Presented by Monica Fisher, M.Ed., BCBA/COBA, Director, Behavior Department, Monarch Center for Autism
Sponsored by Monarch Center for Autism, STAR Autism Support, and VizZle

Watch the Recording

The function of a student’s behavior is the reason s/he behaves a certain way. Functions fall into the following four categories: attention, escape, tangibles, and automatic. Does the student know how to:

1. Seek attention
2. Appropriately protest
3. Ask for what s/he wants or needs
4. Self-regulate (e.g., independently apply sensory input)

If you are an early childhood educator (or an educator of students with minimal behaviors), you have a unique opportunity to proactively teach your students skills associated with each of the four functions of behavior that may preempt and prevent challenging behaviors.

However, for those who work with students who exhibit challenging behaviors, once you hypothesize the function(s) that is maintaining the behavior (through a Functional Behavior Assessment), you can proactively and reactively implement interventions to help decrease the behavior. Examples of these interventions include: functional communication training, differential reinforcement, token economies, coping strategies, and more. It is important to collect data before and after each intervention to determine if it’s effective.

In this edWebinar, Monica Fisher, M.Ed., BCBA/COBA, Director of the Behavior Department at Monarch Center for Autism, explore both scenarios—proactively teaching skills and reactively implementing interventions, as well as collecting data using effective tools and techniques. Case studies and recommended tips, tools and resources are shared. PreK-12 teachers and school leaders, as well as therapists, BCBAs, behavior specialists, associate teachers and aides will benefit from watching this recorded session.

About the Presenter

Monica Fisher, M.Ed., BCBA/COBA has more than 15 years of experience working with children on the autism spectrum in home, school and residential settings. She provides in-home consultative services for families in the community, and has provided trainings for parents, teachers and other professionals. She is currently the director of the behavior department at Monarch Center for Autism and is responsible for managing a team of behavior specialists and BCBAs. Monica earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of Wooster, her master’s degree and intervention specialist licensure from Cleveland State University, and she took coursework in applied behavior analysis through Florida Institute of Technology. She previously served as an intervention specialist in Monarch’s High School, and was formerly an associate teacher at Monarch School. She is also an independent behavioral consultant for ABA Outreach Services, providing behavioral consultative services for families of children with autism.

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Monarch Center for Autism, a division of Bellefaire JCB, is located in Cleveland, Ohio. Monarch offers a comprehensive array of programs and services for individuals ages three through adulthood with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Highlights, which incorporate Monarch’s visual language treatment model, include a preschool; day school for children, adolescents & young adults; transition education program; summer & extended school year programs; therapeutic residential treatment program; adult vocational & supported living programs; and community training.

STAR Autism Support (SAS) provides curriculum materials, workshops and training to school and agency staff who work with students with autism. Our mission is to help others successfully implement research-based applied behavior analysis (ABA) techniques. We want every child with autism to receive effective instruction!

VizZle provides a library of more than 14,000 lessons and the tools and media to customize them or create your own from scratch. The lessons can be tailored to any grade level, assigned to any student, and played on iPad or Android tablets, laptop or desktop computers. Data is tracked automatically. This award-winning software is developed collaboratively with educators.