ABA Webinar: Overcoming Barriers to Conducting Functional Analyses in Clinical Settings

Webinar presented on February 23rd, 2021 by Sarah C. Mead Jasperse, PhD, BCBA-D. Dr. Sarah is an Assistant Professor in the Counseling, Special Education and Neuroscience Division at Emirates College for Advanced Education, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Behavior analysts working in clinical settings often are required to develop interventions to decrease the occurrence of challenging behavior. According to the Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2014), behavior analysts must conduct a functional assessment prior to designing a behavior reduction program. Decades of research have demonstrated that the “gold standard” of behavioral assessment is the functional analysis (Hanley et al., 2003; Iwata et al., 1982/1994). However, clinicians do not always conduct functional analyses (FAs) in clinical settings (Roscoe et al., 2015). This may be because clinicians in these settings encounter a variety of barriers to conducting FAs (Hanley, 2012; Iwata & Dozier, 2008). In this presentation, specific, evidence-based strategies to overcoming barriers, such as assessment complexity, time constraints, setting constraints, high-risk behavior, low-rate behavior, and uninterpretable results, will be reviewed. Real-life examples will be discussed, and attendees will leave the event with the basic resources necessary to address common barriers to conducting functional analyses in clinical settings.
No BACB CEUs available for this recording- only available for certificants who attended the live session.