Applied Behavior Analysis Example: Criteria Definition
Applied behavior analysis (ABA) focuses on enhancing specific behaviors like social skills, academics, reading, and communication, including adaptive learning skills, like fine motor dexterity, job competence, punctuality, domestic capabilities, grooming, and hygiene.
Behavior analysts recognize socially significant behaviors that require change. The paper evaluates an applied behavior analysis and intervention strategies required to modify a socially significant behavior. The Applied behavior analysis example identifies the target behavior, explains the behavior, explains the significance, and defines the outcome criteria for modifying the target behavior.
Applied Behavior Analysis Example: Case Study Description
In this Applied behavior analysis example, I will use a fake name to ensure the privacy and safety of the client. The pseudo-name of the client is Marilyn. Marilyn is an eleven-year-old girl in the fifth grade in a local middle school. Marilyn loves spending time with her close allies, riding her bike, and playing football. However, she does not concentrate on her studies, and she dislikes being in places with many people.
Additionally, she resides in one of the towns in the state with her father, mother, younger sister, who is aged four years, and brother, who is six years old. Her father works a lot so that they can cater to her needs and that of her younger siblings. She spends most of her time at home with her mother.
When Marilyn was aged seven, she was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that affects mostly children. The disorders result in deficits in social interactions, social communication, interests, activities, as well as repetitive and restrictive behavior patterns (Lord et al., 2018). Marilyn has a deficit in communication skills. Moreover, she does not want to hear loud noises since she claims that it hurts her ears.
Besides, she is more anxious when there are changes or new things in her home and school. Marilyn is slow to or fails to respond to her teachers and parents when they call her name, she does not listen or look to other children, and she gets upset when she does not like some sound, smell, or taste. Presently, Marilyn is taking medication for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) which she has been taking for the past years since she started suffering from this condition.
Marilyn has a good sense of humor. However, she is, in some instances, telling stories to her close friends when they were around her. She is extremely friendly to other children, and she cares for those who are around her. Nevertheless, she does not have appropriate social skills when approaching her peer group in some instances. Marilyn has the high verbal ability, and she speaks in sentences, although her writings are in simple sentences.
She is one level below in reading, and she is at grade level for science and mathematics. The client needs to be in one reading group as her friends, and she is always discouraged due to her not being at the same reading level. In most cases, Marilyn refuses to follow directions that her instructor gives her, and she refuses to follow her assignments. Hence, Marilyn exhibits refusal behavior.
Three factors usually contribute to the refusal behavior of the client. These factors include too loud noise from her classroom, personal work like reading, or going to school tired since she watched movies and played videos throughout the night without having an adequate sleep the night prior to the school day. These three factors contribute to the refusal behavior of Marilyn. The refusal behavior makes her avoid attending school, find it hard to stay in school the whole day, do assignments, and follow instructions from her teachers (Havik et al., 2015).
Applied Behavior Analysis Example: Target Behavior Definition
Target behavior refers to a behavior that requires modification. A defined target behavior ought to be clear, concise, and objective. The target behavior, in this case, is refusal. Notably, behavior may be defined functionally or topographically. According to Cooper et al. (2020), the topography-based definition is describing the form or shape of behavior, while a function-based definition is a group of responses with a similar role on the environment, although they are different topographically. Notably, the topography-based definition is the one that best describes the refusal behavior of the client.
Marilyn’s refusal behavior has been increasing in the past months. She verbally refuses and ignores the directions of her educators, and she does her own things instead of those asked by her teacher. She does not concentrate on her assignments. Marilyn normally turns away from her teachers when she is supposed to them, looking away and closing her eyes. Marilyn does not verbally talk in most cases.
In some instances, she verbally refuses to do work as assigned by her teacher. When Marilyn refuses and avoids saying verbally that she is not doing assigned work, she lies on her desk or does other things. The refusal behavior of the client occurs two to five times each day and is contributed by the factors mentioned above. The refusal behavior of the client is of great concern since it adversely affects her academics.
Refusal behavior occurs when Marilyn responds to directions from her teacher by looking away from the teacher, closing her eyes, putting her head on her desk, or engaging in activities not included in the teacher’s instructions. An example of refusal is (add an example). A non-example of refusal is when the teacher has not provided directions, and therefore Marilyn engages in an activity of her choice.
Another non-example is when Marilyn did not hear the instructions due to wearing headphones or temporarily stepping out of the instructional area. The onset of refusal occurs if Marilyn fails to initiate the instructed activity within 15 seconds of receiving the instruction. The behavior is when Marilyn engages in the instructed task or when a new instructed task is presented.
Applied Behavior Analysis Example: Social Significance
Social significance refers to the benefits of modifying the target behavior. Changing the target behavior is crucial to society, the client, and her family (Cooper et al., 2020). Behavior analysts identify behaviors that require a change to ensure long-term benefits to the client. Changing the refusal behavior of Marilyn will enhance her performance in school. The target behavior of the client significantly affects her studies, and if no steps are taken, it can affect her entire education. Hence, the refusal behavior is socially significant and requires modification. According to Miltenberger (2016), the behavior must imply in a person’s life for it to be considered socially significant.
The refusal behavior of Marilyn might affect her future academics and can also affect her when she becomes an adult since she might not get the best profession to cater to the needs of her family. The behavior can thus result in major issues in her future life in case she lags academically.
Poor academic performance due to school refusal behavior can lead to economic burden, underemployment, and high chances of being prosecuted due to criminal activities. Marilyn is already lagging in her academic subjects such as reading (Lingenfelter, 2015). Her refusal behavior does not assist her to progress in subjects that she is performing poorly. Additionally, refusal behavior can be a risk factor that can make her drop out of school.
The refusal behavior’s implication on the client implies that it is socially significant and hence requires modification. School refusal behavior has considerable long-term and short-term impacts on the child’s education, emotional, and social development (Lingenfelter & Hartung, 2015).
The refusal behavior of the client might also result in psychiatric and marital issues, high demand for social security benefits, difficulty in getting employment, and low social status in society. Besides, the refusal behavior can also lead to social alienation, family conflicts, a high risk of litigations, and disruptions in her family’s daily routine. Due to these adverse implications of the refusal behavior, there is a need for intervention.
Changing the refusal behavior of the client using behavioral interventions will enable her to access her studies well without her refusing to do her assignments and follow instructions from her teachers. By transforming the negative behavior of Marilyn to a positive one, she will be able to concentrate on her studies, follow directions from her teachers, do her assignments, and attend school daily. As a result, she will improve in subjects that she is one grade behind and will be important to her future capabilities as a mature lady.
Applied Behavior Analysis Example: Outcome Criteria Definition
Marilyn’s refusal behavior negatively affects her academics since she cannot be in one reading group with her peers. To deal with the refusal behavior of the client, a functional behavioral assessment is necessary. A functional behavior assessment can help identify the behavior and develop interventions so as to eliminate or improve the behavior (Pennington et al., 2019). The targeted behavior of the client that requires intervention is the refusal behavior.
Additionally, the functional behavior assessment (FBA) will involve data collection (Pennington et al., 2019). Here, instructors and the school staff. The staff and instructors will gather data employing an Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence Data Sheet. It is also important for the teachers to include the subject and time when the behavior occurs. Next, the teachers will be able to determine reasons that contribute to Marilyn’s refusal behavior. Marilyn exhibits her behavioral behavior when work is difficult for her, when she is tired, or when the classroom is very loud for her.
Applied Behavior Analysis Example: Literature Review
The researcher conducted a literature review based on the analysis of a peer-review journal. The researcher looked into autism spectrum disorder and how applied behavioral analysis can be utilized to treat refusal behavior. The studies focused on the studies in relation that were most relevant to the case of Marilyn, refusal behavior, and autism spectrum disorder in general.
Applied Behavioral Analysis Principles and Concepts
Marilyn engages in significant refusal behavior that occurs in response to the teacher’s directions, who is a viable subject for applied behavioral analysis (ABA), which is a scientific technique that is also referred to as behavioral engineering that applied an empirical approach whereby operant and respondent conditioning principles are used in changing social significance-related behavior.
It required behavioral analysis that may take radical behaviorism and the experimental analysis of the behavior. This is why applied behavioral analysis is modified to behavior modification, requiring interaction between a behavior and the environment (Bagaiolo et al., 2017). Professionals need to assess the relationship between the target behaviors, refusal behavior, and the environment within which the individual exists in this paper. Social acceptance is developed at the expense of aberrant behavior, like refusal behavior.
Applied behavior analysis example is used as an intervention for autism spectrum disorder, described as a standard gold treatment for refusal behavior. Therefore, ABA is a system for treating people who have autism whereby the desired behavior is taught in a reward and consequence system. Applied behavior analysis example required the application of behavioral principles that facilitate the adaption of the target behavior, for example, the elimination of refusal behavior.
This is grounded on the fact that acceptable behavior has been taught in the social setting over millennia, thus regulating human behavior in the context of reward and consequences (Kupferstein, 2018). The advocates point out that its incredible success is based on the fact that it facilitates the achievement of particular behavioral outcomes and thus the wellbeing of the individual.
In the treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the modified behavioral symptoms are no longer evident, which facilitates the treatment of autism. It is also important to note that the punishment for noncompliance could take the form of the withdrawal of the reward, which motivates the client to strive towards positive behavior.
The application of ABA as behavioral engineering can be traced back to Jack Michaels and Teodoro, whereby they related the application of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior to apply the techniques in a psychiatric hospital. People who have intellectual disability and schizophrenia were effectively treated based on the Applied behavior analysis example principles.
The researcher and faculty at the University of Washington include Montrose Wolf, Todd Risley, Jay Birnbrauer, Bill Hopkins, Sidney W. Bijou, who applied ABA in the behavioral analysis of children like Marilyn with an intellectual disability (Makrygianni et al., 2018). According to Lovaas, ABA facilitates the coding of the observed behavior along with the pioneering of the antecedents and the consequences with the maintenance of the refusal behavior.
Some of the reinforces of secondary behavior include the teaching of children on how to imitate something that is used as an intervention to reduce aggression and life-threatening self-injury. Over time behavioral analysis was replaced with a behavioral modification whereby the problematic behavior is replaced after understanding its function.
ABA and Intervention for Refusal Behavior
ABA tends to be intrinsically attached to the intervention of autism spectrum disorder, especially in the depiction of traits like refusal behavior in the case of Marilyn. Therefore, it is essential to understand the characteristics of ABA, which includes the fact that ABA is applied by focusing on the social significance of the behavior studied. The refusal behavior must be practiced and tested based on whether it is more acceptable in a different setting.
ABA is usually behavioral because it is pragmatic, whereby one asks for the most effective manner of achieving behavior. The verbal descriptions are treated as substitutes for the conduct under description. The behavioral analysis tends to be successful and facilitates the manipulation of the target behavior. This makes it relatively easier to arrange relevant behavior in the research setting.
The ethical standards provide the reversal and multiple baseline designs to facilitate the chosen behavior and the intervention. For the intervention to be effective, it involves revealing the changes and interventions applied to treat refusal behavior. The technological trait of ABA facilitates a clear and detailed description with detailed and precise research. The effectiveness of the intervention required a systematic conceptualization of the interventions. ABA is generally applicable in different environments, something that facilitates the formulation of specific behavior.
ABA tends to be accountable in demonstrating the effectiveness of the method something they require the success, failure, and ineffectiveness. The theoretical analysis and the results of ABA tend to be scrutinized and published something that hidden treatment in the metaphysical explanations. ABA tends to be applicable, functional, and intervention facilitates various parents, teachers, and therapists. Optimism tends to be critical in the ABA setting, whereby both the client and the practitioners manipulate the various aspects of the environment.
Applied Behavior Analysis Example: Reduction of refusal behavior
Behavior is the changes in the movements of the organism in the immediate environment. This is a class of responses that depict the interaction between the physical environments in a single instance. The repertoires are the various classes of reactions that are available to the individual about the particular situations. Operant conditioning tends to be voluntary and controlled based on the consequences and three-term congruent with stimulus control with the antecedent contingent in the discriminative stimulus.
Respondent conditioning tends to be based on innate stimulus relationships referred to as reflexes. Classical conditioning facilitates classical conditioning facilitating the biological significance of the consequences. The environment within which the entire constellation of the environment is in the setting. Therefore the environment includes both the internally and externally occurring events rather than the actual physical environment. The stimulus tends to change, affecting the receptor cells of the organism.
Reinforcement tends to be the critical element of operant conditioning, which facilitates the programs that facilitate behavioral changes. The behaviors close to the stimulus and their respective results are strengthened to increase the frequency of the preferred behavior. The negative reinforcements tend to been weakened, something that ensures that the outcome behavior is positive.
Punishment is a concept that refers to the delivery of the consequences of the negative behavior in the attempt to reduce its frequency in the future. There are three types of punishment response costs, aversive stimuli and the restriction of freedom, often termed “time out” (Fisher et al., 2021). These are the unwanted side effects of the negative behavior, which often includes resentment resulting from the punishment.
Extinction is a technical term that refers to the success that comes with the elimination of negative behavior. Extinction comes as a consequence of punishment, after the results of the unwanted side effects. The negative emotions associated with harmful behavior tend to motivate the client towards positive behavioral outcomes.
Extinction tends to be a technical term for the continuation of the reinforcement of the positive behavior while decreasing the negative behavior. The procedures are often deemed unethical and prohibitive to the professionals (McClannahan & Krantz, 2019). It is implemented with the utmost care of the respective mental health professionals, and the extinction bursts. Aggression may also come as a result of emotional response to the variation in the behavior.
The relationship between the behavior and antecedent conditioning facilitates the replacing the formulation of the behaviors. The behavior tends to occur frequently in the absence of discriminative operands. The classification system reduces the verbal behavior hosting communication disorders. Tact tends to be a verbal response that tends to be evoked by a non-verbal antecedent with the maintenance of the generalized condition of the reinforcement (McClannahan & Krantz, 2019). On the other hand, Mand is the behavior controlled with the motivation and the maintenance of the reinforces.
Intraverbals tend to be a relevant antecedent stimulus and sharing responses in response to the speaker’s questions. Autoclitic is secondary behaviors while altering the effects of the primary behavior in the quantification of the statement. The behavior can be measured by measuring both the dimensions of the behavior and the quantification. The dimension includes temporal locus, temporal extent, and repeatability. The repeatability of a behavior can be measured by the count, frequency, and celebration.
Temporal extent indicates it occupies the amount of time taken with the duration of the behavior. The temporal locus tends to occur at a particular time when the behavior occurs. Response latency tends to measure the elapsed time between the stimulus and its initiation. The inter-response time, in this case, refers to the time occurring between the consecutive instances as a response—derivative measuring the related in a particular dimension which means that the percentage and trial-to-criterion.
Methodological Principles in Applied Behavior Analysis Example
One of the methodological principles includes task analysis, a process through which the tasks can be analyses facilitating the consistent parts concerning comprehensive task presentation, forward and backward chaining. Task analysis encouraged the organization’s behavior to change the members.
The behavioral scripts tend to emerge in task analysis tends to be conducted with the use of micro-skills. Task analysis tends to be determined with the use of skills that are assessed. Chaining is an ABA methodology whereby the skills are learned in breaking down while making small units for easy learning. The problem behavior can be analyzed in the disruption of the prevention of the problematic behavior.
Dialectical behaviors therapy extensively utilizes the behavior in the chain analysis, unlike philosophical behavioral analysis. Prompts, on the other, are cues applied in the encouragement of the desired behavior. The prompts could be categorized into a hierarchy from the most to the least intrusive concerning the controversy, which leads to the fading of verbal behavior (Fisher et al., 2021).
The errors are minimized, something that tends to ensure a high level of success, which tends to be essential in the learning process. In this process, the prompts are faded quickly, depending on the eventual dependence on the prompting. Prompts may take the form of vocal prompts, something that facilitates the vocalization of the words. Visual promotes, on the other hand, tend to facilitate the use of visual cues.
On the other hand, gestural cues tend to be physical gestures. Positional prompts tend to be placed closer to the individual. Fading tends to be the goal that facilitates the mastery of skills in the course of intrusive behavior. Thinning the reinforcement schedule is a methodology that refers to removing timing that involves the increased time lag as the reinforcements increase.
On the other hand, generalization refers to the expansion of the performance ability of the client, something that takes place with the acquisition of the skill. The generalization tends to occur across material, place, and people. One the positive behavior is acquired, in a given setting, something that tends to occur in the initial acquisition phase.
The behavioral analysis tends to spend a considerable amount of time in the generalization of the behavior. The process of shaping occurs in the ABA setting, something that involves the modification with the existence of the desired behavior. Over the interaction with the successful maintenance with the replacement hitting in the gentle behavior.
Benefits and Strengths of Applied Behavior Analysis Example
Applied Behavioral Analysis is one of the preferable management of autism spectrum disorder in the United States of America. ABA tends to supposed to facilitate the socialization of skills and communication and the prevention of the child. ABA tends to be an operant conditioning methodology that facilitates the changing of consequences of particular behaviors, promoting the acceptance of the specific behavior.
Operant conditioning tends to involve the changing of the punishments as the target behavior. Therapy facilitates the occurrence of the behavior with the design of the consequences for the individual. Over the past forty years, ABA has treated autism by eliminating problematic behavior and promoting the target behavior.
The therapist tends to modify the emotional and social behaviors to boost the child’s aptitude. Furthermore, in this case, the goal involves matching the child’s behaviors with their peers. Over time, ABA has facilitated the children with ASD remaining in school with most of their improving their performance over time. Eventually, the parents tend to learn the same techniques they applied at home and ensure that the problematic behaviors are completely eradicated (Sandoval-Norton & Shkedy, 2019).
Therefore, ABA is useful in the treatment of ASD and the reduction of frustrations, and the promotion of better communication. The problematic behavior at times begins to reduce the progress of the therapy, thus promoting the success of the process. The children can improve their imitation, matching, nonverbal expression, receptive and expressive language.
Limitation of Applied Behavior Analysis Example
ABA also tends to have drawbacks in that people within the autistic spectrum facilitate social skills while increasing intellectual abilities and the overall adjustment to the standard way of living. The goal of this approach involves the facilitation of coping mechanisms and the facilitation of society in general. Therefore the child is forced to change what they think is right based on the response of the people they trust, which may affect their social interactions in the future.
Therefore ABA tends to impair the child’s ability to be themselves, thus taking away their life choices. The conformance to the acceptable behaviors tends to be a weakness in the child’s personality. Parents often tend to worry about the stress they subject their children with ASD while they undergo ABA.
This means the child had to undergo extra hours of training on how to cope with society in addition to their academic routine. They may end up feeling segregated as they undergo an undesirable activity that does not apply to their peers. Researchers have claimed in ASD subject that problems tend to resolve as the child interacts with other members of society (Dou et al., 2017).
Therefore it does not guarantee whether individualized programs will improve the individual’s quality of life throughout their lifetime (Tiura et al., 2017). Conventionally, trying to suit the ABA to the child’s needs does not guarantee the success of the therapy process. The individualized treatment presents the child with the meticulous care they need throughout their lifetime and not all the clients involved.
Autism Spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder that occurs over the individual’s lifespan and manifests within the first three years of the individual life. The main train involved in this disorder is the difficulties in social interaction, whereby the focus on repetitive behaviors is teamed as essential. Although the main trait involved in this disorder affects the behavioral aspect, the disorder tends to be heterogeneous in both the presentation and language variability.
Studies have shown that the prevalence of this disorder has improved significantly over the past seven decades. The cause for this surge tends to be unclear, which may facilitate the formulation of a more direct form of treatment. ABA provides a guideline for the ASD intervention, including identifying the stimulus, demonstrating the behavior, and developing the consequences to resolve the problematic behavior (Connolly et al., 2017).
The ABA-based interventions in the treatment of ASD began in the 1980s, whereby the patients were assigned neurotypical classes, which were expected to facilitate the collective correction of the alternative behaviors.
Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence Framework in ABA
The antecedent-behavior-consequence framework teaches those skills such as communication, social skills, and imitation of something that affect the procedures and principles. The utilization of ABA involves complex social and cognitive rewards in facilitating learning and the overall elimination of atypical behavior. In this case, the correct response involves including various forms of reinforces with the use of reinforces and the instructions.
The different types of ABA applicable in the treatment of ASD include Discrete Trial Training (DTT), which involves the use of trials that facilitate the teaching of the desired behavior and the necessary responses (Alves et al., 2020). The lessons tend to be broken into various constituents’ parts, with positive reinforcements and the correct behavior. The early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is a form of ABA applicable for ASD-affected children aged between three and five years.
This method tends to use very structured teaching methods with social communication and the reduction of refusal behavior. EIBI tends to involve the environment between adults and children, which takes place under the supervision of the trained professionals. The early Start Denver Model (ESDM) is a form of ABA applied between the age of one and two years using play and joint activities that involve the advancement of cognitive, language, and social skills.
The pivotal response training (PRT) aims to increase the child’s motivation, monitor their behavior, and initiate communication (Medavarapu et al., 2019). Positive behavioral changes tend to involve the widespread effects of the behaviors. The verbal behavior intervention focuses on teaching the communications skills required, especially those of the vocal variety.
Applied Behavior Analysis Example Conclusion
Having reviewed recent studies on applied behavioral analysis, it is clear that this intervention would be effective in the treatment of Marilyn. This effectiveness comes as a result of assessing the strength and weaknesses of the method in the treatment of the various forms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Additionally, the client’s refusal behavior does not seem to come as a result of attention-seeking. Instead, the client is placed in an uncomfortable situation by her teachers. Therefore, Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) can be used in teaching Marilyn to be compliant.
