Best Practices in Functional Assessment and Treatment Development for Individuals with Special Needs

Functional behavioral assessment is a process designed to identify the factors that maintain maladaptive behavior. A substantial body of literature has shown that these procedures, when used properly, make behavioral interventions both more effective and more efficient. Although these procedures are now federally mandated and expected practice in the field, no guidelines for implementation exist. The purpose of the current workshop is to provide practitioners with empirically-based procedures for determining the factors that contribute to problem behavior.  Suggestions regarding informant methods, descriptive, and experimental methods of functional assessment will be discussed. In addition, strategies for linking assessment results to effective behavioral intervention, such as antecedent and consequence-based strategies, will be described.

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe the factors that maintain problem behavior.

2. List functional assessment procedures (indirect models, descriptive assessment, functional analysis.)

3. Select appropriate antecedent-based and consequence-based strategies

Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0123.

Rutgers Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Rutgers Graduate School of Applied & Professional Psychology maintains responsibility for this program and its content.