Functional Assessment and Program Development for Problem Behavior: A Practical Handbook

This guide to functional assessment procedures includes a variety of strategies for assessing problem behavior situations, and presents a systematic approach for designing behavioral support programs based on those assessments. Professionals and other readers learn to conduct functional assessments and develop their own intervention programs.

Dr. Robert E. O'Neill (M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara) is the chairperson of the Department of Special Education at the University of Utah. A Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), he previously served as the coordinator of the Program in Severe Disabilities and the Program in Mild/Moderate Disabilities in the department, and teaches in both areas. He also teaches in the department's master's and doctoral programs. Dr. O'Neill's recent work has focused on strategies for supporting persons exhibiting severe problem behaviors in a variety of community settings. His current work is concerned with the areas of functional assessment, teaching communication skills as alternatives to problem behaviors, school-wide behavioral support, and gender issues in emotional/behavioral disorders. He has published numerous articles, books, and book chapters and has presented at state, national, and international conferences. His work has appeared in, among other journals, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Exceptional Children, Research and Practice in Severe Disabilities, Education and Treatment of Children, Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, and the Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions.

Richard W. Albin, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate/Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon, where his teaching has included courses in programming and instruction, behavior and classroom management, grant writing, quantitative research methods, and single case research design. He has over thirty years of experience in research, program and model development, personnel preparation, and technical assistance related to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) of all ages. Since 1986, Dr. Albin has directed, coordinated, and collaborated in numerous federal and state funded projects. For fifteen years he was a Principal Researcher, Site Coordinator, and National Trainer for the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Positive Behavior Support. He has conducted and published research related to positive behavioral interventions and support, general case instructional procedures for learners with I/DD, and person-centered planning, and has collaborated in the development of training materials and provision of in-service training in positive behavior support. He is an associate editor for the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions.

Keith Storey (Ph.D., University of Oregon) is a Professor of Education and the Special Education Program Chair at Touro University in Vallejo, California. Keith is the recipient of the 1988 Alice H. Hayden Award from The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps; the 1996 Hau-Cheng Wang Fellowship from Chapman University, presented for exceptional merit in scholarship; and the 2001 Robert Gaylord-Ross Memorial Scholar Award from the California Association for Persons with Severe Disabilities. A member of the Illinois State University College of Education Alumni Hall of Fame, he serves on the editorial boards of Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities, Education and Treatment of Children, Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, and Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities. He has also published several books, including POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORTS IN CLASSROOMS AND SCHOOLS: EFFECTIVE AND PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR TEACHERS AND OTHER SERVICE PROVIDERS, and THE ROAD AHEAD: TRANSITION TO ADULT LIFE FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES.

Rob Horner, Ph.D., is Professor of Special Education at the University of Oregon. His research has focused on behavior analysis, instructional strategies for learners with severe disabilities, and systems change. He has worked for the past 18 years with George Sugai in development and implementation of school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS), which is being implemented by more than 19,000 schools nationally. Research, evaluation and technical assistance outcomes from this effort indicate that investing in the development of a positive social culture is associated with improved behavioral and academic gains for students.

Dr. Jeffrey Sprague, Ph.D., is Professor of Special Education and Director of the University of Oregon Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior. He directs federal, state, and local research and demonstration projects related to positive behavior interventions and supports, response to intervention, youth violence prevention, alternative education, juvenile delinquency prevention and treatment, and school safety. His research activities encompass applied behavior analysis, positive behavior supports, behavioral response to intervention, functional behavioral assessment, school safety, youth violence prevention, and juvenile delinquency prevention. In 1990 and 1997, Dr. Sprague co-authored the first guide to Functional Behavioral Assessment. He was a contributor to three President's Annual Reports on School Safety and has published widely, including books on crime prevention through environmental design for school administrators, school safety (with Hill Walker for Guilford Publications), school wide positive behavior interventions and supports (with Annemieke Golly, 2005), and Response to Intervention and Behavior Supports. Dr. Sprague currently directs an R01 research project from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct the first evaluation of the effects of Positive Behavior Supports in middle schools, and is co-principal investigator on five Institute of Education Sciences Goal 2 development projects.