Teaching · Related Services

From a log of incidents to a hypothesis you can test.

Define the behavior, log what came before and what followed each time, and the organizer tallies the likely function and writes the hypothesis statement for the team to test.

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The function hypothesis organizer

One record per target behavior, under a student code. The example student and incidents are made up.

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What you get

Teaching · Related Services$12 · included with Classroom and Whole-school licenses

What you finish with: For each target behavior, a tally of antecedents and consequences, the most likely function with its share of incidents, and a written hypothesis to test.
Who it is for: School psychologists, behavior specialists, special education teachers and support teams carrying out a functional behavioral assessment.
Format: Browser organizer filled in over a week or two of observation. One saved record per behavior; printed with the summary or as a blank ABC form; CSV of the log; export and import a file.
Access: $12 one-time, yours on every device you sign in on; the tool opens once you are signed in with it. Included with Caveat Classroom and Whole-school licenses. Also in the Related Services toolkit ($99) and the Teaching Suite pass ($199), and 1 more bundle. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives: The Related Services space in Caveat Teaching.
Support: Questions about an order, access or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

Drawn for this page. What follows a behavior is often what keeps it going, which is why the log records both sides of each incident.

How to use it

Start a record with the student code and the first day of data.
Name and define one behavior in observable terms.
Log each incident: what came before, what followed, where.
Mark setting events seen on harder days.
Take the hypothesis to the team and plan how to test it.

Start a log

What the organizer is for

How the tally works

Each consequence is matched to the function it usually serves: attention from an adult or peer, escape when a task is removed or delayed, tangible when the student gets an item or activity, and automatic when nothing in the setting changes. The function seen most often becomes the working hypothesis.

A hypothesis, not a verdict

Descriptive data show what tends to happen together, not what causes what. The team confirms a hypothesis by changing the conditions it names and watching the behavior, and plans a replacement behavior that meets the same need.

What this is not

An organizer for one part of a functional behavioral assessment. It does not replace interviews, record checks or the judgment of qualified staff, and it is not a diagnosis.

Sources

Center on PBIS (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs), functional behavioral assessment resources.
Iwata, B. A., and colleagues (1982/1994), Toward a functional analysis of self-injury, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 27(2), on social and automatic functions.
O’Neill, R. E., Albin, R. W., Storey, K., Horner, R. H., and Sprague, J. R. (2015), Functional Assessment and Program Development for Problem Behavior, 3rd ed.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act regulations, 34 CFR 300.324(a)(2)(i) (positive behavioral interventions and supports in the IEP) and 300.530(f).

The example student and incidents are made up. The hypothesis is a starting point for the team, not a finding. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.