Jessica Sergio

SPE 303
Dr. McConville
November 19th 2014

Functional Behavioral Assessment Key Assessment

My rationale for choosing a 4th grade boy in Mrs. Smiths general education
classroom was that she suggested I observe this child. Over the course of two field days it
was very clear that many of his behaviors were not acceptable; however, there are no
behavioral plans for this boy. The boys behaviors are different from the rest of the class.
Some of the many behaviors I observed and wanted to talk to the boy about were the
excessive amount of calling out, making faces during lessons, playing with hands, playing
with objects such as a game or tape when he is a supposed to be completing independent
work, and not working with others.
Even though that is a lot of unacceptable behaviors, there is one behavior that
occurs in every lesson, which is that he is always playing with one or two pencils. Playing
with pencils is the target behavior that I want to focus on for this assessment. I define
playing with pencils as taking the lead out, flipping a pencil, tapping the pencil, throwing it
to other students, and throwing the pencil up in the air. I recorded every time the boy
played with a pencil in five seconds intervals. If he played with the pencil longer than five
seconds, I recorded another tally mark. For example, if he was flipping his pencil for ten
seconds I put two tally marks. If he exhibited the behavior for twenty seconds, I made four
tally marks on a chart.

Data Collected Scatter Plot

10/14/14

Reading (8:50-9:30)
Not joining class at the beginning of reading time |
Playing with pencil |||||
Calling out ||||

Transition time (9:30-9:40)

Playing with a game |

Independent reading (9:40 9:55)

Spanish (11:38-12:18)
Could not find seat (teacher stopped class to help him) ||
Making faces |||||
Playing with hands (tapping fingers and making a finger puppet from paper) |||||||||
Kicking /playing with desk |||
Talking while teacher was ||
Making noises ||
Playing with tape |
Throwing spelling test |

Science (1:12-1:42)
Making faces ||
Playing with other things ( water bottle) |
Playing with pencils |||
Calling out ||
Standing on chair |
Playing with tape |
Making noises while instructions are being given |||
Making comments off topic while working |

Social Studies (1:44-2:14)

Playing with pencil (clicking pencils on books) ||
Inappropriate words ||

10/16/14 Thursday

Writing (8:50-9:30)
Calling out |
Not working with partner ||

Math (9:55- 10:55)

Playing with erasers |||

Making face ||
Playing with pencil ||||||
Calling out ||||

10/21/14 Tuesday

Reading (8:50-9:30)
Playing with hand |||
Calling out |
Playing with pencil |||||||

10/28 Tuesday

Writing (8:50-9:30)
Playing with pencil (more than 5 seconds interval)||||||

Math (9:55- 10:55)

Playing with pencil |||||

10/30 Thursday

Reading (8:50-9:30)

Making faces |||

Playing with hands ||
Playing with pencil |||||||||||
Calling out |||

Math (9:55- 10:55)

Complained loudly when his group lost the Jeopardy game |
Playing with pencil |||||

Read aloud (1:40-2:10)

Jingling money: |||
Playing with paper ||||

Data Collected: Interview

Question: Why do you fiddle with pencils while your teacher is teaching?

Students answer: I do not hear them because they talk very quietly and I get bored.

Teachers answer: He finds it difficult to just sit and listen.

There is not a specific time of day when the playing with pencils occurs more often. I
marked three to six tally marks per subject. In Spanish class, when he did not have a pencil
he would play with his hands. In ten second intervals, he played with his hands at least nine
times in a 40-minute period. The Spanish teacher talks only in Spanish, which I think also
makes it difficult for him to focus because it seems he is not understanding what is being
taught. In the cases where he did not have a pencil nearby him, he would find other objects
such as tape, paper or coins, and play with them instead. I always see him with objects in
his hands throughout every lesson.
In my opinion, I feel that the child always needs to play with an object or his hands;
therefore, I suggest that letting the child have a stress ball with him the entire day will help
him. The stress ball can also be used if he has any anger to release. I will keep a daily chart:
four periods with the stress ball and four periods without, for two weeks. I will see how he
responds to both situations. I will keep tally when he goes back to playing with a pencil.
The stress ball will be part of the intervention process, to see if the playing with a pencil
disappears throughout the day. After time goes on, I will remove the stress ball completely
and see if the playing with a pencil completely disappears or reappears.
I chose this strategy of replacing a pencil with a stress ball because it is a quiet
option. A stress ball will not make any noise compared to tapping a pencil. A stress ball can
replace leading his classmates to repeat the behavior of playing with a pencil. I also noticed
if he is does not have a pencil in his hands, he is playing with something else that he should
not be. With a stress ball, it gives him a chance to play with something that will not bother
others around him. He has a chance to release his motor movement on a stress ball and as
a result will be able to control his hyperactivity levels in the classroom.

The reason I chose this recording method is because I want to see how much of a
difference it makes with a stress ball and without a stress ball every day for a course of two
weeks. If it works, I will let him keep the stress ball longer each day. I may even let him
have access to it all nine periods of the day, if it continues to work well. If it starts not
working, I will have to rethink the intervention and set a new intervention into place.

Reflection
I learned a lot of information by conducting an FBA for this experiment. I learned by
collecting data over the course of time and saw how often a behavior occurs. I also learned
to persist with a child with behavioral difficulties, because there may be an intervention
that will work for that child. Sometimes an intervention will fail, but as a special education
teacher I will keep trying different interventions until an intervention works. As a special
educator I will also need to adjust my lessons and be thinking about ways to meet every
childs needs, even if that is coming up with implementing a different behavior plan for
each child. I need to have a lot of patience.
After completing my intervention, I think the child will stop playing with his pencils
and distracting others. With the stress ball available for him to use throughout the entire
day, I feel that this intervention will reduce playing with a pencil to not playing with it at
all.
This intervention will affect instruction for the teacher, because he/ she has to
collect data on the distracting and repetitive target behavior. The teacher has to use the
data he/she has collected and make up an intervention plan for the student that may
reduce or eliminate the target behavior. If the first intervention plan does not work, then
the teacher needs to create and implement a new plan that may or may not work. In

addition, teachers can use the students interests or favorite candy when deciding on a
reward for not doing the target behavior. The teacher can decide on a time period of when
to reward a child or in my case, when to give the student the stress ball.