come up with an action plan on how to manage that student possessive challenging behaviors.

After gathering all the information on that student, then there should be a plan put together for these challenging behaviors. There should a team of people put together who help with this child. It would be the teachers, parents, school administrators and social workers. After gathering all these people at once, the teacher can add more valuable information on the student such as background, their environment at home and school. This team will meet to discuss the student challenging behavior and work on a plan to help that student. The team can now perform a behavior assessment involves looking at the assessment in A-B-C analysis. After using the A-B-C analysis the teachers will be able to spot the function of the challenging behavior and when it occurs. According to Hartwig, Heathfield, and Jenson (2004) noted that a functional behavior assessment makes it possible to generate a hypothesis for a student with challenging behavior which allows teacher to modify environment events to prevent such behavior (Pg. 3).

It is very important that the teachers collect and analyze all information prior to having specialist to come and analyze your information as well. The reason for all the teachers and specialist to come to gather is to develop a plan.

For example, a common challenging behavior for a teacher is for a child to have a biting problem. The target behavior is the biting and biting other children. The child is screaming that the toy is mine when he took the toy from the other child that he is biting because the child will not give it back. I would say that the purpose of this behavior is the object that he wants from the other child. The child thinks if he bites the child, that child will give him the toy that he wants.

Another example, of common challenging behavior for a teacher is for a child to always interrupt your class, andnot give the other children a change to answer. The target behavior is that child blaring out the answer and the other child don’t get a change to answer. I would say that the purpose of this behavior is that he is seeking attention or always want to be notice. I think that child is trying to get an reaction from the teacher and the other children.

The last example, of common challenging behavior is when a child is spitting out od his mouth and on other children. The target behavior is that the child is spitting on other children. It appears that the child who is going the spitting want to get a reaction out of the other children or he do not know how to make friends. It seems the child spit to get the child to try to play with them.

As I continue to be an early childhood educator I have noticed every child well show a challenging behavior sometime during their life. I find that the way we collect information is very important to how we can help that child to over come their challenging behaviors. I have described three example of common behaviors I have had in my classroom with my students. The three example I describe happen to me with my 4 years old students. During this assignment has help me a lot on understanding of challenging behavior and functions of those behaviors. It has help me to take daily notice and at the end of the day make a plan for the next day.

References

Kaiser B. & Rasminsky, J.S. (2012).  Challenging behavior in young children: Understanding, preventing, and responding effectively.  Upper Saddle River, N.J. Pearson Education, Inc.

Hartwig, L., Heathfield, L., & Jenson, W. R. (2004). Standardization of the Functional Assessment and Intervention Program (FAIP) with Children Who Have Externalizing Behaviors. School Psychology Quarterly, 19(3), 272-287. doi:10.1521/scpq.19.3.272.40277

Green, K. B., Mays, N. M., & Jolivette, K. (2011). Making Choices: A Proactive Way to Improve Behaviors for Young Children with Challenging Behaviors. Beyond Behavior, 20(1), 25-31.