Behavior Intervention Pl Case Study

Behavior Intervention Plan: David
Rachael Hardy
PS410: Screening and Assessment
Kaplan University

Mrs. Blockhouse, the principal at Bertha Barber Elementary School, called the offices of “Hope Is Here” with a request for an intervention plan. Bertha Barber has an 8 year old, Caucasian boy, named David, with whom teachers and aides have described as having “aggressive and disruptive” behaviors. Aggressive behavior is behavior that causes physical or emotional harm to others, or threatens to (Gabbey, 2013). Disruptive behavior is defined as behaviors that hamper the ability of instructors to teach and students to learn (Disruptive Classroom Behaviors, n.d.). These behaviors have been on going for 6 months. David was an ideal
student, one whom all teachers loved to have in their classroom, but these changes in his behavior have become troubling to all involved. The school does not have an onsite psychologist to help with this matter and limited funds for outside services. It is the school’s wish to put some type of plan into action by the end of the week. Our faculty does do outside referrals, so we will set up an appointment with our therapist, Susan, to educate the staff at Bertha Barber Elementary to the procedures of a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA). With this, we will be able to include an achievable intervention plan to help David adapt to whatever is going on his life. Bertha Barber Elementary School is located in the rural area of Nebraska. It houses students from Kindergarten to 6th grade and has a student/teacher ratio of 15:1, with no funding for specialized teachers. Because of this, parents volunteer as aides to help in the classroom and provide supplies when needed. David is showing signs of aggression and is disruptive in class. The parent’s who volunteer state that his aggressive behaviors include shouting at other students, pushing them during reading time, and kicking students in line who are patiently waiting for their turn to write on the chalkboard. His teacher states that his disruptive behavior occurs when he is asked to sit in timeout for these aggressive behaviors. When in timeout, David cries and throws a temper tantrum, screaming and thrashing his knees to the ground. This is causing other students to be scared of David, avoiding him during recess, in the lunchroom, and any other activities. “Hope Is Here” schedules a meeting with the staff and parent volunteers to discuss the necessary steps needing to be done to develop an intervention plan for David.
In the meeting, Susan, the psychologist assigned to David’s case, reviews the steps that must be taken. His teacher and the parents believe that with Susan’s help, David’s aggressive and disruptive behaviors will be gone by the end of the week. Knowing this, Susan will go into the first meeting fully prepared to explain that it will take some time to assess and prepare a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) for him. Susan asks for the contact information for David’s parents because it is imperative for her to speak to them before any group meetings can be scheduled. It is important that Susan receives verbal permission before she can schedule the initial meeting with the staff at the school. Without verbal permission, she will violate the American Psychological Association’s ethics code of informed consent: 3.10, which gives her permission to speak with other individuals who are directly involved with David and to conduct interviews and observations with him (APA, 2010). Susan also requests that David’s parents be in attendance for the initial
meeting. In the meeting, David’s parents are in attendance, as are Mrs. Blockhouse, David’s teacher, and the classroom aides who are in direct contact with David. As Susan begins talking, she makes it clear that the expectations of David recovering from these behaviors by the end of the week are not realistic. She also explains that in order to create an accurate Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA), she will need the cooperation of everyone involved, and that they need to learn about assessments and the proper way to implement them. Susan will conduct a teaching seminar to ensure that assessment forms are accurately filled out and understood. Susan begins the meeting with a discussion of what a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) is: an intervention to treat severe behavior problems where team members conduct informal interviews and observations of the referred individual and, based on these findings, identified specific interventions (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 4). This procedure will help identify and evaluate the stimulus that triggers the behaviors David has shown and what stimulus maintains those behaviors. A complete Functional Behavioral Assessment will come from the parties directly involved with David at the school. During the meeting, Susan explains to the parties involved the three Indirect Functional Assessment procedures she will be implanting on David: The Functional Behavioral Assessment Screening Form, The Antecedent Variables Assessment Form, and The Consequence Variables Assessment Form. She explains that an indirect assessment is so named because information regarding antecedents and consequences and other critical variables that are gathered indirectly via interviews, rating scales, and screening forms (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 100). Susan reminds the parents and staff that any Functional Behavioral Assessment requires a record review in the early stages of the process and that any forms filled out will be contained in David’s cumulative record. Susan explains that the purpose of the Functional Behavioral Assessment Screening Form (FBASF) is an FBA recording form that is used in the initial stages of the FBA process (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 102). She states to everyone that the FBASF records David’s behavioral strengths (adaptive behaviors and skills), interfering behaviors (problem behaviors), reinforcers (activities, people, or objects), and communication skills (verbal, signs, or gestures) (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 102). After explaining what an FBASF is, Susan explains its purpose in getting a more balanced view of David as an individual and that it will be used during an interview with his parents. Through these interviews, Susan will use the information gathered to design a positive behavioral support intervention for David. After Mrs. Blockhouse, the teacher, classroom aides, and parents of David all clearly state that they understand the FBASF, she moves along to the next two indirect assessments. The Antecedent Variables Assessment Form (AVAF) and The Consequence Variables Assessment Form (CVAF) are procedures that include a wide range of variables that have been found to trigger and reinforce interfering behaviors (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 110). During the meeting, Susan explains that these two procedures help to identify relevant variables and to describe how these events trigger or reinforce David’s aggressive and disruptive behaviors. She pulls out the AVAF form and explains to all parties its purpose to describe the variables that trigger David’s behaviors. When David’s parents ask what kind of triggers could be causing his behavior, Susan replies with environmental, instructional, social, and/or transitional. She also reiterates to David’s parents that there are many other antecedent variables that may be causing his behavior, but that the four listed are the most common in a school-based setting. Once all parties involved understand the second procedure, Susan moves on to the last indirect assessment. As she hands out the CVAF form, she begins talking about what it is: identifies and describes the variables that typically follow the occurrence of interfering behaviors (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 111). When David’s parents ask what this particular form entails, she replies to them how it includes a set of supplementary questions that may be used to further clarify relationships between specific consequences and interfering behaviors (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 111). Susan tells all parties involved the importance of filling out these forms to the best of their ability so they can better understand what is causing David’s aggressive and disruptive behavior. Once everyone clearly states that they understand the three indirect assessments being used in David’s behavior intervention plan, she moves on to the next step of implementing three Direct Descriptive Assessment procedures that she feels will work. First and foremost, Susan explains that a Direct Descriptive FBA is based on direct observations of behavior in the setting and/or situations in which the target behaviors occur (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 128). After she describes what it is, she describes all information collected from this procedure to be based off observation, rather than indirect information. The first form Susan hands out is The Task Difficulty Antecedent Analysis Form (TDAAF) while describing what it is: where other information, from interviews, observations, or one of the assessment forms has indicated that the presentation of difficult tasks may be a trigger for David’s behavior (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 128). In filling this form out, Susan recaps the importance of all relevant features being written down (what subject is being done during David’s outbursts or what type of task is occurring at the time). She explains that the best way to get results is to observe David while the teacher is presenting him certain tasks. When the teacher asks how long she is to present these tasks to David, Susan gives her an allotted time of 10 seconds maximum. During the procedure, if there is no target behavior, the teacher is to put a 0 in the box and move on to the next task. After all questions have been asked and answered, Susan moves on to the second procedure. The Conditional Probability Record (CPR) is a form that allows the observer to simultaneously observe and record the antecedents and consequences of behavior (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 134). While she hands out these forms, Susan clarifies the advantage of doing this procedure is to analyze the likelihood of a behavior given a certain trigger and the consequence that follows. Susan talks to the teacher and tells her that this procedure will require a 15-minute observation of David when he is acting out and record the antecedents. She describes how the teacher will be able to notice when David’s behaviors start. All the parties involved in the meeting clearly identify and understand all what is being asked of them thus far.
As Susan realizes that they all understand the second procedure, she moves on to the last and final one: The Functional Behavioral Assessment Observation Form (FBAOF), which is an assessment procedure that involves directly observing and recording interfering behaviors and associated contextual variables (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 134). She explicates that this form will record David’s behavioral episodes with a single interfering behavior. Once everyone is handed the form, Susan asks them to look over what needs to be recorded: date and time of day, setting events, antecedents, the identified behavior, consequences, effect, and the staff that were present (Steege & Watson, 2009, p. 134). Susan verbalizes that this procedure’s purpose is to record both the behavior and the magnitude of the behavior by its frequency, duration, and
intensity. After the last procedure is implemented, Susan recaps the roles of each party involved and how David’s FBA will take time. Mrs. Blockhouse, the teacher, the classroom aides, and David’s parents all thank Susan for taking the time to implement an intervention plan. With these procedures, we will be able to include an achievable intervention plan to help David adapt to whatever may be triggering his aggressive and disruptive behaviors. With the help of many supporters, David’s behavior will be interviewed, recorded, and observed over a period of time to figure out an underlying cause.

References
American Psychological Association. (2010, June 1). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/
Disruptive Classroom Behaviors | Madison Area Technical College. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://madisoncollege.edu/in/disruptive-classroom-behaviors
Gabbey, A. (2013, December 23). Aggressive Behavior. Retrieved from http://www.healthline.com/health/aggressive-behavior#Overview1
Steege, M. W. & Watson, T. S. (2009). Conducting school-based functional behavioral assessments: A practitioner’s guide (2nd ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.