Functional Behavioral Assessment

In this paper, we will be looking at William and Annie. We will address both target behaviors and interventions that can be used in treating them both individually. We will need to do behavioral assessments in order to find out where the problem starts and what triggers the different behaviors.

PART 1 William is a healthy 6-year-old boy who has been terrorizing his classmates. This has happened since the beginning of the school year. William pushes, kicks, hits or bites other children in the class. This also happens during recess time. Ms. Tooley has tried to address the issue by scolding William but it did not seem to have any effect on him. Ms. Tooley would make William visit the principal’s office when he was being aggressive but

There are five stages of behavioral assessment, which includes Screening, defining, and quantifying problems, finding the target behavior for treatment, monitoring progress and conducting a follow up (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). I would have the teacher record the behavior as it occurs. This particular observation will record the frequency of how many times the behavior occurs, duration of time the behavior will last, the intensity of the amount of force that is behind the physical behaviors and the latency of when the behavior occurred after the stimulus is given. A Functional Behavioral Assessment gathers information about why William’s behavior occurs. The best person to record the information will be the teacher. She will be given an ABC form and then try to find out what the antecedents and consequences are when the behavior

Tooley with William’s aggressive behavior. A positive reinforcement is developed for William. He was told to ask for something he wants instead of just taking it. This will stop some of his aggressive behavior if he learns that you should ask for something you want. Once he learns to do that, then Ms. Tooley would praise him. When he did not ask, he would not be allowed to play outside with his other classmates. Second, a token economy is put into place to try to get his aggressive behavior to be better. Anytime William would show appropriate behaviors, he would be given a star. If he had 3 or more stars by the end of the week, he would be allowed to choose a prize from the prize box. Both of these strategies can lead to extinction. The fact that William is receiving praise and stars provides the incentive to comply with Ms. Tooley’s rules.

PART 3 Once the interventions are implemented, baseline data will be collected and recorded. I think that the data collected should be done on a daily basis in the beginning. Ms. Tooley can collect the baseline data and record it. She can then make a chart to display on a graph. Once the data is collected, the graph will show if there is any changes made. I would use a graph because it is a useful way to identify if target behaviors have increased or decreased or stayed the