Date Approved

5-10-2005

Embargo Period

4-13-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. in Special Education

Department

Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education

College

College of Education

Advisor

Wang, Mian

Subject(s)

Problem children--Functional assessment; Special education teachers

Disciplines

Special Education and Teaching

Abstract

The purposes of this single-case study were to examine the effectiveness of interventions based on functional behavioral assessment (FBA) to positively support a student who had specific challenging behaviors and to determine if it was practical for a classroom teacher, the researcher, to utilize functional-assessment techniques. The researcher used indirect and direct-observation tools to identify three target behaviors, record frequencies and durations, and describe the antecedents and consequences of behaviors. Hypotheses based on functional assessment principles were used to design an intervention plan. The researcher used an A-B design to compare baseline frequencies of behaviors to post-intervention frequencies and administered a short questionnaire to himself and the student's one-to-one aide to indicate the practicality of FBA. Incidents of behavior significantly declined for all three target behaviors, and responses to the questionnaire were favorable toward the use of FBA. Discussion topics include the utility and acceptability of FBA procedures and possible applications in other settings.

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