Abstract
Recent studies suggest that current perceptions regarding the validity of typical procedures utilized in functional behavior assessment may be inaccurate. In particular, descriptive assessment procedures appear to be heavily biased toward indicating a maintaining contingency of attention, and have been shown to have less validity than indirect measures such as the Functional Analysis Screening Tool. Given these findings, school personnel responsible for conducting functional behavior assessments should have access to alternative assessment procedures with improved validity. Experimental functional analyses offer one method that may be acceptable; this project seeks to develop a presentation that will provide participants with training in several alternative assessment procedures based on the experimental model for accurate identification of behavioral function through systematic manipulation of environmental variables.