Ennio Cipani - Behavioral Classification System for Problem Behaviors in Schools: A Diagnostic Manual

Behavioral Classification System for Problem Behaviors in Schools

Ennio Cipani, PhD, is a licensed psychologist in California. He has published numerous articles, chapters, books, and software in the areas of child behavior management and behavioral consultation. His books include Children and Autism: Stories of Hope and Triumph (2011); Punishment on Trial (2004), which can be downloaded for free from the American Psychological Association Division 2 website (teachpsych.org/Resources/Documents/otrp/resources/cipani09.pdf); and Functional Behavioral Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment: A Complete System for Education and Mental Health Settings (Cipani & Schock, 2011). Dr. Cipani has been doing in-home and in-school behavioral consultation for children with problem behaviors since 1982. He has dealt with a variety of behavior problems and children with developmental and mental disabilities. He embodies a psychologist who makes house calls by conducting assessment and intervention activities in natural environments (i.e., homes and classrooms). He then provides on-the-spot training for direct-line people to engage in a parenting or teaching management repertoire that produces changes in undesirable child behavior.

There is a six module, author narrated, staff training video package detailing the Classification System that is freely available as a download to all school district personnel with bulk purchases of 15 or more copies. For more information about how to obtain the videos, please contact Ennio Cipani directly at

Alessandra Cipani, MA, is currently a fourth-year school psychology doctoral student in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, where she received her MA in education with an emphasis on school psychology. After graduating with a BA from California State University San Marcos, she worked as a behavioral therapist, providing in-home applied behavior analysis interventions for toddlers, children, and adolescents. In addition to working in the field of applied behavior analysis, she is an active member of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). She plans to continue working and researching in both fields to provide comprehensive treatment plans that encompass home and school environments.

Behavioral Classification System for Problem Behaviors in Schools

A Diagnostic Manual

ENNIO CIPANI, PhD

ALESSANDRA CIPANI, MA

Copyright 2017 Springer Publishing Company, LLC

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Springer Publishing Company, LLC, or authorization through payment of the appropriate fees to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-646-8600, .

Springer Publishing Company, LLC

11 West 42nd Street

New York, NY 10036

www.springerpub.com

Acquisitions Editor: Debra Riegert

Compositor: diacriTech

ISBN: 978-0-8261-7341-6

e-book ISBN: 978-0-8261-7342-3

Instructors Materials: Qualified instructors may request supplements by emailing :

Classification System PowerPoints: 978-0-8261-7345-4

Mistakes and Misconceptions PowerPoints: 978-0-8261-7347-8

Test Bank: 978-0-8261-7346-1

17 18 19 20 21 / 5 4 3 2 1

The author and the publisher of this Work have made every effort to use sources believed to be reliable to provide information that is accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The author and publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers use of, or reliance on, the information contained in this book. The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cipani, Ennio, author. | Cipani, Alessandra, author.

Title: Behavioral classification system for problem behaviors in schools : a diagnostic manual / Ennio Cipani and Alessandra Cipani.

Description: New York, NY : Springer Publishing Company, LLC, [2017] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016054623| ISBN 9780826173416 | ISBN 9780826173423 (e-book)

Subjects: | MESH: Problem Behavior | Child | Applied Behavior Analysisclassification | Child Behavior Disordersdiagnosis | Adolescent

Classification: LCC RJ506.B44 | NLM WS 350.6 | DDC 618.92/89dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016054623

Printed in the United States of America by Gasch Printing.

FOR FACULTY INSTRUCTORS

If you are using this diagnostic manual for a course in school psychology, behavior analysis, or special education, instructor materials are available. These include test items for a final exam (along with a certificate of competence for inclusion in student portfolios) as well as PowerPoint slides (presentation material for about36 hours of lecture to cover the diagnostic manual). To access these materials, send an e-mail to to establish that you are a faculty member teaching a course and have adopted the manual as required reading. You will then be given a password enabling you to download the materials.

You should also encourage your students to study the Essential Terms to Know at the beginning of the manual as a prerequisite to studying the actual diagnostic classification system. The underlying framework for this system may be new to many of your students. Acquiring the basic terms will help them make better sense of the material in this diagnostic manual.

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

PREFACE

What Is It?

The Cipani Behavioral Classification System (BCS) is a pioneering function-based classification system for categorizing problem target behaviors in education and mental health settings. It was originally detailed in Cipani and Schocks Functional Behavioral Assessment, Diagnosis and Treatment: A Complete System for Education and Mental Health Settings (2007, 2011). This unique diagnostic classification system identifies four basic (operant) behavior functions and derives 13 different function-based categories within those four functions.

Using the Cipani BCS, functional treatment can be derived from the category selected (see Cipani & Schock, 2011). Personnel who conduct functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) can use this system of classification in their reports as a mechanism for conveying the function (environmental purpose) of problem behavior. It provides a stark contrast with symptom-based classification systems that categorize different topographies of behavior (as the unit for classifying behavioral phenomenon). Additionally, the numeric system allows for standardization translating a hypothesis about a behaviors function into a specific behaviorfunction category.