Modifying the Learning Environment

In addition to factors of skill and motivation, the functional behavioral assessment may reveal conditions within the learning environment, itself, that may precipitate problem behavior. Factors that can serve as precursors to misbehavior range from the physical arrangement of the classroom or student seating assignment to academic tasks that are "too demanding" or "too boring." Again, simple curricular or environmental modifications may be enough to eliminate such problems.

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Providing Supports

Sometimes supports are necessary to help students use appropriate behavior. The student, for example, may benefit from work with school personnel, such as counselors or school psychologists. Other people who may provide sources of support include:

Peers, who may provide academic or behavioral support through tutoring or conflict-resolution activities, thereby fulfilling the student's need for attention in appropriate ways;

Families, who may provide support through setting up a homework center in the home and developing a homework schedule;

Teachers and paraprofessionals, who may provide both academic supports and curricular modifications to address and decrease a student's need to avoid academically challenging situations; and

Language pathologists, who are able to increase a child's expressive and receptive language skills, thereby providing the child with alternative ways to respond to any situation.

In addition, a variety of adults and students in and around the school and community may contribute support. An example of how one Local Education Agency helped a student use some of his energy in an appropriate manner involved allowing the student to work with the school custodian, contingent upon his completing his academic work each day.

Whatever the approach, the more proactive and inclusive the behavior intervention plan - and the more closely it reflects the results of the functional behavioral assessment - the more likely that it will succeed. In brief, one's options for positive behavioral interventions may include:

Replacing problem behaviors with appropriate behaviors that serve the same (or similar) function as inappropriate ones;
Increasing rates of existing appropriate behaviors;
Making changes to the environment that eliminate the possibility of engaging in inappropriate behavior; and
Providing the supports necessary for the child to use the appropriate behaviors.

Care should be given to select a behavior that likely will be elicited by and reinforced in the natural environment, for example, using appropriate problem-solving skills on the playground will help the student stay out of the principal's office.

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Evaluating the Behavior Intervention Plan

It is good practice for IEP teams to include two evaluation procedures in an intervention plan: one procedure designed to monitor the faithfulness with which the management plan is implemented, the other designed to measure changes in behavior. If a student already has a behavior intervention plan, the IEP team may elect to review the plan and modify it, or they may determine that more information is necessary and that a functional behavioral assessment is needed.

The Amendments to the IDEA require the IEP team "in the case of a child whose behavior impedes his or her learning or that of others, consider, when appropriate, strategies, including positive behavior interventions, strategies, and supports to address that behavior" (614(d)(3)(B)(i). To be meaningful, behavior intervention plans need to be reviewed at least annually and revised as appropriate. However, the plan may be reviewed and reevaluated whenever any member of the child's IEP team feels that a review is necessary. Circumstances that may warrant such a review include:

The child has reached his or her behavioral goals and objectives, or benchmarks, and new goals and objectives need to be established;
The "situation" has changed and the behavioral interventions no longer address the current needs of the student;
Consideration of a change in placement; and
It is clear that the original behavior intervention plan is not bringing about positive changes in the student's behavior.

The point is to predicate all evaluation on student success.

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Summary

The practice of conducting functional behavioral assessments allows IEP teams to develop more effective and efficient behavior intervention plans. Emphasis should be on enlarging student capacity to profit from instruction, which can be accomplished by designing pupil-specific interventions that not only discourage inappropriate behaviors, but teach alternative behaviors, and provide the student with the opportunity and motivation to engage in that behavior. If done correctly, the net result of behavioral assessments is that school personnel are better able to provide an educational environment that addresses the learning needs of all students.

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Modifying the Learning Environment