The persistence of challenging behaviors for some children highlights a need and an opportunity to explore several key principles of behavioral intervention that are necessary for effective decision- making when more personalized interventions must be layered on top of high-quality universal supports. In the absence of expert support, function-based interventions that are considered a core feature of the top tier of PBIS and the Pyramid Model have had limited success within early childhood programs (Johnson, Reichle, & Monn, 2009). This article draws upon a vignette of a three year old named Kayden, who was referred for evaluation by his childcare provider who was concerned that Kayden was not talking and was starting to have more temper tantrums while at the center. The authors draw upon Kayden's experiences to use them as an example of how to begin to build practitioner knowledge and to provide a demonstration of a feasible model for using data to guide decision-making in addressing children with persistent challenging behaviors. There are several behavior analytic features that are essential to the decision-making process when designing function-based intervention plans. Those essential features are discussed here as the bridge between a functional understanding of a behavior and the implementation of an effective and highly personalized behavior intervention plan.