Supporting Children, Youth, and Families in Greater Vancouver since 1990

Functional Behaviour Assessments (FBA)®

Hollyburn provides functional behaviour assessments for children who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

A Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA) identifies where, when and why a problematic behaviour occurs. The information is then used to inform the development of a function-based behaviour support plan that includes strategies to address the reasons why the behaviour is occurring. The FBA process includes the following phases:

  • Indirect Assessment:
    • Interviews with relevant stakeholders and completion of questionnaires and surveys.
    • Identify and define the target challenging behaviors, the circumstances under which they occur, and determine most appropriate contexts for observations.
  • Descriptive Assessment:
    • Observations of the child directly across various environments (e.g., home, school, community) with different stakeholders.
    • Conduct data collection.
  • Functional Analysis (FA):
    • Experimentally evaluate the functional variables identified from the descriptive assessment.
    • Identify and analyze relevant motivation and reinforcers for the target behavior.
  • Data Analysis
    • Use data to depict results of descriptive assessment and FA.
  • Assessment Report Preparation & Goals
    • Formally summarize the information obtained across all phases of the FBA.
    • Develop function-related treatment related goals based on the results of the FBA.