A few weeks ago, I was out and about enjoying my weekend when suddenly I felt like my eyeball was about to blow out of my head. Then came the sneezing. Not my usual 2-3 in a row… more like about 12! 🤧
I was initially about to reach for cold medicine, but then I remembered that March is the month that the pollen arrives. The yellow haze wasn’t all over everything yet, but when I checked the pollen count, I realized that was the culprit.
I’m glad I paused before taking that cold medicine. Even though some of the symptoms are the same, that wasn’t the root cause of my problem. I chose the specific treatment targeted for allergies. Zyrtec did the trick.
Sometimes, it’s really easy to find the trigger or cause of something. Atlanta recently experienced the highest pollen count EVER, reaching 14,801. For those who aren't blessed with the yellow haze every spring, anything over 1,500 is considered EXTREME.
It would have been obvious to figure out with that huge clue. However, with the more subtle presentation, I had to do a little extra digging to figure it out.
That is sort of like what happens in a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA). An FBA is a clinical assessment that is conducted to determine the function or root cause of a behavior. The FBA is an important part of the clinical process. We need to know the root cause to select the correct intervention. Without it, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall.
Once the function or root cause of the behavior is determined through a thorough FBA, a specific Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) can be developed to address it.
In the last two weeks’ newsletters, I have addressed the clerical or procedural aspects of behavior issues, including unofficial suspensions and Manifestation Determination Review (MDR) meetings.
A lot of times, I have seen FBAs in the school setting treated like some paperwork to be completed instead of the clinical assessment that it is. Sometimes, teachers are asked to teach the full class, interact with the student who is having difficulty, and collect data on the situation all at the same time. 😵💫
The FBA and the BIP are the clinical parts of the process for assisting students with emotional or behavioral regulation difficulties at school. An FBA should be completed by someone with the appropriate training to collect and interpret behavioral data. I have an in-depth blog post about Functional Behavioral Assessments (FBA) in the school setting, including common places where they go wrong, on my website. There is also a training workshop about it inside Your IEP Source Membership.