By Matt Harrington, BCBA · Behaviorist Book Club · Research-backed answers for behavior analysts
Friman argues that human societies have persistently attributed problematic behavior to inherent defects in the individuals who exhibit it — locating the cause in the person's moral character, psychological constitution, or neurological structure rather than in their history of interaction with the environment. He identifies this as an ancient and pernicious error that behavior analysis directly challenges through its functional, environmental account of behavior. Behavior analysis does not ask what is wrong with this person; it asks what function this behavior serves in this environment — a conceptually and practically superior question that leads to more effective and more ethical interventions.
Early intensive behavioral intervention is a behavioral treatment approach for young children with autism spectrum disorder that involves 25 to 40 hours per week of structured behavioral instruction. The intervention uses a combination of discrete trial teaching and naturalistic teaching methods to address communication, social skills, play, self-care, and behavioral challenges. The empirical evidence for EIBI is among the strongest in the intervention literature for developmental disabilities, with multiple studies documenting significant gains in cognitive functioning, adaptive behavior, and language outcomes when treatment begins early and is delivered with adequate intensity. Caregiver involvement, treatment integrity, and child characteristics are all established moderators of outcomes.
A functional account of behavior asks what environmental conditions — antecedents, consequences, establishing operations — are maintaining a behavior. It locates the cause of behavior in the interaction between the organism and its environment, particularly in the organism's reinforcement history. A deficit-based account attributes behavior to a fixed property of the individual — a neurological condition, a character flaw, an emotional disorder — and treats the behavior as a symptom of that deficit. The practical difference is significant: if behavior is functional, it can be changed by modifying the environmental conditions that maintain it. If behavior is a symptom of a deficit, intervention possibilities are constrained by the perceived limits of the deficit.
FBA is required by the BACB Ethics Code and in various regulatory contexts, but its importance transcends compliance. FBA is the methodological expression of the behavior analytic account of challenging behavior: it operationalizes the commitment to understanding behavior functionally rather than attributing it to internal defects. Every FBA conducted is an inquiry into what environmental variables are maintaining the target behavior — which produces the information needed to design effective, function-matched interventions. BCBAs who understand FBA as a values statement as well as a clinical procedure are more motivated to conduct it rigorously and are better able to explain its purpose to families and colleagues who question its necessity.
BCBAs should validate the family's concern while gently translating the description into functional terms. A family who says their child is manipulative is identifying a real pattern — behavior that appears strategically deployed to produce specific outcomes — but the frame they are using obscures the most useful clinical information. A response like, I understand — it does look very intentional, and what I've noticed is that the behavior tends to occur when a demand is made and stops when the demand is removed, which tells us something important about its function, acknowledges the observation while shifting toward a functional analysis. This translation is a clinical skill that BCBAs should practice deliberately.
BCBAs advising families about EIBI for young children with autism should be current on several dimensions: the evidence base for treatment intensity, including research on optimal hours per week and duration; current understanding of the balance between structured discrete trial teaching and naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention methods; the role of caregiver training as an active component of EIBI rather than a supplementary element; and the moderators of outcomes, including age at treatment initiation, baseline communication skills, and cognitive functioning. Families deserve current, evidence-based guidance — not generic endorsement of ABA — from the BCBAs they consult.
In interdisciplinary settings, BCBAs often work alongside professionals who hold deficit-based views of challenging behavior. The BACB Ethics Code provisions on integrity and evidence-based practice support BCBAs who maintain a functional account even when that account challenges prevailing frameworks. This is not about being combative or dismissive of other disciplines — it is about providing accurate, scientifically grounded information that serves clients' interests. When a child's challenging behavior is attributed to a psychiatric diagnosis without functional analysis, the BCBA has both the standing and the obligation to introduce the functional question into the team's discussion.
Behavior analysis advances in practice settings through the consistent application of functional assessment before behavior intervention, through communication that explains challenging behavior in environmental rather than person-centered deficit terms, through the outcomes that EIBI and other behavior analytic interventions produce for clients, and through the advocacy of individual practitioners who maintain the behavioral account even under pressure. In schools, diagnostic labels can drive IEP development without adequate functional analysis; BCBAs who insist on FBA before intervention planning are advancing the behavioral approach against the default deficit-focused model. This happens one team meeting, one assessment report, and one family conversation at a time.
Friman's conceptual frame should inform how BCBAs train and supervise direct care staff. RBTs who understand that challenging behavior is functional — that it serves a purpose for the person who engages in it — are better prepared to implement function-matched interventions without attributing clinical failures to the client's character or motivation. Supervision should explicitly address the language supervisees use to describe client behavior, correcting deficit framing with functional alternatives. Staff who are trained to ask why does this behavior work for this client in this context bring a more analytically rigorous and more clinically effective orientation to every session than those who attribute behavior to the client's diagnosis or personality.
Understanding that behavior analysis has been advancing against centuries of deficit-based thinking provides a historical framework that supports professional resilience. BCBAs who know that the functional account of behavior is not a new or fringe perspective but the result of decades of experimental and applied research have a more secure foundation for maintaining their clinical positions under challenge. The EIBI outcome literature, the FBA research base, and the broader experimental analysis of behavior tradition are all resources that BCBAs can draw on when facing skepticism from families, educators, or other professionals. Friman's contribution is in providing the historical narrative that makes the scientific evidence more meaningful.
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Patrick Friman – EIBI, ASD and the Forward March of Behavior Analysis – 1hr — Autism Partnership Foundation · 40 BACB General CEUs · $0
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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.