WHAT IS THE CHILD TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH HIS BEHAVIOR?

WHAT IS THE CHILD TRYING TO COMMUNICATE WITH HIS BEHAVIOR?

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

1

Treating Behavior based on Function

MALADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR IS DEFINED AS ANY BEHAVIOR THAT INHIBITS A PERSON

FROM ADAPTING TO HIS OR HER SITUATION APPROPRIATELY

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment ,Inc.

Behavior

ALL BEHAVIOR SERVES ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING FUNCTIONS:

ATTENTIONESCAPE/AVOIDANCESELF STIMULATIONACCESS

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

3

Functions of Behavior

Attention

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

4

“I want your response”Behaviors are said to be attention seeking if

the child is seeking interaction or response from another person.

The attention may be in any form: praise, reprimand, a laugh, etc.

The child often makes eye contact while engaging in the behavior.

Escape/Avoidance

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

5

“ I don’t want to do this, I want to get away or stop this from happening.”

Behavior is said to be escape or avoidance motivated if the child is seeking to prevent something from occurring or if the child is attempting to leave or stop a situation that is already occurring.

The task can be simple or difficult in regards to the child’s skill level.

Self Stimulation

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

6

“I am not paying attention to any outside stimuli, this activity in and of itself is reinforcing to

me.”

Behavior is believed to have a function of self stimulation if the behavior is not affected by outside forces (other people, demands, reinforcement, etc).

The behavior usually happens across environments, tasks, times of day, and instructors.

Access

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

7

“ I want that item, person, or activity”

Behaviors are considered access motivated if they are occurring in order for a child to be able to have an item, person, or activity.

How is function determined?

Function is determined by completing a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)

Functional Behavior Assessment includes: teacher observation, parent input, Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence data where frequency, intensity, and time of behavior can be tracked.

Function is determined by analyzing the data and establishing patterns from the information.

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

8

Function is determined

Once a hypothesis about the function has been determined, the reinforcement of the behavior under that function is extinguished.

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

9

Example of Attention

Creative Consultants, Inc.

1010

Example of Escape

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

111111

Example of Access

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

12

.

121212

Self Stimulation

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

13

Replacement Behavior

The goal of behavior intervention is to extinguish maladaptive behavior.

Any time a behavior is to be extinguished, another behavior must be taught to replace the maladaptive behavior to prevent the behavior from shifting in what it looks like as the child attempts to find a new behavior that “works” to continue the reinforcement. The replacement should provide the child with the same “reinforcement” or outcome as the maladaptive behavior.

Example of a shift: They taught me not to hit to get attention, so now I stomp.

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

14

Behavior by Function

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

15

HOW DO I KEEP THESE BEHAVIORS FROM OCCURRING?

Prevention of Maladaptive Behavior

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

16

Reinforcement

Reinforcement should follow all instances of the child engaging in appropriate behavior. Highest levels of reinforcement should be provided for independent occurrences of the replacement behavior.

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

17

Antecedent Strategies

Promise Technique:Prior to placing demands, make child aware of

what will happen when the task is complete. Rewards can be additional to the structure of the classroom, but should be as natural as possible.

Examples:-time on the computer-assisting the teacher with a task-free time with a desired activity

* Promises should occur prior to the onset of negative behavior.

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

18

Token Systems

Token systems allow a child to receive higher levels of reinforcement along the way to earning a highly valued reinforcer.

The tokens serve as a way to measure when the reinforcement will come.

Tokens can be delivered as often as needed to provide immediate feedback to the child. The tokens will then be exchanged later for the higher valued reinforcer.

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

19

Reinforcement

Reinforcement should match work load in the eyes of the worker.

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

20

Fading

Clear goals and objectives should be set for all interventions. Once the child has met the set criteria, increase the criteria or decrease the reinforcement.

Example:Goal: Bill will sit in circle time for 5 minutes without maladaptive

behavior and will earn tokens for all instances of answering appropriately.

New goal: Bill will sit in circle time for 10 minutes without maladaptive behavior and will earn tokens for each of two correct answers.

The goal is to fade the child to natural contingencies.

Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment, Inc.

21