AN APPROACH TO FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS OF DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR EDUCATION CLASSROOMS

We conducted functional assessments and analyses for three students referred for disruptive behavior in regular education classrooms. A descriptive assessment was first conducted to select one of three hypotheses regarding potential variables maintaining the disruptive behavior: teacher attention, peer attention, or escape from academic tasks. A brief functional analysis was then conducted to evaluate the selected hypothesis. For each student, a different hypothesis was selected based on the descriptive assessment and for each student the brief functional analysis confirmed the selected hypothesis. Results are discussed as a preliminary approach to extending functional analysis procedures to regular education settings for the purpose of developing prereferral interventions.