Behavior Analyst
Introduction
A Behavioral Intervention Plan is usually necessary in cases where a person or a member of a group displays some weird and dangerous behavior that may harm and threaten those around the victim. Some of this behavior may be disorders that these people are born with while others may be stimulated by the environment they operate from. This plan is highly dependent on a Functional Behavioral Assessment whereby a specialist carries out research to find out why the situation is so and coming up with intervention strategies to solve the problem.
As a matter of fact, a Behavioral Intervention Plan involves the following steps: Firstly, The BIP must have a summary of the main problem or the situation before moving to any other step. Secondly, it is to know why the person behaves so and find out how the behavior will be replaced. This step therefore, includes the victim’s strengths, those who will be responsible for the training of the new behavior, how long it may take and the necessary techniques required to reinforce the new behavior. The third step is whereby additional supports are put in place. Here, tutoring as part of the additional skills is necessary. Another step is to define what data will be used to ensure that the plan does not fail. Finally, the institution responsible for the BIP must have ways of communicating with those concerned with the patient on his/her progress.
In the first scenario, this third-grade student has had the behavioral problem for quite some time. He portrays this behavior while in the school environment. As a result, the staff has declared his behavior as non-compliant to the school. The student may be behaving so because he/she feels uncomfortable in the midst of the many students. He is in a public school and may be the presence of many people may make him feel shy and end up losing concentration. As a result, he behaves in weird ways and his performance becomes poor. Despite his weaknesses, he has a few strengths. He can listen, loves stories and even gestures to respond. In this case, the problem may be resolved by making the student have as many friends as possible to socialize with so that he can get rid of the fear. Staying lonely the whole day in the school should be replaced with many friends. Those responsible for helping him are his teachers. They can get him friends who seem to get along with him in the school. The friends should be encouraged to share stories with him and encourage him to contribute too. The teachers could also tell him interesting stories to help improve his concentration. The process may take a period of two months. To collect enough data, the student should record the number of stories he has listened to for the whole day. He should, therefore, have a table that he must fill on a daily basis. Furthermore, the teachers should record the number of friends he has talked to at the end of the day through notes. As a result, this will help him overcome the fear of being in public. The school should keep calling the parents via phone in case of any improvements. Furthermore, they can send them messages of how their child is faring and how to handle him when he goes home.
In the second scenario, a four-year-old child has gone out of control by throwing temper tantrums at home or in any place he goes. This behavior has become so intense such that the parents can no longer control it. Consequently, the family is now homebound and cannot visit other places as they fear the tantrums in public places. The child may be having this behavior as a way of getting attention from those around him especially his/her parents. It may be that the parents are sometimes too busy to give him the attention he requires. The strength of this child is that he does not through the tantrums during his meals or when playing with other kids or his parents. This destructive behavior may be replaced with keeping the child busy by inviting other kids into the house, engaging him/her in various activities like clapping to help him forget the temper tantrums. Additionally, the parents should start committing more time to the kid even if in turns to give him the attention that he deserves. Another technique is taking away anything he holds in his hand to help curb the behavior. The house help, the other kids and the parents are key to resolving this problem. The total period for the process may be six weeks. The data to be used here may be a chart or a table to record the number of times the child through the tantrums and analyze whether they reduce each day.
In the third scenario, Johnny is six years old and has autism. As a result, his communication skills are critically underdeveloped and this makes him have a variety of behavioral problems. These behavioral problems include involving in self-injurious behavior. Furthermore, he has a tendency to collect a variety of tangible items like Hot Wheels cars and Lagos. He only behaves well if these tangible items are easily and frequently accessed. Johnny might be having so because of his autism condition. Secondly, it may be because of anxiety as he realizes that he is different from his peers/age mates. The behavior may be replaced by taking Johnny to a school dealing with disabled persons. It is in this institution that the tutors can monitor him and train him to handle his behavioral problems appropriately. He will also have a chance to socialize with other kids who have similar problems and will start viewing life normally. Moreover, he should be provided with the variety of toys to keep him busy. Johnny’s strength is that he communicates with gestures. Those responsible for the reinforcing of this behavior are the teachers in the institution and the parents when he goes home. This training should take place for one year. Additional services may be to train him in other physical activities to keep him busy and avoid the physical injuries. A way of collecting data is taking notes on how many times he involves in the self-injurious behavior and know if there is an improvement. The institution should send emails and messages to the parents on how the child behaves and any necessary change required.
The fourth scenario is about a 35-year old adult who lives in a group home for adults and has recently been destroying objects around the house. Consequently, he sustained injuries hence had to seek medical attention. The group home that consists of three other residents is now living in fear. The group has various tasks to perform like participating in social interaction activities and attend a workshop. This behavior may be as a result of the person refusing to perform the tasks that are expected of him. He may feel that the tasks are too much for him and, therefore, expresses anger in that way. To help curb this destruction behavior, he or she may be introduced to leisure activities like games to release stress. Furthermore, a number of tasks he is expected to be performed could be reduced for a while to help control the behavior. Those responsible for the reinforcement of the new behavior may be games instructors and his colleagues in the home. They can help him in his tasks. This process can take a period of four months. The data to be used could be a graph to indicate how frequently he or she involves in the destructive behavior. Those in charge of the group home should make calls to the victim’s family to inform them of any changes and his/her progress.
Target Behavior
A target behavior is the conduct that has been chosen to bring change. In the case of the four-year-old who was throwing temper tantrums, the target behavior may be involving the kid with activities such as clapping to ensure that he does not get the chance to hold the tantrums. More so, he or she can be made to play with other kids to keep his mind busy to think even of throwing the tantrums. Antecedent stimuli prompt an organism or a person to perform some behaviors that have been learned. In the case of the child who was throwing tantrums, the learned behavior would be the intense throwing of the tantrums or the reinforced behavior of playing with his age-mates all the time.
It can also be deduced that in the scenario of the child throwing tantrums is a behavior that is devastating for both the parents and the external environment. Therefore, the child can be helped through a systematic manipulation of the antecedent stimuli. The evident behavioral responses can also be controlled by increased parental attention or the caregivers. This aspect will enable the child to learn and adopt a remarkable behavior towards other people. On the other hand, the discriminative stimuli can be described as the kind of stimuli that is related to the reinforcement that exerts control over a certain type of behavior. Motivating operations is also significant in the process of understanding an individual’s behavior. It usually alters the efficiency of some stimulus as a reinforcement. Therefore, it is through the motivating operations that the discriminative stimuli are enabled to work remarkably.
Consequence stimuli and conditions are also an essential aspects in the assessment of the target behavior. Under the positive and the negative reinforcement categories, the behavior of an individual increases as a result of the function of consequence. Therefore, in this scenario the child might be involving in a particular behavior because in the past the behavior triggered some attention from the parents. According to Cipani & Schock, an increase in behavior that is meant to achieve something is described as positively reinforced. However, at times these behaviors depend on the physiological and the internal senses of a person reinforcing it. The action that follows a particular behavior is what is referred to as automatic response. For instance, in the scenario of the child throwing tantrums in public gathering may trigger the actions of the parents to respond harshly.
How Components of SMIRC model would be addressed in FBA of Scenario 2
According to Cipani & Schock, FBA has been described as the process developed to know the problems exhibited by individuals with severe cognitive disabilities. Therefore, scenario 2 also falls in this category. The SMIRC model which includes stimuli, Motivating operations, Individuals, Response and Consequence will highly be considered in addressing the issue in scenario 2. The analyst will pay keen consideration on the motivating operations to observe the consequences of actions depicted by the child especially after being given special attention by the parents.
Ethical obligations that would be Necessary to Address within the Scenario 2
There is some ethical consideration that govern people when dealing with the family and children. In this case, an ideal code of ethics would be respecting the special relationship that exists between the child and the parents. It would also be necessary to acknowledge the child as an active citizen who participates in the family, school and children’s services. Therefore, treating the child with respect would be the most observed code of ethics.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that behavior intervention plan offers the behavior policies in which a psychologically disturbed child can be evaluated and given the crucial corrections. Therefore, the unworthy behaviors depicted by children should not be left to get out of hand. It would also be worth to note that neglecting such people is one of the biggest mistakes that a parent can commit.
