Including Student Input as a Critical Component of Functional Behavior Assessment

The primary purpose of conducting a structured interview as part of a functional behavior assessment (FBA) is to assist teams in generating a hypothesis about the reason for a student’s problem behavior based on specific information. Although the use of an interview can be beneficial in identifying the function of a student’s behavior, it often only includes information provided by teachers, support staff, and family members and overlooks the student’s involvement. In this article, we discuss some of the barriers educators may encounter during the structured interview process and describe in detail possible solutions and adaptations educators can use to assist in planning and successfully conducting a student-involved structured interview as part of the FBA process.