Read my essay proofread, correct, Cite sources and evidence

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a systematic and evidence-based approach to understanding and improving human behavior. It has gained significant recognition and popularity as a highly effective intervention for children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). My ABA project assignment was designed to provide me with the opportunity to learn strategies for observing and managing student behavior in my Prek4 classroom. This project involved systematic observation and recording of my student behavior, charting, and graphing data, identifying interventions, and developing behavioral objectives. I was able to identify possible interventions. I was able to obtain permission from grandmother and my school principal. A standard ABA tool is Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (A-B-C) data sheets that a teacher, parent, or guardian typically complete. From the tool, applied behavior analysts gather data about the events or activities that happened before the manifestation of the behavior, known as an antecedent. They also get insights as to actions that occurred right after the act, known as consequences. As student x teacher, I had to identify the behavior in precise, observable, measurable terms. Instead of saying that X Student is laying hands on someone else, explain what the child is doing: grabbing, pulling, hitting, or slapping. The more precise the definition, the easier it is to pinpoint the behavior when it occurs. Parents and guardians also participate during these stages as their experience with the behavior may offer additional insights.

Student setting and background

X Student interrupts others during our large group that includes circle time and story time. X Students is one of my 21 students in my PreK 4 bilingual classroom. He did attend PreK 3 last year and was in a General Education. I did notice that he would miss a lot of days and last year's teacher started taking him to my classroom because of his behavior. His academic performance was unknow since the teacher did not have his portfolio from last year. I did conduct an assessment at the beginning of the school year and wanted to know how many letters he could recognize in English, he only recognized 2 lower case letters. I did have a conversation about his behavior with his last year teacher. She did not speak to his mother about his behavior or anything about him in school. I had never met his parents since the beginning of the school year. It was about one month ago I found out his mother had been back with him. Since August, his maternal grandparents have been trying to get full custody of him and his sisters. I spoke to his grandmother about his behavior, emotional outburst, and academics. Found out that he has never met his biological father.I also spoke to his uncle about his behavior, emotional outburst, and academics and did inform me that his sister had been missing. That they also had the same issues with him at home and they were trying to give them a stable home. His grandparents also have 2 more grandkids in the house with a similar situation. X Student did mention to us that his dad had hurt his mom, had not seen his mom and found out it was his stepfather who he called dad.

Target behavior(s) to facilitate measurements of occurrence of the behavior(s).

The first behavior of interest is the target behavior. This is the behavior of concern that is selected for intervention and is sometimes referred to as the problem behavior. The target behavior is expected to increase or decrease as a result of implementing the functional assessment-based intervention. The target behavior for this project is to decrease disruptive behavior during Large Group activities, particularly Circle Time and Story Time.His disruptive behavior includes playing with a mask, walking around in the classroom, talking to himself, getting up to get Kleenex, playing with shoes or boots, asking to go to the restroom excessively, making loud noise when instructed to stop, expressing anger when redirected, defining the teacher, and physically venting frustration by punching a pillow or backpack when upset.

My behavioral objective to decrease the target behavior. 1.) Participate actively in Circle Time and Story Time; 2.) Maintain a seated position, refrain from playing with objects, and; 3.) Follow instructions during these activities, with no more than two instances of disruptive behavior in a 30-minute session.

Data Collection System

Tools and techniques to provide additional context about the behavior and gather relevant data. A standard ABA tool is Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence (A-B-C) data sheets that a teacher, parent, or guardian typically complete. From the tool, applied behavior analysts gather data about the events or activities that happened before the manifestation of the behavior, known as an antecedent. They also get insights as to actions that occurred right after the act, known as consequences. I will use an ABC (Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence) data collection system to represent and measure the rate of occurrence of the target behavior. After gathering data I was able to see that every time I told him to stop playing he could do it even more, would scream more, get aggressive and even punch carpet or backpack. The function of Adrian's behavior was attention seeking from adults as evidenced by A-B-C Analysis data.

Hypothesis for the purpose or function of problem behavior. The primary motivator for Adrian's off-task behavior, walking around the room, playing with shoes, not sitting in carpet is to avoid whole group lesson. To a lesser extent, he also seeks to obtain teacher assistant attention. Behavioral Objectives for the X Student are to Increase Replacement/Appropriate Behavior by engagement in class discussions. The second - Objective is to improve his completion of homework assignments. Interventions for Changing the Student's Target Behavior are many that can be used to help my student be successful in my classroom.The Premack principle, also called the relativity theory of reinforcement and the differential-probability hypothesis, states that a more desirable activity (e.g., such as eating chocolate) can be used to reinforce a less desirable one (such as completing classroom work). Self-Monitoring is the intervention that involves teaching the student to recognize and keep track of their own behavior. This can increase self-awareness and self-control, leading to an improvement in the target behavior (Briesch, Ferguson, Volpe, & Daniels, 2015). Positive Reinforcement is an intervention that involves providing a reward when the student exhibits the desired behavior. This can motivate the student to repeat the behavior in the future (Skinner, 1958).

References:

Briesch, A. M., Ferguson, T. D., Volpe, R. J., & Daniels, B. (2015). Examining the influence of student self-monitoring of academic and social behavior on students' perceptions of classroom climate. School Psychology Quarterly, 30(1), 123-136. https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000072