# 39162 Cust: PH/OH Au: Heward Pg. No. 512Title: Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Ed.

C/M/Y/K/PMSShort / Normal / Long C O M M U N I C A T I O N S , L T D .

Part 2

Educational Needs of

Exceptional Students

TEACHING & LEARNING

Why would a child suddenly hit another childwithout being provoked? Or spit at other chil-dren? Or bite them? Or scream? Why would a

child pick objects off tables and throw them on the floor?Why would he run away sometimes but lie down on the floorand refuse to get up at other times? If this were a typically de-veloping child, we might think he was a brat or a bully, oreven disturbed and in need of counseling. But if this were achild with mental retardation or autism, we would be muchmore likely to think these behaviors were just a part of hisdisability. After all, a lot of people with developmental dis-abilities do those kinds of things. At least that is what wethought for many years.

Today, we take a very different approach, one that as-sumes that challenging behaviors actually are learned be-haviors that occur because they produce desirable conse-quences, such as attention from other people or escapefrom unpleasant situations. This approach has importantimplications for treatment. For instance, take the case ofthe child who hits others to gain attention. With our oldway of thinking, we might have “treated” the hitting by ig-noring it altogether or by using a negative consequence,such as loss of privileges or time out, that was intended toeliminate the hitting or reduce its frequency. But if we sawthat the hitting actually was an effective way for a childwith few social skills to gain attention from others, our“treatment” would focus on teaching this child more so-cially appropriate ways of getting attention.

One of the most interesting children with whom wehave used this approach (called functional assessment)was Reggie, an 11-year-old boy with moderate to severeretardation, seizures, and behavior disorders. Reggie reg-ularly engaged in a variety of challenging behaviors: hehit, spit, bit, threw objects, screamed, ran away, threwhimself on the floor and refused to get up. He did thesethings frequently throughout the day, including at school,

Functional Assessment–BasedIntervention in a School Setting

by John Umbreit

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which is where Dr. Kwang-Sun Blair and I worked withhim and his teachers.

Reggie began school at age 6 and spent the first 3 yearsin a separate class for students with severe emotional dis-abilities. During that time, he often hit his classmates andteachers. He was then placed in a cross-categorical class-room for a year and then into an inclusion program. In theyear before our study began, Reggie’s challenging behaviorshad escalated so much that school district officials wereconsidering removing him from the program. His teachershad attempted a variety of interventions to reduce theseproblems, including reinforcing alternative behavior, giv-ing choices, time out, physical restraints, and redirection.None of these procedures had been effective.

We began the process of functional assessment bydefining Reggie’s challenging behaviors and the appropri-ate behaviors his teachers wanted him to use instead. Thenwe conducted structured interviews with 10 people whoknew Reggie well (often only two or three people areneeded). These people included several of his current andformer teachers, the school principal, and both of Reggie’sparents. Next, we conducted structured observations toidentify the situations in which each challenging behavioroccurred and the consequences it produced. These 15-minute observation sessions were conducted in multipleenvironments: in the classroom, on the playground, in thelunchroom, in the library. The interviews and observationsrevealed clear and important patterns in Reggie’s behavior.Specifically, we learned that Reggie displayed one or morechallenging behaviors when an activity was something hedidn’t like to do, when he was required to engage in an ac-tivity (i.e., had no choice in the matter), and when he re-ceived little attention from staff. In addition, observationaldata showed that Reggie’s challenging behaviors producedconsiderably more attention than his appropriate behav-iors did.

# 39162 Cust: PH/OH Au: Heward Pg. No. 513Title: Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Ed.

C/M/Y/K/PMSShort / Normal / Long C O M M U N I C A T I O N S , L T D .

Chapter 13

Autism and Severe

Disabilities

We hypothesized that Reggie’s behavior would im-prove if he (1) took part in preferred activities, (2) was al-lowed to choose activities whenever possible, and (3) re-ceived frequent social attention from staff for appropriatebehavior. Next, we tested each hypothesis within the con-text of naturally occurring routines and activities atschool. To do this, we conducted a series of assessmentsessions, ranging from 8 to 15 minutes long. Some werebaseline sessions in which the typical conditions that ex-isted before the study were in place. Baseline sessionswere alternated with the hypothesis-testing conditions weexpected would improve Reggie’s behavior. For example,in one session, he might be required to engage in a non-preferred activity. In the next session, he would be al-lowed to engage in a preferred activity. Throughout eachsession, we recorded how often Reggie emitted both chal-lenging and appropriate behaviors. We tested and re-peated various combinations of our hypotheses until aclear picture emerged of the situations and consequencesthat reliably controlled his behavior.

The experimental data supported all three hypotheses:Reggie behaved much better in preferred activities, whenhe had choices, and when he received frequent attentionfor appropriate behavior. We used this information to de-sign an intervention package for him consisting of fourcomponents. Whenever possible, desired skills weretaught through preferred activities that Reggie was allowedto choose, and frequent attention was provided for appro-priate behavior. When nonpreferred activities could not beavoided, his teachers tried to give him some choice amongthese activities and interacted with him frequently whenhe behaved appropriately.

Instruction in appropriate social and communicationskills was included as the fourth component of the inter-vention because Reggie’s teachers and parents told us inthe interviews that his limited skills in these areas re-stricted his ability to interact appropriately with others.This intervention element took two forms. First, the teach-ers designed a small communication book that includedphotographs with a written word or phrase related to ob-jects and activities that Reggie encountered during hisschool day. He carried the book with him wherever hewent at school, and his teachers always provided instruc-tion in context (i.e., when the object or activity was en-countered naturally). At first, there were only about 10items in the book, but this number quickly increased tomore than 40. Second, the teaching staff was instructed torespond to every occurrence of challenging behavior byimmediately teaching Reggie appropriate behavior that heshould use instead. For example, he tried to use a com-puter game in the school’s library; but when the game didnot boot correctly, he hit the computer screen. Instead ofscolding him or using time out, the teacher immediatelytaught him to ask the school librarian for help, which hegot. Thereafter, whenever he needed help, he asked for itindependently.

To test the effectiveness of the intervention package,we began with one week of baseline conditions. During thesecond week, the teachers implemented the interventiononly during the afternoon of each day, continuing baselineconditions during the morning. At the end of this week,the afternoon results were very encouraging, so teachersbegan implementing the intervention throughout the day.They continued to implement the intervention for the re-maining 5 months of the school year. Figure A shows thepower of an intervention that is based on a clear under-standing of why a person is engaging in challenging be-haviors.

Although no formal data have been collected since thestudy ended, we do know that Reggie’s improved behaviorcontinued as he transitioned to middle school and, re-cently, to high school. During this time, the program wedeveloped has been continued, aided greatly by the schooldistrict’s willingness to let last year’s teachers train Reggie’snew teachers at the beginning of each new school year. Ac-cording to the teachers, the training has focused on bothhow to work with Reggie and why it is important to workwith him that way.

Reggie is now nearly 18 years old. He spends part ofeach day at school and part in a community-based pro-gram that targets self-sufficiency and work-skill develop-ment. The only time he has significant problems is whenhe interacts with new staff who have not yet learned how

Reggie’s communication book helped him interactpositively with others.

513

continues

• Small-group instruction provides opportunities for incidental or observation learningfrom other students.

• In some instances, small-group instruction may be a more cost-effective use of theteacher’s time.

The effectiveness of small-group instruction is enhanced when teachers do the follow-ing (Kamps et al., 1994; Munk et al., 1998; Snell & Brown, 2000):

• Ensure that students possess basic prerequisite skills such as (1) sitting quietly for aperiod of time, (2) maintaining eye contact, and (3) following simple instructions orimitating simple responses.

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# 39162 Cust: PH/OH Au: Heward Pg. No. 514Title: Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Ed.

C/M/Y/K/PMSShort / Normal / Long C O M M U N I C A T I O N S , L T D .

Part 2

Educational Needs of

Exceptional Students

to work with him. These problems are always quickly re-solved. Without functional assessment and its resulting in-tervention, Reggie’s problem behaviors would have led toa more restrictive placement with limited opportunities forschool and community involvement.

Data from this study (Umbreit & Blair, 1996) andseveral others like it are teaching us that challenging be-haviors of people with developmental disabilities arefunctional behaviors that, though inappropriate, givethem an effective way to influence their world. Func-

tional assessment–based intervention offers us a way tounderstand these behaviors and to improve the quality oflife for students and their families, teachers, and friends.

John Umbreit is a professor in the Special Education Program at theUniversity of Arizona, where he directs the university’s participation inthe Arizona Behavioral Initiative, a statewide effort to improve school-wide discipline. His research and teaching focus on applied behavioranalysis, functional assessment, and positive behavioral support in nat-ural, community-based environments.

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FIGURE A Percentage of observation intervals in which Reggie exhibited problem and appropriate behaviors in schoolduring baseline and intervention conditions