Functional Behavior Assessment

As a practicing independent Behavior Analyst, you have received an email from a staff member representing a provider of education and/or human services requesting your services. Specifically, this staff member has asked you to meet with other staff and/or administrators to develop a behavior intervention plan for a third-grade student at a local elementary school. This student is demonstrating significant problem behaviors in the form of disruptive behaviors in his classroom and in other settings within the school (lunch, recess, specials, etc.). Disruptive behaviors have been termed “aggressive” and “non-compliant” by school staff.

Begin by specifying the referral problem. Be creative and consider the type of provider that has requested your services, the client, and provide operational definitions for the problem behaviors indicated in the scenario.

In a script or narrative format, provide information to the members of the “planning” meeting including the following:

Describe the specific purposes of a functional behavior assessment (FBA) and discuss why conducting the FBA prior to the development of a behavior intervention plan is important.
Describe, in specific detail, how antecedent stimuli and conditions could be potentially important for the assessment of the target behaviors in the scenario.
Please include discussion of the influence of discriminative stimuli and motivating operations in triggering the target behaviors.
Describe, in specific detail, how consequence stimuli and conditions could be potentially important for the assessment of the target behaviors.
Be sure to indicate the influences of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and automatic reinforcement in maintaining the target behaviors.
Select three indirect assessment procedures that you may be implementing during the process of the functional behavioral assessment.
Describe how each applies to the scenario.
Be sure to specify how they will be used and the purpose of each tool.
Select three direct descriptive assessment procedures you may be implementing during the process of the functional behavioral assessment.
Describe how each applies to the scenario.
Be sure to specify how they will be used and the purpose of each tool.
Describe, in specific detail, at least two ethical obligations and/or concerns that would be necessary to address within the current case scenario

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