Briefly describe how you will conduct a functional behavior assessment of the target behavior in the scenario (to meet ethical standards and demonstrate evidence-based practice). Assessments may be informal for some of the scenarios, but they should be descriptive assessments based on direct and indirect observations of behavior.
Provide a hypothesis statement about the function of the behavior based on the FBA.
For each scenario you choose, discuss 3 strategies you could use to either increase a desirable behavior, train a replacement behavior, and/or decrease an undesirable behavior. The discussion of each strategy must include a description of the strategy and the rationale for using it (in at least 2 sentences).
You can use your textbooks, your notes from this course and previous courses, and the summary of behavior change strategies document in order to come up with the strategies. (Attached)
An example response is provided for the first scenario below. You need to pick 2 other scenarios to address.
SCENARIOS:
1. Sally is a nine-year-old girl in third grade. She is frequently late to school, and her mother is trying to figure out a way to get her out the door on time to walk to school. Even when she is not walking and the mother is driving her to school, she is late coming out of the house and getting into the car. How might you handle this if Sally was your daughter?
I would first conduct a functional behavior assessment (i.e., descriptive assessment) by interviewing Sally and asking her what causes her to be late leaving the house in the morning. I would also collect observational data on the relevant behavior using an antecedent-behavior-consequence (ABC) Chart during the time that she is getting ready for school from 6:45 a.m. – 7:30 a.m.
Hypothetical results: Based on the data collected, it appears that she takes 20 minutes to pick out clothes to wear in the mornings. She also says in the interview that it takes her a long time to decide what to wear. These factors result in a delay in getting out and to school on time.
Hypothesis: Sally’s lateness in getting to school is maintained by an access function, specifically due to too much time spent selecting clothes (i.e., potentially a decision or choice-making problem).
Strategy 1: Use a goal setting procedure for Sally in which she has a (duration) goal for how long she will spend picking out her clothes each morning. She will start with 18 minutes (since her baseline is 20 minutes), and the goal will be reduced by 2 minutes every day until she can pick out her clothes in 8 minutes. She can earn a special snack in her lunch if she meets the goal that day. This provides reinforcement for meeting the goal and shortening the duration of time taken to get ready.
Strategy 2: Use an antecedent intervention by requiring her to pick her clothes out the night before. She can pick them out each evening before her nighttime snack. This will reduce her time taken to get ready in the morning so that she should be on time. She will also be provided the opportunity to request assistance with picking her clothes.
Strategy 3: Skill shaping procedure. Her parent will model and assist with different clothing options and styling and use praise to shape Sally’s decision and choice skills
Strategy 4: Use a positive reinforcement procedure in which she earns an additional 30 minutes of computer game or TV time after school for every day she gets to school on time. She normally gets 30 minutes of TV and/or screen time after school and can add to that by getting to school on time. This may be an effective motivator to shorten the duration of time she spends picking out her clothes (and therefore be on time to school) if her screen time is a potent reinforcer.
2. The night shift supervisor at the local grocery store has noticed that employees are taking twice as long to complete their closing tasks. This not only delays everyone leaving for the night, but the supervisor is concerned that this behavior will transfer over to the morning shift who have the responsibility of restocking shelves, placing the tills in the cash register, booting up the point of sale (POS) machines, and unlocking the doors for customers. You have been consulted to find a solution to increase employee productivity and efficiency. What would you suggest to the supervisor?
3. A student in Mrs. Kelly’s 3rd grade English class has become incredibly disruptive recently and talks out of turn, bullies’ other students by pushing them and glaring, gets up out of his seat in the middle of instruction and yells out loud when he does not get what he wants. What would you do about this?
4. You are having issues with your roommate because she is very messy, especially in the kitchen, where she never picks up or cleans up. She routinely leaves dishes in the sink and doesn’t even soak them. How might you use behavior change principles to change this unwanted behavior?
5. Your friend Isabella is struggling in her statistics class and knows you are taking the same class. She comes to you for help. You find out the main reason she is not doing well because she spends very little time studying. You learn that every evening after supper, she spends time with her friends, talking, watching TV and videos, and playing video games. How might you help her to make better use of her study time?
6. Thomas is an 8-year-old boy who sucks his thumb while reading during language arts instruction. His parents and teacher want to stop this behavior, as some of the kids in his third-grade class make fun of him. What are some strategies that you might use?