Strategy 18: Functional behavioural assessment: ‘Change problem behaviours by changing their antecedents and consequences’

Functional behavioural assessment (FBA) refers to the procedures used to determine the function or purpose of a learner’s repeated undesirable behaviour. More specifically, it examines why a learner acts in a specific way, and what he or she obtains or avoids when acting this way. This information is then used as a basis for substituting more desirable behaviour in a behaviour support plan.1