Ep. 33: Direct Observations in FBA Getting the full picture – Part 3 of our Mini-Series

In this episode of Misfit Behaviorists, we dive deep into the art of conducting thorough and effective Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) observations. 🎯 Learn why it’s crucial to look beyond the student on your radar and understand the behavior of the entire classroom. We'll share tips on how to blend in like a wallflower 🌸 and gather unbiased, comprehensive data across various settings and times.

Key Topics Covered:

• The importance of observing both typical and atypical behaviors in all students 🧐
• Strategies for making objective observations without influencing student behavior
• Using peer comparisons to differentiate between age-appropriate behaviors and behaviors of concern 📊
• How to collect detailed, timestamped notes that capture a rounded picture of the student’s interactions and environment
• Best practices for involving the whole team and considering external factors like medications, family vacations, and environmental changes

Helpful Resources:

• Printable Observation Forms 📝 – Grab your free set of forms to help streamline your data collection process.
• RBT Tracker 📊 – Stay organized and track your Registered Behavior Technician hours and tasks.
• Classroom Checklist 🗂️ – An observation and coaching tool to assess effective classroom routines and procedures.

Tune in to get insights on how to conduct meaningful observations that lead to more accurate behavior plans! 🎧

Last week's episode was on Conducting Initial Interviews. Go catch it now!
Next week will be Gathering A-B-C and Initial Data. Keep your eye out!

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• Sami | B.A.S.S.

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Transcript

I went in and observed a line to the lunchroom. This is a group of kindergartners and the para that was there was like pointing out who it was. And I'm like, yeah, but if you hadn't pointed that out, half of the kindergartners are acting squirrelly and making noise and jumping out. It's like, we, we shouldn't be so hyper focused on our student.

Welcome to the Misfit Behaviorist podcast miniseries. This round, join your hosts, Audra Jensen and Sami Brown, here to bring you fun and functional advice for creating and implementing behavior plans. Let's get started. 

Hey everybody, welcome back to the Misfit Behaviors podcast, part three of our miniseries of developing FBA BIP, and this week we are talking about conducting those initial direct observations. All right, so at this point, point in the FBA process, you will hopefully have your signatures and your plans and everybody's on the same page and we're going forward because at this point you need to have that.

You need to have parents on board knowing what's going on, approving that you can go in and make these direct observations. Some districts feel like at this point, anybody that's on their case or employed by the district is able to make these observations. I can tell you that may be the case for a typical behavior team or psychologist or somebody working in the school.

From the BCBA perspective, I'm only comfortable if I have those direct consultation signatures because we kind of have that other ethical requirement through the BACB. But anyway, just make sure that you're following what your district guidelines are, but you're also looking at our ethical guidelines through the BACB before you start the process.

So when you're doing observations, my thought in doing these initial observations is to be as a wallflower as possible. So my thought is to go into a situation and try to be as objective as possible to try to look at everything with fresh eyes. A lot of times these are students that we already know but when we're making kind of these formal observations, I always go in with a notepad a pencil and I start just jotting down everything I'm seeing. And I'll put the time and exactly what I'm seeing. And I try to keep all of that emotional language out of it. At this point, I'm just recording what I'm seeing, what's going on. I also try to always look at a variety of settings and times and different locations, good days and bad days when he or she is doing well and not doing well.

I try to get enough of it so you kind of get this big, rounded picture of the student in the different settings and the staff member interactions, peer interactions, environment interactions. And so just capturing that kind of comprehensive view of the student's behavior across a lot of different settings. 

And it's super important to do that because I've gone into do an observation before and there’s no behavior. And so, and so everyone's like, well, that's not a typical moment  but that's important. Absolutely. And so what was different that day potentially that created this change? And then AM, you know, in the morning observations, also in the afternoon, And like you said, across different settings is important just to kind of get a clearer picture of the different people and the different you know, demands, so to speak, that are being placed on that student. 

Yeah, early on when I was starting to do these observations, I found that I'd have a student come up to me and say, you know, who are you here to see?

And that kind of triggered me to change my behavior. So that I learned to be better, a better blend in and more inconspicuous.  So like, when I go do an observation, I usually try to get there before any of the students get there, make sure I understand what the teacher is going to be doing so that I can blend in with the classroom as much as possible.

If it's a student who is aware of what's going on, I might have the teacher, you know, introduce me as doing something that has nothing to do with the student. Kind of make them think that that's not what is, because the whole point is, you don't want to affect the behavior you want to observe. You just want to be as inconspicuous as possible.

 You mentioned a lot about, you know, taking timestamp notes that are unemotional, very just ambiguous of what's what you're actually seeing. If you have RBTs or someone that's in the district, that's working with the behavior team I have sent an RBT in, especially if the student knows me or you know, is likely to kind of come up and try to engage too much, which would, you know, make the accuracy of the observation kind of null and void.

So I have sent that person in place. But if you're teaching, you know, that idea of timestamp and exactly what you're seeing. Sometimes I've gone back even through those notes as I've kind of cleaned them up and I've seen the antecedents and the consequences at play. Right, because the way that I've written it out into those observation notes.

Yeah, and I'll go through my notes afterwards and, and I'll make like an A circle and a B circle with a defined and a C over here and then I'll, I'll make notes after my notes and sort of start to find those patterns and triggers because that's kind of what we're starting with. That's the very first thing that we're looking for.

I also like to look for both typical and atypical behavior in the student, as well as I like to take data on the other students in, in the room. So like, if I'm making an observation at recess in particular, this is a great way or a great time to do it. As you're making an observation at student recess, I'm making note of the time and the behaviors and what I'm seeing for the student I'm there for, but I'm also making notes of the peers around him were doing this, because it could be that we're in, and we see this a lot, over, looking at a behavior, like microscoping a behavior. I remember we're calling to do an observation and I went and did the observation and they were standing in line and some of the behaviors they had concerns was, you know, wiggly behaviors,  just being out of line and loud talking and stuff.

And so I went in and observed a line to the lunchroom. This is a group of kindergartners and the para that was there was like pointing out who it was. And I'm like, yeah, but if you hadn't pointed that out, half of the kindergartners are acting squirrelly and making noise and jumping out. It's like, we, we shouldn't be so hyper focused on our student.

Now I would make a note of those behaviors, but I'd also note that yeah, half the class was engaged in these same behaviors because it's probably age appropriate. Now there were other things going on that we obviously had to be aware of. But definitely looking at typical behavior, atypical behavior, their behavior, as well as peers behaviors as well.

Yeah, I've done a normative peer sample where I've done just a basic T chart and I'm got the student A, you know, that I'm there to observe and then basically just the class on the side. But I will literally go if it's blurting and then just do tally marks just to see, if this is a huge concern, like you said, how much is this specific student that we're called into observe engaging in that behavior versus just typical developing behavior for that age group, or that classroom, or that environment. 

Right. And then afterwards, you know, making sure you're getting those observations, like I said, across multiple days, even weeks if you need to, making sure that you feel comfortable, that you've captured enough snapshots that you can put together a full picture. It's like putting together that puzzle and you're taking little pieces. You need to make sure you got all the pieces together before you put it together. And then also after your observations, check in with the teacher, whoever's there. Is this a typical day for them? Is this atypical? Is there another time that I would be more likely or less likely to see the behavior we're concerned about. And any other things, you know, is there anything new that's come up since we started the process that you want me to be aware of? So checking in with whoever you're observing and making sure, I think this is kind of going back, making sure before the observation that the people you're observing, that they know that you're not here to critique what they're doing, that you're only there to make  objective observation about how the students doing and just quell any fears that they have that we're in their jotting down notes about their teaching style or anything like that, because that's not what we're doing. 

No, and an important piece that you added on that is, as this process, it can seem as a lengthy process, and it's very cumulative is making the entire team, whoever is interacting with the student during the school day, be aware that if anything changes with that student, we need documentation to know that that's happened. So, oh, parents finally got him in with the pediatrician and they started a new medication and we're already a week in and we're going, well, wait a second, you know, now we've got to backtrack to try to see that.

So not only just the medication piece, but if there's been any dietary changes or anybody that's come, a recent vacation, I've had that. Oh, well, they just, the student just got back as the family went to Hawaii for a week and a half. And it's like, well, that's important information to know. Also choosing when we're doing those observations to make sure that we're not backing up against something that would already lead us into an atypical indirect observation.

Yeah, those are great points. So, yeah, I guess the key is just that great observation is being discreet, being thorough, planning ahead and just always being a lookout for those pieces of the puzzle so we can put them together.  

And next week we are going to do step four, which is kind of that beginning anecdotal data. So how we're going to gather the first objective ish data, the ABC data. We're starting to really hone in on the behaviors we're concerned about, gathering that what was happening before, what did we see, and what did we after, and then what do we do with that kind of initial anecdotal data.

All right, so we will catch you guys next week. Check us out on Facebook or Instagram or all the places.  Apple, YouTube. We'll put some freebies up there this week and every week to guide you on your process. We will see you then. 

Thanks for listening to the Misfit Behaviorists, and be sure to tune in next week for more tips and tricks.

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