What is an FBA?

The idea behind an FBA is that behaviors do not occur in a vacuum, but is a result of a number of factors which follow the A-B-C formula:

    A        Antecedent        The environment or context in which the behavior occurs

    B        Behavior             The behavior itself, operationally defined

    C        Consequence     What happens following the behavior

Student variables, including student skills, thinking, feelings and health, also influence behavior and the A-B-C formula.

What an FBA does essentially is look at the A-B-C chain in the following manner:

bulletIdentify the target (trouble) behavior
bulletOperationally define the target behavior
bulletIdentify the environments in which the behavior occurs
bulletCollect data to determine the relationship between the environment and the occurrence of the behavior
bulletAnalyze the data to determine what goal (or function) the behavior is serving for the student

There are numerous approaches to the actual data collection and analysis of an FBA. See the section on Resources on FBAs for more specific information and tools for conducting FBAs.