Method

The target behavior was moving a tag from Out to In when entering the residents hall. The operational definition of this target behavior was moving the assigned tag under the In category upon entering the building from around two times to every time she enters the building. A Functional Behavior Assessment was completed to discover the function of Briannas behavior. After the Functional Behavior Assessment was completed the discovered reason of the behavior suggested itself down to avoidance. By not placing her tag to the In the building position Brianna was avoiding being called by fellow staff members to handle situations within the building. As long as her tag stayed in the Out position staff members did not realize that she was truly in the building therefore they never called her to assist in any situation. Brianna was avoiding doing work when she was in the building by not putting her tag in the In column. An intervention was applied for Brianna when she was within the residents hall. When she entered the building and placed her name tag to the In position her behavior was rewarded with positive reinforcement from the staff member at the desk. The staff would give positive reinforcement by recognizing the behavior and verbally rewarding Brianna. After the staff member presented Brianna with the reinforcement, she was also given her favorite chocolate treat; a Snickers mini. To begin the intervention modeling was very prominent. Every staff member that entered the building would model the behavior of placing their tag in the In position directly in front of Brianna. A continual reinforcement schedule was implemented for the behavior due to her constant avoidance of the desired behavior when the baseline was drawn. By giving Brianna the preferred rewards it had to be constant in the beginning of the

intervention. The behavior intervention focused on the frequency (the amount of times) of the target behavior being completed. To accurately determine the frequency of the action an event recording was used. The event recording counted the exact amount of times that the behavior occurred between the dates of September 5, 2012- September 16, 2012.

Results
During the dates of September 5th to September 8th a baseline was conducted to ensure that this behavior was truly an issue. The data were constructed in quantitative terms; for example the amount of opportunities Brianna could have placed her name tag into the In position compared to the amount of times she actually put her tag in the In category. The Behavior Intervention took place from September 9th through September 16th. Table 1 and Graph 1 which are listed bellow consist of the frequencies of Briannas target behavior (Target Behavior could have occurred) and her replacement behavior (Brianna placing her name tag into the In position). Table 1

Day

Target Behavior Could have occurred

Target behavior occurred

9/5/12 (Baseline) 9/6/12 (Baseline) 9/7/12 (Baseline) 9/8/12 (Baseline)

5 4 3 4

2 0 1 3

9/9/12 9/10/12 9/11/12 9/12/12 9/13/12 9/14/12 9/15/12 9/16/12 9/17/12 9/18/12 9/19/12 9/20/12 9/21/12 9/22/12 9/23/12 9/24/12 9/25/12 9/26/12 9/27/12 9/28/12 9/29/12 9/30/12

6 8 5 7 9 6 7 8 5 7 5 8 6 4 8 6 5 9 6 7 9 6

4 6 3 6 7 6 7 8 4 5 5 7 6 3 8 5 5 9 6 7 9 6

Graph 1
10 9 8

F R E Q U E N C Y

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5-Sep 7-Sep 9-Sep 11Sep 13Sep 15Sep 17Sep 19Sep 21Sep 23Sep 25Sep 27Sep 29Sep Possible Occurances Target Completed

DAYS

Discussion
The data completed for Briannas target behavior shows that the intervention was effective. The charts prove that the intervention was successfully completed due to the overall increase of the target behavior over time. As the possible opportunities for the occurrence to arise increases, so does the amount of times Brianna complied and completed the task. During the start of the intervention (September 5th through September 8th) there is a huge difference between the chances Brianna had to move her name tag to the out position upon leaving the building,

however refrained from doing so quite often. As time went on, Brianna started to enjoy getting her favorite candy as reinforcement. Brianna truly enjoyed her reward which means that she started to place her tag in the Out position more often just to receive her reward as seen through September 7th through the 12th of September. An effective component of this particular intervention was the use of verbal reinforcement. By verbally reinforcing Briannas behavior when she placed her tag from the Out to In position seemed to make her more inclined to do so. She tended to get extremely excited when she was being recognized for her behavior. The hardest issue to override was Briannas reasoning behind not placing her name tag to the In position. She stayed away from the task because she did not want to be called to handle situations while being within the building. It was very hard to get Brianna to stop avoiding her duty because the duty in itself was not reinforcing. To make the intervention truly work, her position within assisting the building had to become enjoyable. During the intervention Brianna was slowly introduced to completing small easy tasks to realize her strengths when handling situations. By slowly easing Brianna into situations, using positive reinforcement and by having the use of rewards, Brianna successfully began moving her name tag to the In position upon entering the building. Although there are many elements of this intervention that worked out nicely some pieces that were being used appeared to not be as salient for this particular individual. After the individual placed her name tag to In the behavior received positive reinforcement by all of the staff members that are in the lobby at that particular moment. Not only was she given verbal reinforcement, she was also being given her favorite candy as an extra reward. Brianna was not responding well to the use of the candy, she was more focused on the positive recognition. The use of candy was proven not to work correctly for this intervention because a lot of the time

Brianna would not accept the treat after placing her name tag In. For future attempts the individual should just receive what is salient for her; the reinforcement along with extra support given to her upon handling the situations. This particular intervention was implementing a continual reinforcement schedule. Every single time the individual did the desired behavior she received positive reinforcement and her piece of candy. In the beginning of the study Brianna truly benefited from the continued reinforcement after every time she put her name tag to the In position. By her reaction to doing the work that was applied when she put her tag in, there would not have been anyway that she would have done it if it was not accompanied with a response. However, Brianna was relying on the reinforcement and not just doing the target behavior because it was her job. Perhaps if a fixed interval schedule was completed it would have been more valuable for her because it would have made it an easier task to wean her off of the reward and do the task without any form of reinforcement. As I began thinning out the reinforcement (September 17th, 2012) Brianna had a little bit of a harder time of actually doing the task because she was not getting anything out of it. After a few days of thinning, Brianna got the hang out completing the desired behavior without any assistance. Another aspect of this intervention that should have been altered was the fact that every staff member was giving a different intensity of reinforcement. This was crucial because the individual was receiving a different amount of reinforcement depending on the staff member who was giving it. Some staff members would be over eager by yelling and praising the student. However, there were many people involved who were less eager and would sardonically say Good job. In the future the observer should oversee the staff members giving the

reinforcement to make sure that the behavior is met with the same intensity upon every occurrence.

Functional Behavior Assessment

Target Behavior: Keeps tag in the Out position instead of moving it to the In category upon entering the building. Antecedent: Enters the building Consequence: There is no Consequence. Setting event: If she puts her name tag to the In position she will be called to handle situations within the building. Possible function: Avoidance Ease the individual into handling not enjoyable tasks Give positive feedback for putting tag into the correct location and after handling situations. More training.