Teaching Functional Behavioral Assessment Via Videoconferencing

Videoconferencing has been successfully implemented to teach functional analysis(FA) procedures to services providers who support individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the acquisition of functional analysis (ignore, attention, play and demand conditions) methodology for special education teachers after participation in a group-format workshop via videoconferencing program in which the training site and the remote site were connected through the internet. Four special education teachers in Saudi Arabia who did not have previous exposure to Functional behavior Assessment (FBA) participated in the study. They received 3 hours group-format training via Skype followed by individualized feedback. Training involved ,role-playing, video-modeling, and reading materials. Results indicate that all 4 participants mastered the skills across at least two of the conditions with one participant demonstrating mastery across all four of the conditions and entered generalization probe when implementing FA with a student with ASD.