When FBA and evaluation meet: why multilingual learners need more than one lens

I recently worked with a student where both an FBA and a psychoeducational evaluation were needed to fully understand what was going on.

At first, the concerns were primarily behavioral. The student was struggling in the classroom, and the behaviors were becoming more frequent.

As we gathered more information, it became clear this was a more complex situation involving behavior, learning, language, and mental health. The student was also a multilingual learner still developing English proficiency, which added another important layer to how the data needed to be interpreted.

The FBA helped identify patterns and function, while the evaluation provided insight into how the student was processing information across languages.

When you look at behavior, learning, and language together, the interpretation can shift in important ways.

This is why it’s so important not to evaluate multilingual learners through a single lens.

Getting that right matters.