Using Functional Behavior Assessment, Case Study Example

Abstract

This article is used to study the behavior patterns of students with a learning disability during 5^th grade math class. The article’s main target is to measure the students’ behavior during instructional activity that is disruptive behavior, on-task behavior and correct responses. The students’ behavior during independent seat work was targeted to understand how well they concentrate while they are by themselves (Haydon, 2012).

Literature Review

The approval of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997) studies on functional assessment procedures on difficult behavior in classroom settings.  Research shows that unsuitable behaviors in class occur due to disparity between the students’ abilities and the academic demands. According to Weeks and Gaylord-Ross, the difficulty of task prompted many students develop an escape mechanism by depicting problematic behaviors to escape the reality (1981).  The other review was the use of AB design to measure the difficulty of the task against the disruptive behaviors’ of students.

Method

In method, a sample of students was used to carry out the survey, a public preparatory academy with 550 students of diversity. A sample of four teachers with the required experience to be a data collector and classroom management skills were identified.  A student of 11 years attending grade five was used as a sample. The study consisted of teacher interviews, A-B-C and error analysis. The process of collection data using A-B-C assessment twice in both classes for 30 minutes, and confirmation from the general teacher’s educational reports were used.  Observation was used to resolve the problems that could not be handled by interviews. Occurrences of disruptive behaviors and on- task behaviors were recorded on an A-B-C contingency form. Disruptive behaviors are interruptions to others students during seat work, for example, talking. On-task behaviors are disruptions when alone example staring at the wall (Haydon, 2012).

Results

The results of the student improved because the task was simple, but at introduction of interventions the results decreased and disruptive, on-task and correct responses were recorded (Haydon, 2012).

Reflection

On reflection, the study on Mikey would be used to establish the behavior of the students in a class scenario.   This study show that when the tasks to be handled is fair, students would tackle it with a maximum concentration and short period of time, however , when the academic task is difficult depending on t he level of the student, disruptions were viewed.  Behaviors like touching other students, making noise were seen, on-task behaviors like drawing on the table were seen when the student was working alone. This can be used to improve the education system in the future.  For example, ensuring that the student conformable can do the task will help reduce such behaviors, other is using an instructional material to improve concentration in class (Haydon, 2012).

The quality of education can be improved using the case study. By having easy question at the beginning of a paper improves the performance of a student. This is because having correct responses at the start would motivate the student to concentrate with other difficult questions and less likely to depict on-task and disruptive behaviors. Quality was improved as students acquired new skills (Haydon, 2012).

The studies’ validity is however, limited because of use of one student and not possible to assumed that all students would behave the same. By improving on the instructional and curricular variables students’ success was increased (Scott el. al., 2001). The use of intervention in the study helps to improved ability of students to prevent problem behaviors in class. The involvement of teachers would assist in ensuring that the interventions are used throughout the lesson. Some teachers viewed change in the behavior of the student after the case study.

In conclusion, the use if intervention to improve the behaviors of student in class has proved fruitful, research shows that such behaviors are interlinked with curricular variables. The study shows that these behavior problems are experience in elementary school and a way to improve focus should be identified to reduce the behaviors.

References

Haydon, T. (2012). Using Functional Behavior Assessment to Match Task Difficulty for a 5^Th Grade Student: A Case Study. Education and Treatment of Children vol. 35, No. 3

Scott, T. M., Nelson, C. M. & Liaupsin, C. J. (2001). Effective instruction:

The forgotten component in preventing school violence. Education and Treatment of Children, 24, 309-322.

Weeks, M. & Gaylord-Ross, R. (1981). Task difficulty and aberrant behavior in severely handicapped students.  Journal of Applied behavior Analysis, 14, 449-463