Section 4: Assessment Flashcards
1
Q
4 Phases of Intervention
A
A PIE
- Assessment
- Planning
- Implementation
- Evaluation
2
Q
Assessment and Components
A
(Functional Behavior Assessment; FBA)
- A systematic method for obtaining information about the FUNCTION challenging behaviors serve
- allows you to make empirically based hypotheses for WHY behaviors occur
- Involves a variety of methods
- discovers resources, assets, significant others, competing contingencies, maintenance and generlization factors, potential reinforcers and/or punishers that may be included in intervention plans
3
Q
Purpose of Assessment
A
- identifies and defines targets for behavior change
- guides us to create effective and positive interventions
4
Q
Being Ethically Prepared for an Assessment
A
- Must choose socially significant behaviors
- Must be skilled at conducting assessments
- Only accept clients whose behavior problems are commensurate with your education, training, and experience
5
Q
The Shape of An Assessment
A
6
Q
5 Phases of Assessment
A
SDPMF
- Screening and general disposition
- Defining and Quanitfying problems or desire acheivement criteria
- Pinpointing target beahviors to be treated
- Monitoring Progress
- Follow Up
7
Q
Ethical Pre-Assessment Considerations
A
- you must ask this question: Who has the authority, permission, resources, and skills to coplete an assessment and intervene with the behavior
- if you do not have one of these components, you should not do the assessment
- You must obtain the client’s approval in writing
8
Q
Indirect vs. Direct Measures of Assessment
A
- Indirect
- data obtained from recollections or subjective ratings of events
- Interviews
- Checklists
- not as reliable as direct descriptive methods
- should only be used to supplement other FBA methods
- starts the hypotheses development process
- data obtained from recollections or subjective ratings of events
- Direct
- Provides information about a behavior as it occurs
- Tests
- Direct Observations
- Provides information about a behavior as it occurs
9
Q
4 Methods to Aquire Information for Assessment
A
COIT
- Checklists
- Observation (Direct Observation)
- Anecdotal Observation (ABC Recording)
- must conduct at least 20 to 30 minutes and for several days to decrease reactivity effects
- Interviews (Structured Behavioral Interview)
- Tests (Standardized Tests)
10
Q
Ethical Guidelines in Conducting Assessments
A
- Review records and data at the outset of the case
- Rule out medical causes for proboem behavior
- Conduct a preliminary assesment of the client in order to identify the problem behavior
- indirect assessment to determine if the behavior:
- dangerous?
- affects well being?
- prevents the child from accessing less restricting environments?
- compares to same aged typically developing peers?
- indirect assessment to determine if the behavior:
- Explain behavioral concepts using non-technical language
- Describe and explain behavior including private events in behavior analytic terms (not mentalistic)
- Provide ABA services in collaboration with others who support and/or rovide services to the client
- Select intervention strategies based on enviornmental resource constraints
- Identify and make enviornmental changes that reduce the need for ABA services
- Assess the social significance of the potential target behaviors
- Ask whose behavior is being assessed and why–not ok to change a behavior just to benefit others
11
Q
Ecological Assessment
A
- gather a great deal of information about the individual and the various settings in which they live and work
- Include info about phsyilogical conditions, physical settings, interactions with others, home environment, etc.
- creates a lot of descriptive data
- costly in terms of time and money so know when it is appropriate to use
12
Q
Reactivity
A
- the effects of the assessment process on the behavior of the individual being assessed
- most likely to occur when observation methods are obtrusive (self-monitoring is most obtrusive)
- repeat observations to reduce reactivity and take it into account when interpreting your data
13
Q
Habilitation
A
(Adjustment)
- Habilitation occurs when a person’s repertoire has been changed such that short and long term reinforcers are maximixed and punishers are minimized
- Assesses meaningfulness of change
- 10 questions to ask to assess if the target behavior you chose to change will be habilitative for your client
14
Q
10 questions to ask when evnaluating the Habilitation/Social Significance of Target Behaviors
A
- Is this behavior likely to produce reinforcement in the client’s natural enviornment after intervention ends? (Relevance of Behavior Rule)
- Is this bheavior a prerequisite (component) for a more complex functional skill?
- Will this behavior increase the client’s acces to environments? (Access Behaviors)
- Will changing this behavior predispose others to interact with the client in a more supportive manner?
- Is this behavior a pivotal behavior or a behavioral cusp?
- Is this an age appropriate behavior?
- If this behavior is to be reducted/elimiated from the client’s repertoire, has an adaptive and functional behavior been selected to replace it? (Constructional Approach vs. Eliminative Approach)
- Does this behavior represent the actual goal, or is it only indirectly related?
- Is this just talk, or is it the real behavior of interest?
- If the goal is not a specific behavior, will this behavior help acheive it?
15
Q
Normalization
A
- (Mainstreaming)*
- The belief that people with disabilities should to the maximum extent possible be phyiscally and socially integrated into mainstream society regardless of the degree or type of disability
16
Q
Behavioral Cusps
A
- behaviors that open the client’s world to new contingencies – gateway behaviors
- has sudden and dramatic consequences that extend well beyond the idisyncratic change itself
- Exposes the client’s repertoire to new environments, especially new reinforcers and punishers, contingecities, responses, stimulus controls, and communities of maintaining or destructive contingencies. When some or all of these happen, the client’s repertoire expands; it encounters a differentially slective mainteance of the new as well as some old repertoires and that may lead to furthur cusps
- Ex: crawling, reading, generalized imitation
17
Q
Pivotal Behaviors
A
- Relates to treatment of people with autism and developmental disabilities
- A behavior that once learned produces corresponding modifications or covariations in other adaptive UNTRAINED behaviors
- teaching pivotal behaviors reduces intervention time
- strategy = pivotal response training (PRT)
- Ex: teaching a child to self-initiate/approach others. May be PIVOTAL to increased language production, diversity of what they talk about, and asking questions–all UNTRAINED response classes
- Ex: Joint Attention
18
Q
Similarities and Differences between Behavioral Cusps and Pivotal Behaviors
A
- Similarities
- both are behaviors you want to teach first because they are behaviors upon which other behaviors can be built
- Differences:
- Behavioral cusps = accessing new contingencies and enviornments (not behaviors)
- Pivotal behaviors = experiencing increases in corresponding untrained behaviors
- However, meeting with new contingencies and environments will often lead to do new behaviors so these terms are sometimes AKAs
19
Q
Generative Learning
A
(Derived Relations)
Enhancing comprehension of new material due to previous learning by teaching material to the client to FLUENCY and through teaching behavioral cusps and pivotal behaviors
20
Q
Prioritizing Target Behaviors
A
- Threat to health or safety of client or others
- Frequency
- opportunities to use the new behavior
- occurence of the problem behavior
- longevity of the problem–chronic problems targeted before new ones
- potential for higher rates of reinforcement
- relative importance of this target behavior to future skill development and independent functioning
- reduction of negative attention from others
- reinforcement for significant others
- likelihood of success–some bx are hard to change than others
- cost-benefit ratio
21
Q
Direct Descriptive FBA
A
(Descriptive Assessment; Direct Assessment)
- Direct Observation of the problem behavior under natural conditions
- events are not arranged in a systematic manner
- provides data on the occurrence of the behavior within the context of the natural environment
- involves baseline data collection
22
Q
3 Data Collection Methods for Descriptive FBAs
A
- ABC Continuous Recording
- ABC Narrative Recording
- Scatter Plot
23
Q
ABC Continuous Recording
A
(one of the 3 Data Collection Methods for Descriptive FBAs)
- Record occurrences of targeted problem behaviors and selected environmental events within the natural routine during a specified period of time
- minimum of 20 to 30 minutes
- Advantages
- uses precise measures
- provides useful into and correlations that can be useful to funtional analyses
- can calculate conditional probablity- proportions of target behavior preceded by a specific antecedent OR followed by a specfici consequence
- Disadvantages
- oftehn antecedents do not reliably preced and follow problem behavior making correlations difficult to detect
24
Q
Conditional Probability
A
- The probability that a target behavior will occur in a specific circumstance (antecedent or consequence) which helps us hypothesize the function of behavior
- taken from ABC data
- The closer the conditional probablity is to 1.0, the more convincing your hypothesis is
- Always reported in decimals
- Formula:
- # of behaviors preceeded by a specific antecedent / total # of behaviors
- # of behaviors followed by a specific consequence / total # of behaviors
26
Q
Scatter Plot
A
(Pattern Analysis)
(one of the 3 Data Collection Methods for Descriptive FBAs)
- Procedure for recording the extent to which a target behavior occurs more often at a particular time than others
- Divide the day into blocks of time
- For each time period, enter a symbol to indicate whether problem behavior occured a lot, sometimes, or not at all
- analyze the patterns to identify temporal distrubitions of behavior and events that occur at that time
- Advantages
- can be used to poinpoint period of the day to fucs ABC assesments on
- Disadvantages
- subjective
- does not determine function
- does not offer replacement bx
37
Q
4 Oringinal FA Conditions
A
Three Test Conditions and One Control Condition:
- Contingent Attention (Social Disapproval)
- Contingent Escape (Academic Demand)
- Alone
- Control (Play Condition)
- Control condition should have low levels of problem bx because reinforcement (tangibles and NCR) are avaialble and no demands are placed
- Each condition contains an MO and potential source of reinforcement
- Conditions systematically presented one at a time in alternating sequence until a pattern emerges
- Sessions are repeated
- TANGIBLE condition was later added only if necessary
38
Q
FA- Attention Function
A
Contingent Attention Condition = Positive Reinforcement
- Client is given attention and then attention is withdrawn to establish the MO (EO for attention)
- Problem bx occurs → Reprimand → with draw attention (and repeat)
39
Q
FA- Escape Function
A
Contingent Escape Condition = Negative Reinforcement
- The child is given non-preferred demands repeatedly to establish the MO (EO for negative reinforcement/escape)
- No response to demand/incorrect response → Prompt
- Problem behavior → demands removed → demand represented after some time has passed (repeat)
40
Q
FA Automatic Reinforcement Function
A
Alone Condition = Automatic Reinforcement
- Child is in room without demands and without social interaction
- Problem behavior → No consequence
- If behavior is highest in alone condition, automatic reinforcement is the function OR if there is an undifferentiated (spider web graph) the function may be automatic
41
Q
FA Undifferentiated Function
A
- Problem behavior is occuring across all conditions including control/play
- 2 Conclusions
- INCONCLUSIVE RESULTS
- problem behavior is maintained by automatic reinforcement
42
Q
FA Inconclusive Result Example
A
48
Q
Stimulus Preference Assessments and Reinforcer Assessments Chart
A
Stimulus Preference Assessments: ATF
- Ask
- Trial Based Methods: PMS
- __Single Stimulus (Successive Choice)
- Paired Stimuli (Forced Choice)
- Multiple Stimuli
- Multiple Stimuli With Replacement (MSW)
- Multiple Stimuli Without Replacement (MSWO)
- Free Operant Observations
- Contrived Observation
- Naturalistic Observation
Reinforcer Assessments: CMP
- Concurrent Schedules
- Multiple Schedules
- Progressive Ratio Schedules
