AN APPROACH TO FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT AND ANALYSIS OF DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR IN REGULAR EDUCATION CLASSROOMS

We conducted functional assessments and analyses for three students re ferred for disruptive behavior in regular education classrooms. A desc riptive assessment was first conducted to select one of three hypothes es regarding potential variables maintaining the disruptive behavior: teacher attention, peer attention, or escape from academic tasks. A br ief functional analysis was then conducted to evaluate the selected hy pothesis. For each student, a different hypothesis was selected based on the descriptive assessment and for each student the brief functiona l analysis confirmed the selected hypothesis. Results are discussed as a preliminary approach to extending functional analysis procedures to regular education settings for the purpose of developing prereferral interventions.