Functional Behavioral Assessment: Autistic Student Case Review
This paper reviews a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) conducted for a 13-year-old male student in the seventh grade who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and anxiety. The analysis covers the student's disruptive behaviors—including book throwing and verbal outbursts—along with their frequency, duration, and specific setting patterns. The paper examines prior interventions such as parent conferences, preferential seating, and assignment modification, as well as the educational impact on both the student and his classmates. Contributing factors including autism, anxiety, and family enabling are addressed. The paper concludes with a call for a consistent, coordinated approach between school personnel and parents to reduce behavioral incidents and support the student's academic progress.
- Introduction: Overview of FBA components to be reviewed
- Student Background and Behavioral Description: 13-year-old student's disruptive classroom behaviors
- Behavioral Setting, Frequency, and Duration: Pattern of behavior by day, period, and duration
- Educational Impact, Prior Interventions, and Contributing Factors: Classroom disruption, failed interventions, autism and anxiety
- Conclusion and Recommendations: Call for consistent school-family response strategy
- Functional Behavioral Assessment Form: Formal FBA data sources and header information
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What makes this paper effective
- Clearly identifies and separates the descriptive components of the behavior (setting, frequency, duration, intensity) from the functional components (autism, anxiety, family dynamics, reinforcement), mirroring standard FBA methodology.
- Uses concrete behavioral detail—specific days, periods, duration of episodes, and types of outbursts—to ground the analysis in observable data rather than vague characterizations.
- Directly connects family behavior (capitulation) to the reinforcement cycle, demonstrating an understanding of how environmental responses perpetuate rather than extinguish maladaptive behavior.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied behavioral analysis by identifying antecedent conditions (inability to complete bell work), the behavior itself (book throwing, screaming), and the consequences (attention from peers, family capitulation) that together form the reinforcement cycle. Pinpointing the precise schedule pattern—seventh period, Tuesdays and Thursdays only—shows the importance of contextual data collection in FBA practice.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framework overview listing all components to be examined. It then moves into a behavioral analysis section that covers student background, behavioral description, setting and timing, educational impact, prior interventions, and contributing factors. A brief conclusion synthesizes findings into a recommendation for coordinated home-school consistency. The paper closes with the header portion of a formal FBA form, indicating the data-collection methods employed.
Introduction
The author of this report has been asked to review and assess a functional behavioral assessment completed for a student. Within this summary, the behavior itself and the function of that behavior will be analyzed and summarized. The description will cover the background of the student, a narrative account of the behavior, the setting or settings within which the behavior occurs, the frequency, intensity, and duration of the behavior, previously attempted interventions, and the educational impact of all of the above. Regarding the function of the behavior, this includes affective regulation and emotional reactivity, cognitive distortion, reinforcement, modeling, family issues, psychological and constitutional issues, communicative need, and curriculum and instruction facets of the behaviors and outcomes thus far. While the situation with the student could be much worse, there are some troubling signs and patterns that this summary will identify.
Student Background and Behavioral Description
The student in question is a 13-year-old male in the seventh grade. The student acts out frequently, including throwing books off his desk, screaming at any student who attempts to put the books back on the desk, and often refusing to complete or work on assignments as they are given. When the student cannot finish his bell work, he begins the aforementioned book throwing. He also screams and cries during these episodes.
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