Functions of behavior

In applied behavior analysis (ABA), a behavior's function is the payoff that keeps it going. It's what the behavior gets your child, or gets your child out of, whatever it looks like. A common shorthand names four: attention, escape from a demand, access to an item or activity, and automatic reinforcement. In that last case, the behavior is its own reward, such as a sensory payoff.

Research also counts combinations, so one behavior can serve more than one function. The same behavior can also have a different function in a different child. That's why the team finds the function through an assessment instead of guessing from how it looks. Many people assume attention is the payoff. But one review found it was the payoff in only about a quarter to a third of the cases it examined.

Picture your child tossing a puzzle piece off the table. If the toss ends the puzzle, the payoff may be escape, and if it brings you over, it may be attention. Behavior with an automatic function often keeps going even when your child is alone. Once the team knows the payoff, it can teach your child another way to get the same thing, such as asking for a break.

• How the function was found: Ask your Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) which assessment the team used and what it showed.
• More than one function: Ask whether the behavior could be getting your child more than one thing.
• Behavior that is its own reward: Ask whether the plan targets behavior like stimming and why, since this choice is debated.