Many individuals with autism exhibit challenging behaviors like noncompliance, aggression and repetitive actions all of which can interfere with daily life. Functional Behavior Assessment for People with Autism: Making Sense of Seemingly Senseless Behavior describes functional behavior assessment (FBA), a strategy that parents and professionals can use to identify factors that contribute to a problem behavior from a nonverbal adult engaging in head-banging to receive calming beads to a child who hits classmates for attention.

Determine what purpose the behavior serves for the individual, and the specific circumstances that led to learning the behavior in the first place. Develop an intervention plan to help the individual unlearn the behavior.

• Decide which challenging behavior to addressSelect members of an FBA team
• Measure behaviorGather information from other observers
• Establish a baseline
• Observe a problem behavior
• Test the hypothesis about the function of the behaviorBegin to plan for an intervention
• Troubleshoot

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Why Problem Behaviors Occur
Chapter 2 How Are Behaviors Learned?
Chapter 3 Getting Started: First Steps for Completing a Functional Behavior Assessment
Chapter 4 Measuring Behavior
Chapter 5 Finding Out Who Knows What
Chapter 6 Observation Time
Chapter 7 Test Your Hypothesis
Chapter 8 Putting It All Together: A Summary of the Assessment Process
Chapter 9 You Finally Know the Function of the Behavior: Now What?
Chapter 10 Special Circumstances and Troubleshooting

Includes 152 pages, step-by-step explanations, forms and case studies.