Preference assessments
What and types
used as a guide in providing reinforcement to a client to increase probability of a behavior.
- Tells us what will motivate an individual at a specific point in time.
● Free operant preference assessment
● Single stimulus preference assessment
● Multiple stimulus with replacement
● Multiple stimulus without replacement
Free operant preference assessment
Freely engage with the selected items in the room.
- Contrived or Naturalistic
- Monitors the client and logs the item(s) with which the client engages and the duration of the engagement.
- The items are placed in order based on the total duration.
Single Stimulus preference assessment
(successive choice)
Conducted when a client cannot select between highly preferred and low-preferred items.
- Items are presented one at a time.
- Data is collected based on duration of engagement
- Less accurate at determining preferences
- Good for:
- learners who are unable to scan fields of items
- choose between items
- present challenging behaviors when preferred items are removed.
Multiple stimulus with replacement (MSW)
Multiple choices are presented.
- After choice, item is replaced with a new item
- Item chosen remains in the array and all other items that were not selected are replaced by other items.
- The learner needs to be able to scan and choose from an array of items.
Multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWOR)
Multiple choices are presented.
- Item chosen is taken out of the array and the array diminishes in size on each selection.
- Fastest method.
Paired Stimulus preference assessment
(forced choice)
Creates a hierarchy of the child’s preferences
- Placing two items in front of the client and the client is asked to select an object.
- Continue until each item has been paired with every other item. - Items are ranked from highest preferred to least preferred.
- Time-consuming process.
- Unsuitable for clients who struggle to give up preferred items
Functional Assessments
procedures (3)
Curriculum-based
● Assessment of taught skills
● Can focus on academics such as math, writing, or reading
● DIBELS
Developmental
● Focuses on developmental milestones
● Focuses on age-and grade-level skills
● Vineland Adaptive Scales
● Adaptive Behavior Assessment Scale
Social skills
● Focuses on age-and grade-level social skills
Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)
Gathers information about when and where a challenging behavior occurs, as well as why the behavior occurs. (When, where, why)
- Helps determine the function of the behavior based on the antecedent and consequences.
- Direct
- Indirect
FBA processes include:
● Operationally defined target behaviors
● Antecedents for target behaviors
● Function of the target behaviors
● Replacements for target behaviors
5 steps for conducting an FBA.
1. Identify the problem
2. Collect information to determine the function
3. Form a hypothesis
4. Plan an intervention
5. Evaluate the plan
FBA- Indirect Assessment-
Indirect functional behavior assessment
● Client is not directly observed. May use:
● Existing behavioral data
● Checklists
● Rating scales
● Interviews
● Surveys
Information is used to determine: ● The context - in which the behavior occurs
● The function - of the behavior.
Pros:
●Quick and easy to use
● Low risk as behaviors don’t have to occur
● Useful for low-frequency or difficult-to-assess behaviors
Cons:
● Not reliable
● Unclear method for determining function
● Requires faithful recollection of behaviors
● Not sufficient to formulate a functional hypothesis.
FBA - Direct Assessment
The client is observed in the natural environment and data is recorded.
● Data is used to determine:
- The antecedent for the behavior
- The function of the behavior.
● Operational definition for the target behavior is developed
Pros:
● You can see the full range of antecedents and consequences
● Any environmental variables affecting the behavior can be observed
Cons:
● The data is correlational
● May have reactivity from the client
● Could be difficult to obtain an adequate sample of the behavior
ABC event recording
identifies the antecedent and consequence for a behavior.
- The information can be used to determine the function of the behavior.
- writing down what triggered the behavior (Antecedent), the actual Behavior, and what happened afterward (Consequence).
Antecedent manipulation
Identifies triggers for target behaviors and alters the environment before a behavior occurs
