Functional Behavioural Assessment, finding out under what conditions a person’s behaviour tends to occur and what outcomes it achieves for them, is central to providing effective Positive Behavioural Support. It is only by producing such an assessment that we can properly understand the meaning behind a person’s behaviour and develop appropriate support plans for them.

Decisions are often made about how to support someone to change their behaviours that challenge without really understanding why the behaviour is happening in the first place. Unsurprisingly therefore, interventions which are not based on functional assessment are much less effective than those which are. If you start with the wrong premise it’s common to reach the wrong conclusion – resulting in flawed intervention plans.

BBATpro will help you to carry out an entry level functional assessment of behaviours that challenge. It is a semi-structured functional assessment tool that comes with a detailed manual that provides clear instructions for both completing the interview and interpreting the results.

The BBATpro manual also provides instructions for supplementing the interview with direct observations and guidance on producing entry level PBS plans.

BBATpro will help you:

• Clearly define the behaviour(s) of concern
• Prioritise the behaviours for assessment
• Identify key antecedents
• Identify early indicators of behaviours that challenge
• Identify possible maintaining consequences
• Identify whether the person is able to use alternative responses, other than their behaviours that challenge, so that you can build on these
• Identify the person’s basic communication skills
• Identify the person’s main preferences, so that you can use these to reinforce non-challenging behaviour.

BBATpro:

• Is ideal for working on less complex behaviours and can address up to three behaviours per interview.
• Can be used alongside direct observational methods (such as ABC forms) to improve the quality of your data (and the manual also provides information on how to collect such data).
• Is best used by people who already have an understanding of Positive Behavioural Support and behavioural assessment. Positive Response can provide foundation level training for those organisations and settings where this knowledge needs to be developed or improved.

How do I complete it?

BBATpro is an informant-based interview that takes about an hour to an hour and a half to do, and another half hour or so to pull together the key information.

Who do I interview?

We know that people’s perceptions of behaviours that challenge can be very subjective- so it’s vital that you do it with the right people. Typically, this would be a parent, house manager, key worker, support worker, or teacher who knows the focus person really well. BBATpro can also be completed with a small group of informants working together (e.g. a house manager and a key worker) so that your assessment is based on a richer source of data.

What does it cost?

Care organisations can buy an internal, non-commercial use licence for £95 plus VAT. This will give you unlimited use within your organisation.

Commercial organisations, for example consultants who carry out chargeable work for external clients, can buy a commercial licence. Please contact us for prices.

BBATpro materials are supplied under licence to the purchasing organisation and are protected by copyright.

How do I obtain a copy?

Email our office and explain how you plan to use it and we will send you a suitable BBATpro agreement to sign. Once your invoice has been paid, we will provide the materials electronically.

Click here for a summary of this information in our PBS leaflet