ABC's of Behavior
A few weeks ago, Jenny and Heaven let me know that Aldo the American Kestrel was giving them a hard time. Whenever they tried to enter the mew, Aldo flew to the perch in front of the door. They couldn't get in while he blocked the entrance. Normally I would toss out a few suggestions for Jenny and Heaven to try and see what happens, like throwing spaghetti at the wall. But this time I wanted to try a more structured approach. A functional assessment is a detailed process that analyzes a behavior within the environmental factors that surround it. The structure is based in the ABC's of behavior: Antecedent : This is the "stage," everything in the environment that happens before the behavior. It can be broken down into the Distant Antecedent (relevant background conditions) and Immediate Antecedent (what immediately triggers the behavior). Behavior : What does the animal do? Consequence : What happens after the behavior? Does the animal gain something they wanted, li...