Severe problem behavior in school settings — including self-injurious behavior, aggression toward peers and staff, and property destruction — represents one of the most pressing challenges facing behavior analysts today. For students with developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorder, these behaviors not only disrupt learning but frequently result in restrictive placement decisions, physical restraint, and crisis-level responses that can compound trauma and undermine the therapeutic relationship.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via California Association for Behavior Analysis
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →The current presentation is an opportunity for members of your professional community to learn about a compassionate, evidence-based approach to addressing severe problem behavior. This talk describes an overview of 'why' and 'how' we can effectively address these behaviors using a process that prioritizes values over procedures, and emphasizes safety, dignity, televisibility, and rapport-building in all interactions with students. Dr. Egan will describe an effective, trauma-assumed approach, 'Practical Functional Assessment and Skill-Based Treatment,' that supports the education of students who routinely engage in severe problem behavior, including autistic students (ASD) as well as those with intellectual disabilities (IDD) and emotional / behavioral disturbances (EBD). The presentation will outline how to create learning contexts in which problem behavior does not occur and how to build skills that protect students from the future development of severe problem behavior.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1.5 | General |
| COA | 1.5 | — |
Dr. Claire Egan is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst who currently serves as a Lead Consultant and Director of School projects at FTF Behavioral Consulting. Claire received her master’s degree in special education from Columbia University, and her PhD in Psychology from the National University of Ireland. She completed a Post Doctoral Fellowship in Learning and Assessment at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, where she was also an Adjunct Professor of Special Education and Educational Psychology. She has presented her research at local and international conferences and has published her research in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and the Psychological Record. Claire continues to be involved in building the capacity of practitioners in British Columbia to provide high quality and student-centered behavioral supports.
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.