What's the Difference Between an FBA and a Functional Analysis?

Hi and welcome to Ask Missy Mondays where I respond to email questions from readers who have questions about behavior. Today’s question actually comes from a list serve rather than an actual email to me directly.

A number of parents have been discussing the issue of scream rooms or seclusion timeout rooms. If you are interested in reading about this more, please check out our previous posts on the topic here, here, here, and here.

As part of the discussion about these rooms, a number of people mentioned the importance of having a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) done combined with developing an appropriate behavior plan. Other people then posted about the importance of a functional analysis. That is when a parent asked,

“Could you please explain the difference between an FBA (functional behavior assessment) and a Functional Analysis?” “Also, please explain who can do a functional analysis and why it’s important you get a qualified person to do it.”

We have written about FBAs on this blog before. We described an FBA here, we described when to do an FBA here, and we reviewed some legal cases on FBA here.

So, for a recap, remember:

The FBA is a multi-step process that may include some or all of the following:

• record review
• parent and staff interviews
• student interviews if appropriate
• the completion of rating scales such as the Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS) or the Question About Behavior Function (QABF)
• direct observation of the student in the problem activity/setting
• functional analysis.

A good FBA will include a graph summarizing the observations and/or functional analysis.

The FBA should result in a statement or statements that tell you WHY the child is engaging in the behavior.

Additionally, according to federal special education law, an FBA must be completed under these conditions:

• If, during the IEP meeting, the team determines that the child has a behavior that is impeding his/her learning (or that of others)

• If the child’s placement needs to become more restrictive because of the challenging behaviors
• If the child’s behavior has resulted in an emergency change of placement
• As part of the initial and full evaluation if necessary

What is a Functional Analysis?

 The functional analysis is one step or possible component of the FBA. The functional analysis is a manipulation of events to PROVE why the behavior is happening. For example, if the assessment data suggests that a child may be attention seeking with his/her behavior, then the functional analysis will be implemented so that in one condition, the child is given a toy immediately following the challenging behavior but in the comparison condition, the child is given attention immediately following the challenging behavior. Then, the behavior analyst will count and graph the number of times the child engaged in challenging behavior in each condition. If the child is truly attention seeking, the rates of challenging behavior will be higher when the child receives attention for his/her behavior when compared to rates when the child received a toy following his/her behavior.

I have simplified the description of the analysis in order to show readers the difference between an FBA and a functional analysis. Many functional analysis conditions can be completed and they may be quite complicated depending on the child’s behavior and other relevant information.

By definition, a functional analysis results in an increase in challenging behavior in some or all conditions. Thus, only appropriately trained people should oversee the design and implementation of such conditions. Additionally, the functional analysis results may be influenced by the implementor, the setting, the language in which the instructions are given, and other variables. Thus, the functional analysis should be completed in conditions that are as close to the natural setting as possible (including people, materials, and location).

Finally, the functional analysis ALWAYS results in a graph depicting the results of the analysis.

I hope this helps clarify the difference between the two procedures.

If you have questions about behavior be sure to email Missy at askmissy at appliedbehavioralstrategies dot com.