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APPLIED BEHAVIOUR analysis is a systematic method of identifying factors that influence and maintain challenging behaviour, and the use of techniques to replace this behaviour with socially significant behaviours ( Cooper et al 2007 ). Assessment is the first stage of this process and the linchpin of any behaviour intervention. Interventions based on faulty assumptions are likely to be ineffective and may even increase the challenging behaviour ( Cooper et al 2007 ).
Emerson ( 2001 ) suggests that the most salient factor of challenging behaviour is the function it serves for the individuals concerned. Functional assessment involves identifying events that prompt a specific behaviour and the consequences of maintaining it ( Delfs and Campbell 2010 , Martin and Pear 2010 ). In carrying out such assessments, information should be collected from all environments where the behaviour occurs, using a variety of methods such as interviews, questionnaires and direct observations ( Sugai et al 2000 , Sigafoos et al 2003 ).
Common themes should be sought and initial qualitative data screened to inform more detailed quantitative data collection and produce baselines. Hypotheses must be based on accumulated qualitative and quantitative data because using only one type of data limits understanding of the problem ( Kern et al 2006 )
However, some issues can affect the legitimacy of such data. Two such issues are reliability, which concerns the effectiveness of an assessment at reproducing the same data under exactly the same conditions, and accuracy, which concerns the closeness of data produced by an assessment tool to the true value of what it measures ( Cooper et al 2007 ).
Functional questionnaires
The first step in ensuring reliability of data is to develop a detailed definition of a problematic behaviour, written in observable and measurable terms. Without this definition, the legitimacy of information compiled from questionnaires and observations may be dubious because respondents and observers may provide data about different behaviours ( Umbreit et al 2007 ). After establishing a detailed definition, the environmental and physical events liable to cause the behaviour, and the resulting consequences likely to reinforce it, should be explored ( Sigafoos et al 2003 ).
Although experimental functional analysis is promoted as the gold standard in determining behaviour function, it can be impractical...