Behavioral interview

Begin with strengths and purpose

Explain which decision the interview may inform, how information will be used, privacy limits, optional topics, and correction routes. Ask what is going well, what the person wants more of, and which outcomes would feel useful.

Record who supplied each statement, their relationship, settings observed, and time period. A parent, teacher, technician, clinician, and client may each see different parts of the day.

Turn labels into observable examples

Words such as “anxious,” “noncompliant,” “aggressive,” or “unmotivated” can hide many events. Ask what another person could have seen or heard. Define the response without building a cause into it.

Then ask:

1. When and where did the event occur?
2. Who was present, and which activity was underway?
3. What request, change, communication, health issue, or access condition came before?
4. What did the person communicate through speech, AAC, gesture, movement, or another reliable form?
5. What did others do next?
6. When is the concern rare, and which supports are present then?
7. What has been tried, with what result and burden?

“Three mornings last week” creates a usable reference period. “Constantly” supplies little measurement value.

Interview data support hypotheses

The BACB Test Content Outline includes records review, cultural variables, assessment, functional assessment, referral, and client-informed goals as examination content. A trained team member may gather information within assigned competence and supervision. An appropriately qualified professional selects methods, interprets evidence, and makes clinical decisions within applicable authority.

Interview patterns can suggest what to observe and compare. They cannot demonstrate that a consequence maintains behavior. Descriptive agreement and experimental functional relation are different evidentiary levels.

Research shows why follow-up matters

In Saini and colleagues’ study, two credentialed raters independently conducted the same open-ended functional-assessment interview with one informant in each of four severe-behavior cases. Three informants were caregivers and one was a lead therapist. The raters made the same function prediction in 3 of 4 cases, or 75%. Their predictions corresponded with functional-analysis outcomes in 2 of 4, or 50%.

No probing was permitted. Four cases cannot estimate the performance of all behavioral interviews. The findings illustrate how agreement between interviewers and correspondence with experimental results answer separate questions.

Preserve the client’s communication

Offer direct or separate participation through the person’s familiar communication. ASHA’s AAC portal says AAC users should always have access to their tools or devices. Provide wait time and ways to accept, decline, pause, or correct.

A caregiver can describe history while leaving the person’s answers authored by the person. Record contradictions and uncertainty. Agreement among adults never erases client report.

A fictional interview example

Ana wants morning preparation to feel calmer. Her father first says that leaving home “always becomes a battle.” Asked about the previous eight school mornings, he recalls that Ana left within the planned window on 5 of 8. Across the other three, a usual bus arrived early twice, and Ana’s visual schedule was missing once.

Ana joins with AAC available and says the early bus feels rushed. The interview produces three leads: record actual bus arrival, keep the schedule accessible, and observe Ana’s requests for more time. It establishes no function and proves no cause.

During the next eight mornings, the team records the schedule state, bus arrival, request opportunities, Ana’s messages, partner response, and departure time. The interview denominator stays separate from prospective observation.

Plan the next evidence step

Possible next steps include record review, health or interdisciplinary referral, direct observation, preference assessment, skills assessment, descriptive measurement, or a qualified clinician’s decision about experimental analysis. Choose the least burdensome method that can answer the question with adequate confidence and safety.

Repeat the interview when settings, health, routines, communication, or priorities change. Correct the record when an informant revises a statement.

Document a usable summary

A useful summary identifies the question, client priorities, informants, dates, observable definitions, contexts, examples and counterexamples, communication and access needs, health considerations, prior supports, hypotheses, conflicts, uncertainty, and next actions. Avoid copying every answer into a clinical conclusion.

Give the person and authorized stakeholders an understandable chance to correct factual errors within the governing privacy and record process. Keep the original authorship of each report visible. A clean summary can still preserve disagreement, which often points to a setting difference worth observing.

The current BACB Ethics Code addresses competence, collaboration, understandable communication, involvement, consent, assent when applicable, assessment, referrals, risk, documentation, and evaluation for covered professionals.