Behaviors don't just pop into and out of existence, they evolve within us. Behaviors are functionally determined. That means they grow in frequency and intensity when reinforced, and go extinct when reinforcement goes away. To the extent that we can understand the reinforcement maintaining behavior, we can take control of the behavior.
Rather than asking, "Why does the client decide to misbehave," we ask, "Where and when does this behavior typically occur, what events typically lead up to it, and what happens afterward?" While at first glance, these questions may seem the same, there is an important difference. The second question seeks to analyze observable and verifiable events surrounding behavior-events which may be manipulated to control that behavior.
By answering questions about What, When and Where, we can begin to understand critical operations among events and behavior.
- Functional assessment is a well-established, evidence-based, form of intervention.
- Behavior interventions based upon functional assessments are likely to succeed by systematically replacing an undesirable behavior, with an equally functional, desirable replacement behavior.
- Through careful behavior programming, including generalization training, clients will learn functional and appropriate skills.
- For further information:
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Boston ABA
124 Watertown Street, Suite 2-E
Watertown, MA 02472
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