Melanie Nelson FBA Assignment Write Up Description of Student: Jim is a nineteen-year-old student in the young adult program focusing

on functional life skills. To communicate, Jim uses one to two syllable utterances. To communicate yes, he will repeat the last sound in the last word of the question asked. To communicate no, he will say the word. He has Proloquo2go on his Ipad that he takes everywhere, but rarely uses it for conversation. If Jim has a need that he needs to communicate, he will find a way to make someone understand, even if it means using his Proloquo2go. He has very strong receptive language, and understands almost all one and two step directions. Jim does not know how to read, but benefits from picture schedules and social stories with pictures. He likes to interact with familiar people by saying hi or reaching for their hand. Jim does not maintain a conversation. Jim has a history of very aggressive behaviors, but has not shown these behaviors in a couple of years. Operational Definition of the Problem Behavior: Jim will vocalize a high pitched noise sounding like the letter E for three or more seconds. Examples: Vocalizing a high pitched E noise while rocking back and forth in his seat on the bus, walking on the treadmill while swinging his arms and vocalizing the high pitched E noise Non-examples: Saying the syllable E once while pointing with his finger around lunch time, sitting on a bench silently bowling on his Ipad. ABC Charts:

Activity, Date, Time Bus Stop, 10/11, 8:35

Antecedent Waiting at the bus stop Walking on treadmill

Behavior High pitched noises while rocking against the fence High pitched noises while tapping his face with three fingers High pitched noises while waving his arms High pitched noises while rocking in his chair High pitched noises while rocking in his chair and laughing High pitched noises and rocking from foot to foot High pitched noises while looking around High pitched noises while looking around High pitched noises High pitched noises and throwing towel High pitched noises and tossing wristband

Consequence Told Calm by his teacher Ignored

Gym, 10/11, 9:10

Gym, 10/11, 9:20

Walking on treadmill

Lunch, 10/12, 11:38

Eating carrots

Lunch, 10/12, 11:42

Eating Carrots

Bus Stop, 10/18, 10:55 Bus, 10/18, 11:07 Bus, 10/18, 11:09 Bus, 10/18, 11:10 Gym, 10/19, 9:05 Gym, 10/19, 9:14

Waiting for bus after County Market Sitting on the bus Sitting on the bus Sitting on the bus Walking on treadmill Walking on treadmill

His teacher mouths the word Calm to him Told Calm and given pressure to his shoulder by his teacher A teacher said, What are we supposed to be at lunch? Ignored

Told to be calm Told to be calm Told to be calm Towel taken away Told that his wristband will be taken if he doesnt put it back on Given medications

Gym, 10/19, 9:17

Walking on treadmill

High pitched noises and swinging arms

Time spent observing: 10/11 (55 minutes), 10/12 (15 minutes), 10/18 (25 minutes), 10/19 (20 minutes) Summary of Problems and Benefits:

I hardly encountered any problems while doing my observations for my ABC chart. I notified my cooperating teacher that I was going to be observing my student during those times, so she was the one providing any consequences for Jim during those times. I found Jim trying to get my attention at times, but other than that he acted just as he normally would. The benefits of observing Jim and not interacting with him allowed me to really see at what times his behaviors were likely to occur. No matter where we were, the behavior occurred in every setting at every time that I observed. FAI: Hand written on attached paper. FAI Summary Statement: During activities that last longer than a minute, Jim will engage in verbal behaviors for longer than three seconds for self-stimulation. When it is time for Jim to take his medication, he will engage in verbal behaviors for longer than three seconds for self-stimulation. Summary of Problems and Benefits: For the functional assessment interview, I interviewed Jims case manager, Lindsay. She is the person that spends the most time with Jim per week. I conducted the interview in three parts over three days because there was never enough time to sit down and do the interview in one sitting. There were many benefits to interviewing Lindsay. She is with Jim in the majority of the afternoons, and she sees him in different settings than I do in the morning. It was great to hear her insight about Jim throughout the years she has known him. She also takes him bowling

once or twice a week which is a very highly desired activity, and she sees how this affects his behavior. The only problem that I encountered was that Lindsay had the same answer for a lot of the questions. She did not really go in depth for many of the questions and felt like some of the questions were a bit repetitive. Functional Assessment Observation Form: On attached paper Revised Summary Statement (based on FAO data): During activities that last longer than a minute, Jim will engage in verbal behaviors for longer than three seconds for self-stimulation. Summary of Changes, Problems, and Benefits: After doing the functional assessment observation for three days, I made a change to the summary statement. There were two possible summary statements about Jims behavior prior to the FAO. After doing the FAO, it was clear that Jim did not do the behavior for attention. He would get attention as a result at times, but he did not seem to be doing the behavior to receive attention. I observed Jim from 9:00 to 11:30 each day for three days. On different days, Jim is in different settings at that time. This benefitted my observations because I got to see Jims actions across locations. His behaviors were consistent throughout. He was also with different teachers and aides during these times. It was beneficial to see which the consequences to his behaviors from different people.

At times while I was observing, the teacher would be helping another student one-on-one. It would be difficult not to give consequences to Jims behavior when he would be in the fitness center making very loud and distracting noises. Often Jim gets ignored for his noises, but when it gets distracting to others surrounding him, someone will give him a reminder to be quiet. Usually that is my job if the teacher is busy, so it was difficult not to step up and do that during observation. Two Hypotheses: 1. During activities that last longer than a minute, Jim will engage in verbal behaviors for longer than three seconds for self-stimulation. 2. When it is time for Jim to take his medication, he will engage in verbal behaviors for longer than three seconds for self-stimulation. Data/Information from ABC, FAI, and FAO leading to Hypotheses: After doing the ABC, FAI, and FAO, I was able to form two hypotheses. Talking to Jims case manager and doing observations showed that his verbal behaviors were very consistent throughout the day. They occurred at least once every hour and lasted until there was a consequence. The consequences were telling him to be calm, saying shh, and giving him medication. The verbal behaviors always occurred right before it was time for him to get medication. Jims case manager can tell when it is close to the time when she needs to give him his medication because of the volume and frequency of the behavior. Jim participates in a lot of activities that last for long periods of time. In fact, they have a daily schedule where Jim has two activities in the morning, lunch, and an after school activity.

This being said, Jim is involved in activities that last for hours. His behaviors during long activities like walking on a treadmill or shredding paper at his job, always elicit verbal behaviors. Description of FAMs: 1. I will use an ABAB design. The first manipulation will be with ten minute long activities. The activities include walking on the treadmill for ten minutes and shredding paper for ten minutes. I will record the duration of the verbal behaviors for two days. Then I will have short activities as the second manipulation lasting less than a minute. The activities include putting on his coat and bowling on his iPad for less than a minute. I will record the duration of his behaviors during that time for two days. 2. I will use an ABAB design. The first manipulation will be taking his medication an hour later. This will show if his verbal behaviors serve the function of needing medication. I will record the duration of the verbal behaviors for two days. Then I will have Jim take his medication an hour earlier as the second manipulation. I will record the duration of the verbal behaviors for two days. FAM implemented: Graph on separate sheet of paper. The results of the functional analysis manipulation of timed activities showed that Jim engaged in verbal behaviors in activities longer than one minute. This data was consistent over the two days of data. In the activities less than one minute, Jim was engaged and did not participate in verbal behaviors except for one day for a couple of seconds. Less than one minute activities did not elicit the verbal behaviors.

Preference Assessment: Date: 10/310/5 1. 2. Items: Trial 1

Trial 2
order of choices made

Trial 3
order of choices made

Trial 4
order of choices made

Total

Average Rank

3. 4. 5.

Bowling on IPad Sitting on Big Red Yoga Ball Vanilla Wafers Sun Chips Listening to Music

1 4

3 4

1 4

1 4

6 16

6/4 or 1.5 16/4 or 4

1 4

3 2 5

2 1 5

3 2 5

3 2 5

11 7 20

11/4 or 2.75 7/4 or 1.75 20/4 or 5

3 2 5

Results: Bowling on IPad Eating Sun Chips Eating Vanilla Wafers Taking a Break on Red Yoga Ball Listening to Music

Preference Hierarchy: 1 2 3 4 5

NonPreferences include: dogs, small animals, anything that makes loud noises, and exercise. This information was retrieved from asking his mom and his special education teacher. Observation Record: Jim was asked to pick one out of the give options in front of him. He was then allowed to eat the object he picked, or use the object for two minutes before getting to choose again. This was done over the course of three days.

Rationale of Hierarchy: The five things on the preference hierarchy were things that I knew Jim likes from observation and from interviewing his mom and the special education teacher. Jim does not show much interest in many things and is nonverbal, so the interviews and observations really helped. Data was taken over the course of three days until it was stable and clear as to which things Jim preferred most to least. Data Recording Form with Instructions:

Student: ___________________________ Behavior: _______________________________________________________________ Start Recording When: ____________________________________________________ Stop Recording When: ____________________________________________________

(Used to record the length of time a student engaged in a specific, discrete behavior)

Duration Recording Sheet

Baseline___ Intervention___ Date Context (ex. Mathclass-worksheet) Duration (Time w/ stopwatch, timer, or clock second hand)

Notes:

To take data, it is necessary to record the date and context prior to observation. Start the stop watch when the behavior first begins and keep track of the time when the behavior stops. If three minutes have passed without the behavior, record the time when the behavior first stopped. If the behavior begins again within the same three minutes, keep the timer going until three minutes have passed without the behavior. Rationale for Duration Recording: I chose duration recording for my data collection technique. Duration recording documents how long a person engages in an activity. This was perfect in Jims case because he engages in self-stimulating verbal noises continuously for long periods of time without any intervention. Since it continues for a long time, it made sense to collect data on exactly how long the behavior lasts as opposed to something like event recording because the behavior would only happen a couple of times. Duration helped to understand how long during activities Jim would engage in the behavior. Completed Data-Recording Forms by Day or by Session: Refer to duration recording from previous section. Line Graph Plotting Daily Data: On separate Sheet of Paper. How I Gathered IOA: To gather inter-observer agreement data, I had a paraprofessional take data at the same time as me. We were at the gym while Jim was on the treadmill. I had explained to the paraprofessional prior to recording how to record data. We only had one stop watch, but I said if

we were to stop at different times that we could just write down the time. Since the paraprofessional and myself were the only two adults responsible for the two students at the gym, we only took data at the same time for thirty minutes. This way, it was not an excessively long time that both of us were preoccupied with data collection. Result of the IOA Assessment: Duration recording formula: Shorter number of minutes X 100 = Percent Agreement Longer number of minutes 14 minutes and 58 seconds X 100 = 100% agreement 14 minutes and 58 seconds Full Citation of Each Article:

Beal-Alvarez, J., Mays, N. M., & Jolivette, K. (2011). Using Movement-Based Sensory Interventions to Address Self-Stimulatory Behaviors in Students With Autism. Teaching Exceptional Children, 43(6), 46-52.

Hobbs, S. A., & Goswick, R. (1977). Behavioral Treatment of Self-Stimulation: An Examination of Alternatives to Physical Punishment. Journal Of Clinical Child Psychology, 6(1), 20.

Iwata, B., Dorsey, M., Slifer, K., Bauman, Richman, G., (1994). Toward a Functional Analysis of Self-Injury. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27, 197-209.

Power, S., Thibadeau, S., & Rose, K. (1992). ANTECEDENT EXERCISE AND ITS EFFECTS ON SELF-STIMULATION. Behavioral Residential Treatment, 7(1), 15-22.

Description of Articles in Relation to the Project: Beal-Alvarez Article: This article is about interventions of and finding replacement behaviors for self-stimulatory behavior for children with autism. The article says that the replacement behaviors need to serve the same function, involve active participation, be a pleasurable activity, self-directed, and integrate the senses. This article directly relates to Jim because he has autism and participates in self-stimulatory behaviors. His current activities dont have all of these aspects that the article suggests, so it is something that can be tried in his intervention plan. Thibadeau Article: This article is about a specific intervention done for a student who participated in self-stimulation with autism. This article stressed the importance of physical exercise for at least ten minutes a day before anything is done. The student was prompted to continue the exercise when they stopped or became off task. In this specific article, rollerblading was explored, but in Jims case, a different physical activity could potentially have the same effect. Jim exercises by walking on a treadmill, but he could change his routine at the gym to do a different and more strenuous workout. Iwata Article: This article explored the function of self-injury as a self-stimulatory technique. The article stressed two things that the desired behavior should be reinforced and that the environment should be enriched. Enriching the environment includes involving active participation and creating the surrounding environment to be pleasing to the student. I can use this technique with Jim by changing his surrounding environments and reinforcing his quiet

behavior. Jim has very good receptive language and would respond well to a verbal praise. He also loves food which could serve as a reinforcer as well. Hobbs Article: This article talked about reinforcement of positive behaviors when dealing with self-stimulation. The article suggests using differential reinforcement for low rates of the behavior as well. Something that this article mentioned that the others did not is explaining the reinforcing procedures to the parents so reinforcement could be administered at home. This can definitely be used with Jim because he has a very involved mother. She would be willing to help Jim to improve on his behavior, so I know she would make an effort of reinforcing lack of selfstimulatory behaviors at home. This is important because behaviors do not just happen at school, they happen all the time. If the intervention could last entire day, Jim would have a higher likelihood of success.

Intervention Program Antecedent-Based: Hypothesis Statement: During activities that last longer than a minute, Jim will engage in verbal behaviors for longer than three seconds for self-stimulation. Based on the hypothesis statement, Jims verbal behaviors are self-stimulatory. After reviewing articles on the topic, Jim can have an antecedent-based routine that should help with his behavior throughout the day. Research shows that morning physical activity can decrease self-stimulatory behavior throughout the day. The first thing Jim does in the morning is go to Parkland gym and walk on the treadmill. Changing his routine from walking on the treadmill to something more engaging and physical can help. Instead of walking on the treadmill for a half an hour every day, that time should be broken up into three ten minute activities. First, he can use the elliptical to promote physical engagement of his hands and feet. He can listen to music of his preference during this ten minute activity. Providing Jim with a timer that counts down the minutes will also help to relieve anxiety of how long an activity will last. Next, Jim can do some stretching and strengthening activities. He absolutely loves yoga exercise balls. Doing push-ups and sit-ups on a ball like this will relieve some of the pressure of his own body weight, as well as creating a pleasing environment for Jim. A ten minute stretching routine involving the exercise ball and self-stretches like touching his toes will be beneficial. Again, the timer will be used to signify the end of the activity.

Finally, Jim will use the elliptical again for the last ten minutes. This activity needs control of his arms and legs. It will be a more difficult task than just walking on a treadmill for a half of an hour. With this thirty minute exercise routine, Jims verbal behaviors as selfstimulation should decrease throughout the day. Jims daily routine should stay the same. Whenever he has downtime, he should be actively engaged in an activity. For bus rides, Jim can sit and bowl on his iPad. This will stimulate him during the sitting on the bus experience. Other engaging activities include verbal conversation, reading social stories, social conversation using Proloquo2go, or other games on his iPad. While Jim is at work and shredding, he should have a timer that is set for one minute. After every minute, he can have a minute conversation with his peer or teacher using his Proloquo2go. This is student oriented and pleasurable for Jim. Every minute should alternate between shredding and conversation for ten minute blocks, and then continue the rest of his work schedule as usual. A copy of his intervention plan should also be given to his mom and step dad to implement at home. A meeting should be held between his case manager and his parents to explain the proper way to implement his intervention at home. This will expose Jim to the intervention techniques before even coming to school. All of these antecedent-based products were selected based on the function of the behavior described in the hypothesis. Evidence based interventions for self-stimulation show that exercise and engagement in activities can decrease self-stimulatory behaviors.

Alternative Skills: Hypothesis Statement: During activities that last longer than a minute, Jim will engage in verbal behaviors for longer than three seconds for self-stimulation. The hypothesis statement shows the function of Jims behavior to be self-stimulation. Replacement skills are any activities that Jim is engaging in that stimulate him. These are activities that engage his senses, are pleasurable to him, and involve participation. All activities throughout Jims day should do this. Therefore, all of Jims activities should be replacement behaviors to his self-stimulatory behaviors. An example of replacement behaviors that stimulate Jim are: exercise, using his iPad, social conversations using verbal speech or Proloquo2go, bowling, eating, and grocery shopping. These are just examples of things that will stimulate Jim, and there may be many more.

Consequence-Based: Hypothesis Statement: During activities that last longer than a minute, Jim will engage in verbal behaviors for longer than three seconds for self-stimulation. Self-stimulation is the function of Jims verbal behaviors. If Jim engages in selfstimulatory verbal behaviors, below are the consequences for his actions. 1. As soon as Jim engages in a vocalized high pitched noise sounding like the letter E for three or more seconds, make eye contact and put one index finger up to your lips to make the shh sign.

2. If Jim does not immediately respond to that sign by discontinuing the self-stimulatory vocalizations, say the word calm. 3. If Jim does not immediately respond to calm by discontinuing the self-stimulatory vocalizations, put pressure on his arm and say Jim, you need to stay calm. Jim has very good receptive language. He has a large receptive vocabulary, so he understands most directions. His past teachers have used the word calm with him when he has had more aggressive behaviors in the past. Jim knows what calm means. This will stop his vocalizations after they have started. The hierarchy of consequences was ordered by least-to-most intrusive. If he will respond to the shh sign, it is age appropriate and does not draw much attention to himself out in the community. Progressing through consequences from #1-#3, they are more and more intrusive and hands-on. Using speech and/or touch gives Jim an active role of listening and activates his senses. These consequences will engage him and stop his self-stimulatory behavior.

Data-Collection Procedure: To take data, use the data recording sheet listed below. Jim is with different people throughout his day, and this data recording sheet can be used in any of his activities. The data recording sheet includes the date, the entire day broken up by hour, and a space to list the activity at the time. The person with him will just need the data recording sheet and a stop watch. Start the stop watch when his verbal behaviors begin, and stop it when his verbal behaviors end for three consecutive minutes. An X can be put in the column No verbal behaviors if he does not engage in the self-stimulatory behaviors for the entire hour.

Date: 8:00-9:00 Activity: 9:00-10:00 Activity: 10:00-11:00 Activity: 11:00-12:00 Activity: 12:00-1:00 Activity: 1:00-2:00 Activity: Notes:

No Verbal Behaviors

Duration of Verbal Behaviors