Come up with a plan for Annie's to reduce skin picking and to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention plan.

Begin by describing how single-subject experimental designs are used in behavior analysis to evaluate interventions. Include one reason why single-subject designs are considered superior to group designs in evaluating behavior change. Then, describe your evaluation plan for the intervention plan.

Each evaluation plan must include:

• The measurement system you are using to collect data on what specific behavior(s). Include the operational definitions.
• How often you are collecting data
• Who is going to collect that data
• The research design you are using to evaluate your treatment
• An explanation of why that research design was the best choice
• How the research design would demonstrate functional control of the intervention over the behavior(s).
• Describe how you will know if your treatment was effective - what would a visual analysis of the graphed data show? You do not need to create a graph, but you should describe what your graph would show if your treatment were effective.

Scenerio:

Based on interviews with Annie's parents and direct observation in Annie's home and school, the first behavior to target is skin picking. When Annie picks her skin, she uses the forefinger of one hand to scratch and dig at the skin of her arms and legs. She has only been observed to pick at the skin on her arms and legs. The behavior occurs mostly during down times: while waiting, while watching television, while in her bedroom alone.A brief functional analysis was conducted and revealed that skin picking never occurred during attention, escape, or tangible conditions. The behavior only occurred during alone conditions.

The second issue of concern identified by the parents and confirmed via observation is Annie's lack of functional speech.After consulting with Annie's speech pathologist, it was determined that Annie is capable of vocal speech. She echoes simple words spoken by others and has a strong echoic repertoire of one-syllable words. She does not currently use vocal speech to get her needs and wants met or to identify things in her environment. During the observation, there were multiple occurrences of Annie pulling her mother and father into the kitchen and pointing at the refrigerator. If her parents did not guess what she wanted in the first or second try, Annie would jump up and down and start screaming, getting louder and louder until her parents guessed correctly. This episode went on for as long as 10-15 minutes. The episodes ended only when her parents correctly guessed the item she wanted.

Her parents report that Annie's favorite foods are pretzels, raisins, cheese crackers, apples, and grapes. They said that they can get her to "do almost anything" for some grapes. She also likes to drink chocolate milk and apple juice. For fun, she plays with toys and watches television. Her favorite toys are little animals and little dolls (she collects them), tiny furniture. Her parents report that Annie loves "tiny" things. When she watches television, she usually watches Teen Titans Go or Littlest Pet Shop. She has an iPad her parents control her access to. She sometimes watches YouTube videos on her iPad. She also enjoys swimming and swinging outside.