In the U.S., approximately 10% of children exhibit challenging behavior (e.g., aggression, destruction, self-injury, refusal) that is severe enough to receive an emotional and/or behavioral disorder diagnosis (EBD; Blitsko et al., 2022). Rates of these diagnoses are even higher for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD; Alimovic, 2013). Many negative outcomes are associated with these diagnoses, including academic failure (Erskine et al., 2016), placement out of the family home (Chan & Sigafoos, 2000), and poor overall quality of life (Murphy, 2009).
Children with an EBD often display challenging behaviors across multiple settings, including home and school. At school, a dedicated school team, often consisting of general education and special education teachers, school psychologists, and behavior consultants, is tasked with evaluating a student’s challenging behavior and developing an intervention that will successfully reduce that student’s challenging behavior at school. Although school staff often possess the skills and resources needed to conduct the necessary assessments and implement effective interventions, outside consultation and collaboration is often desired. This is especially the case when a student exhibits severe or complex challenging behavior.
Identification Strategies
When a student’s challenging behavior interferes with their ability to learn, the school team will conduct a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) that informs the development of a behavior intervention plan (BIP). The FBA is conducted to identify the function(s), or the reason(s), challenging behaviors occur. The FBA identifies the environmental events that are likely to evoke the challenging behaviors (e.g., when an academic task is presented) and the consequences that are likely to reinforce the challenging behaviors (e.g., avoiding the academic task). By identifying the environmental events that evoke and reinforce challenging behavior, intervention strategies targeting those variables can be developed in a BIP.
FBA is an umbrella term for a range of behavioral assessments that vary in terms of precision and efficiency. Research suggests that school staff responsible for conducting FBAs may lack the training, as well as the time and resources necessary to conduct the most precise assessments (Couvillon et al., 2009). A lack of training and resources can lead a team to rely on less precise assessment methods, such as indirect assessments (e.g., teacher interviews, rating scales) and descriptive assessments (e.g., brief observations of the student during random school activities; Lloyd et al., 2021). Interventions based on less precise methods can be successful, but interventions based on more precise assessment methods (e.g., functional analysis [FA]) are more likely to achieve adequate reductions in students’ challenging behaviors (Hurl et al., 2016).
Focused on bridging clinical and educational settings, read the full practice brief to learn actionable strategies for addressing challenging behaviors through collaboration. Key areas include when and how to refer, how schools can meaningfully contribute to assessments and interventions, and how to promote lasting change through consultation and partnership.
Read and download the full practice brief