Collaborating with Parents in Reducing Children's Challenging Behaviors: Linking Functional Assessment to Intervention

Table 3

Annie’s identified challenging behaviors.

Challenging behaviors	Exceptions
Out of bed to; (i) Play with toys; (ii) Get books; (Counts as out of bed when one of her feet was not on the bed)	Out of bed to fix blanket, pick up a toy or book that dropped from her bed
Out of room to find mother/father or to see what other members in the family are doing	To use the restroom
Talking to mother/father; (i) Carrying on a conversation with parents after parents said good night and left the room (parents were not in Annie’s room but in their room next door to Annie’s); (ii) Talking to the parent who comes back into the room to check on her; (iii) Talking to parent who decides to lay down for a little while with her after saying good night; (Interval counts as child engaging in challenging behavior when the parent is responding to child’s conversation)	Request that she needs to use the bathroom; Talking to self, to her stuffed animals, or reading to self; when parents provide reassurance (see Table 4)
Whine and/or cry to request that mother and father be with her because she cannot fall asleep on her own	Mumbles to her stuffed animal that sounds like whining