ABC Functional Assessment Card. Education Essay Paper

Not only should posts to the discussion forums be engaging, meaningful, and reflective, they should also be rooted in, supported by, the readings. Please visit Connectability.ca to find out more about ABC Functional Assessments and how to conduct them. You will also find a sample assessment card there for you to use. Please print one out and practice completing it on someone you know. It can be anyone! When you have finished, post your completed card and thoughts about this type of assessment and your experience using it in the discussion topic ABC Functional Assessment Cards.

Teacher Assessment Strategies

Teacher assessment strategies and instruments will be outlined over the next two modules, beginning with classroom assessment and documentation, and observation in this module.

Before working through the following module, please read:

Chapter 5: Classroom Assessment and Documentation (Wortham & Hardin, 2016)

Chapter 6: Observation (Wortham & Hardin, 2016)

Two additional readings have been provided for this module. Please read them in the first couple of days of the module so that you are able to contribute appropriately to the discussion topics and activities for the week:

Focused anecdotal records assessment: A tool for standards-based authentic assessment (Boyd-Batstone, 2004)

Assessing standards in the “real” kindergarten classroom (Cress, 2004)

Types of Observation

There are many types of observation strategies that Early Childhood Educators can use. They include: anecdotal records, running records, time sampling, event sampling, checklists, and rating scales. It may be a good idea at this point in the module to go back and re-read these strategies for a second time. They are outlined in Chapter 6 of our textbook.

Once you have finished reviewing the different types of observation strategies, check your understanding by completing the following drag and drop activity.

Observing Development

Development can be defined as “the process of change in an individual over time” (Wortham & Hardin, 2016, p.148). Development is continuous, sequential, and involves change over time which be observed both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Our course textbook gives an excellent overview of physical, social and emotional, cognitive, and language development. Please take the time to read these sections carefully if you are not already familiar with them. Understanding the various types of development is a critical component of effective assessment, therefore it is important that you understand the purposes for observing the various type of development, and the types of questions that can be answered by these observations.

Observing children can be challenging. What issues do you foresee in observing children's development? Which type of development do you think would be more or less challenging to observe - physical, social and emotional, cognitive, and language development? Share your thoughts with your group members in the discussion topic Observing Development. See if you can come up with some solutions to the challenges you have raised. Read all of the posts in your group and respond to at least one by the end of the module.

Functional Behavioural Assessment

Functional Behavioural Assessment (FBA) is a systematic process designed to look beyond a student’s behavior to focus on identifying the function or purpose of the behaviour. Based on results from the FBA, a behavioural support plan is developed to identify alternative behaviours for the student and strategies for reducing or replacing ineffective behaviours.

There are several methods to completing the FBA. It is often recommended that the teacher use an ABC (Antecedent - Behaviour - Consequence) chart identifying a behaviour to monitor, noting the antecedents and consequences for that behaviour over time. The data collection begins before intervention, continues during intervention, and is completed post-intervention to indicate progress.

Within the FBA, the target behaviour is defined as the behaviour to be changed, rather than the replacement behaviour to be taught. Therefore, when collecting data on the target behaviour, the team tracks the behaviour they want to change rather than the behaviour the team wishes the student to perform. The latter is the replacement behaviour which becomes part of the behavioural intervention plan.

There are five steps to a functional behavioural assessment:

Define the targeted behaviour.

Obtain background information.

Collect data from background information and observation using the ABC method.

Identify environmental factors.

Analyze the data collected in step 1 to develop a hypothesis about the function of the behaviour.

Do a functional analysis to test the hypothesis.

Alter the antecedent or consequence to develop or confirm the hypothesis.

Develop a behavioural support plan.

Monitor progress and identify alternative strategies.

Antecedent - Behaviour - Consequence (ABC) Functional Assessment

Figure 4.1 - Observing Behaviour

Source: iStockphoto

To help you begin to understand the components of an ABC Functional Assessment, the following definitions have been provided.

Time: The time the behaviour began and ended. It could be a behaviour that happened once, in an instance (e.g., hitting) or a behaviour that happened repeated over an extended period of time (e.g., often out of seat).

Antecedents (A): The triggers or events that happened before the behaviour outburst. Some possibilities are listed below:

Transition – moving between activities, ending an activity, starting something new, movement into a new setting

Noise – a sudden loud noise or an increase in noise level or a conflicting source of noise

Task Demand – a request for performance of a task or an increase in the difficulty of the current demands of the situation

Difficulty Communicating – an inability to make needs/desires understood

Low attention – attention not given or divided between student and others, student unable to join in an activity with other students

Removal Of Materials – another person takes away toys or other objects

Target Behaviour (B): The behaviour that occurred. Behaviours interfere with appropriate social interaction and endanger self or others. They include: hitting, grabbing, biting, darting, throwing objects, pushing, screaming, non-compliance with reasonable requests, destroying materials, inappropriate touching.

Consequence (C): What was the result of the behaviour? Consider both natural and imposed consequences.

Conducting an ABC Assessment

Please visit Connectability.ca to find out more about ABC Functional Assessments and how to conduct them. You will also find a sample assessment card there for you to use. Please print one out and practice completing it on someone you know. It can be anyone! When you have finished, post your completed card and thoughts about this type of assessment and your experience using it in the discussion topic ABC Functional Assessment Cards. Read all of the postings in your group and respond to at least one by the end of the module.