DSWB—3504-01

PBS Assignment

Professor: Mary Helen Leddy

Due: Friday, October 16, 2020

Suzana Michelle Reid, Alexandra Bogris, Daniel Brennan- Caines

 Case Study: Mint Smith

Mint Smith is a 26-year-old woman who resides in a group home that is staffed and

managed by Community Living Oshawa Clarington. Mint lives in the home with 3 other

housemates Robert, Kate, and George. Mint was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

when she was a young girl, throughout her life she struggled with very few negative behaviours.

When she was younger, she would sometimes engage in self-biting behaviour while she was

alone, it was decided by her support staff at the time that they would try to provide her with an

alternative behaviour that would not result in self-harm. She was provided with a fidget toy while

she was alone to assist in some sensory stimulations. Another problematic beahviour she used to

participate in was pinching her sister, she would sometimes pinch her sister for various reasons,

during this time her parents interjected with using positive punishment. In May 2020, Mint was

experiencing extreme gastrointestinal symptoms whenever she would eat meals. Since Emily

was on dayshift she would often prepare and serve meals. When Mint would eat, she would

experience discomfort, which resulted in her propelling objects. After staff made the connection

between mealtimes and the problematic behaviour they booked her an appointment to see her

General Physician. She was quickly diagnosed with Celiac disease and as a result was placed on

a specialized diet and the gastro symptoms quickly resolved themselves. However, in the recent

weeks, staff have noticed that Mint has been engaging the same challenging behaviours while at

home. On several occasions staff reported that Mint was becoming upset with staff member

Emily where almost all interactions with her results in property destruction. Whenever Emily

asks, suggests, or otherwise engages with Mint, she will throw, toss, push, shove, or break

objects in her immediate area. On several occasions Jason, Emily, and other occasional support

staff have reported an episode where Mint causes property damage when engaged by Emily. It
was suggested by Supervisor Dan that staff begin the process of completing various assessments,

behaviour logs, ABC charts, and other resources to track the behaviour. They will complete these

tools so that they can figure out possible functions for the behaviour; they will then implement

teaching strategies to help bring the undesired behaviour to extinction so that Emily and Mint

can engage successfully within the home and community.

 ABC Chart – Mint Smith

Date Time Setting Event Antecedent Behaviour Consequence

1. September 1:32pm Sitting in the Robert came She got up Staff Jason
29, 2020 living room in took the took the entered the
on the couch, tv remote remote room,
watching and changed from him confiscated
SpongeBob the channel and the remote
SquarePants. to Pokémon. smacked from Mint
him over and turned
the head off the tv.
with it. Jason had a
conversation
with both
housemates
about what
they could
have done
differently
during the
situation. He
then
suggested
they both
find
alternative
activities to
do at that
point.

2. September 5:37pm Sitting at the Staff Emily Mint then Emily gets up
29, 2020 dinner table handed proceeded to clean the
with Mint her to remove mess of the
housemates dinner plate her dinner dinner plate
and staff plate from while Jason
Emily and the table asks Mint to
Jason. and toss come into
across the the staff
room. office to have
a
conversation
to
understand
why she
 threw her
plate.
3. October 3, 3:17pm It was a After the She became Staff Sarah
2020 Saturday game, Staff visibly upset gathered the
Afternoon Emily asked and Wii remote
when there Mint to proceeded from the
were only 2 allow to throw floor, handed
staff in the another the Wii Mint her iPad
house. Mint housemate remote and
was in the to have a across the suggested
living room turn. room. that she
with Darryl could go to
playing Super her room to
smash Bros. watch or play
on the Wii. on it.

Hitting: any visible occurrence of Mint hitting, smacking, punching, and/ or kicking another member of
the house.

Throwing objects: any occurrence of the forceful movement of objects in her surroundings. For
example, throwing, shoving, pushing, or otherwise causing property damage.
TREATMENT
STRATEGIES RESPONSE TO THE BEHAVIOUR (CONSEQUENCE)
ELEMENT
 It would not be appropriate to
eliminate the setting event because
all the events change however the
common variable is staff member
- - - - - NOT APPLICABLE- - - - -
Emily.
SETTING EVENT/
ANTECEDENT  Have another staff member present
MODIFICATIONS with Emily while engaging with Mint.
 Providing a variety of staff to work
with Mint more frequently on
developing confidence around
engaging with Emily.

 Yes because she was able to display  What will you do when the desired behaviour occurs to INCREASE the likelihood that
the desired behaviour prior to having will happen again? We would provide Mint with praise to encourage the behaviour
GI issues.

 Yes she would know how to perfom

DESIRED BEHAVIOUR
.
the behaviour however we need to
work on generalizing the behaviour.
We will help Mint generalize this
behaviour through Shaping
procedures. This will help to
effectively extinct the destructive
behaviour.
TREATMENT
STRATEGIES RESPONSE TO THE BEHAVIOUR (CONSEQUENCE)
ELEMENT
 Absolutely Mint is a very socially  We will provide mint with the escape/ avoidance of staff Emily through offering her
communicative person, if she is assistance from another staff.
assisted to come up with strategies to
request another staff she is more than
ALTERNATIVE
BEHAVIOUR capable of doing so successfully.

 We will encourage Mint to use alternate behaviour or the desired behaviour before
receiving the escape or avoidance form staff member Emily. (for example, when Min
throws an object while engaging with staff Emily, she would be encouraged to use he
PROBLEMATIC words to request another staff members assistance, upon doing so, she would receiv
BEHAVIOUR - - - - - NOT APPLICABLE- - - - - escape/avoidance)
 We will also effectively implement a Shaping procedure to help with the extinction o
problematic behaviour.
 Based on observations made by staff members in the home, it is clear to the team that Mint is

engaging in problematic behaviour directed towards staff Emily specifically. Based on incidences

recorded in her personal file, the team has developed a hypothesis around the function of the

problematic behaviour. We as a team believe the function of the behaviour is to escape or avoid

engagement and requests made by staff Emily. Based on previous history recoded by various staff

members, Mint began exhibiting the problematic behaviours towards Emily in May 2020 when he had

gastrointestinal issues. Although Mint was seen by her Primary Care Physician and the illness has been

treated, it would appear that she is still displaying this behaviour towards staff Emily. Based on our

findings, we believe that Mint has associated staff Emily with the stomach pains, which is why we

believe she is continue s to exhibit the behaviours even though the stomach pains have resolved.

After discovering our findings, we as a team believe that Mint would benefit from participating

in a Shaping Procedure plan to help her extinguish this behaviour. We formulated a step-by-step

procedure to assist staff in presenting

 Shaping Procedure Data Sheet
Name: Mint Smith
Target Behaviour: Engaging appropriately and following through with requests made by Staff
Emily.
Step Behaviour
1 Staff Emily is at the table while Staff Jason serves Mint dinner.
2 Staff Emily is beside Mint while Staff Jason serves Mint dinner.
3 Staff Emily hands Mint eating utensil while Staff Jason serves Mint dinner.
4 Staff Emily participates in hand-over-hand with staff Jason while handing Mint
dinner.
5 Staff Emily hands Mint her dinner.

Criteria for Advancing to Next Step: Mint will successfully receive the meal without throwing
it before advancing to the next stage, if Mint is unsuccessful we will repeat previous step before
moving forward.
Prompting Procedure: Least-to-Most (V) Verbal  (G) Gesture  (P) Physical.
Reinforcement: Verbal praise i.e. “great Job Mint!”, “Excellent job not throwing your food!”,
“AMAZING!”
Date and Step and Prompts Used Completed
Time Independently
October 1, Step 1. (P) prompt used, shown not to throw Yes No
2020. plate.
12:00pm
October 1, Step 1. (G) Prompt used. Used gestural prompt Yes No
2020. to not throw object.
5:00pm

October 2, Step 2. (G) Prompt used. Used gestural prompt Yes No

2020. to not throw object.
8:00 am

October 3, Step 3. (P) Prompt used. Shown not to throw Yes No

2020. objects handed to her.
12:00pm

October 3, Step 3. (G) Prompt used. Used gestural prompt Yes No

2020. 5:00pm to not throw object.
October 4, Step 4. (P) Prompt used. Shown not to throw Yes No
2020. the object handed to her.
8:00am.

October 4, Step 5. (G) prompt used. Used a gestural Yes No

2020. prompt to not throw food.
12:00pm

October 4, Step 5. (G) Prompt used. Used a gestural Yes No

2020. prompt to not throw food.
5:00pm

October 5, Step 5. (G) Prompt used. Used a gestural Yes No

2020. prompt to not throw food.
8:00am

October 5, Step 5. (V) Prompt used. Reminded not to Yes No

2020. throw the food when Emily hands it to her.
12:00pm.
 Mint Smith - Frequency per Session of Throwing
Staff Escape & Appropriately Engaged and Following
Requests
7
Frequency of Problem Behaviour

0
1 2 3 4 5 6

Interacting with Emily

Throwing
Appropriately engaging with Emily and following through with requests made
Ask to work with different staff (Escape)

Mint Smith Behaviour Frequency per Session

Prob Bx Desired Bx Alternative Bx

Appropriatel
y engaging Ask to work
with Emily with
Interacting with
Throwing and following different
staff Emily
through with staff
requests (Escape)
made
Baseline 1 4 0 0
Baseline 2 5 0 0
Treatment 3 6 0 2
Treatment 4 4 1 1
Treatment 5 3 3 2
Treatment 6 1 1 0
 Through observation, logging behavioural data, and formulating results; it is evident that using a

Shaping procedural method to extinguish the problem behaviour would be successful in reducing

incidences of this behaviour from occurring with staff Emily. We have begun to see the frequency of the

problematic behaviour of hitting decrease through consistent efforts made by Mint and support staff.

Through each logged episode, we are visually seeing more efforts made by Mint to engage in the

alternative and desired behaviours outlined by her support staff in the Behaviour Support Plan. Although

as expected, we did briefly see a slight increase in the behaviour while working towards extinction.
 References

Mary Helen, L. (2020). Competing pathways Practice worksheets [PowerPoint Slides] .

Retrieved from Durham College OC Connect
site:https://durhamcollege.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/content/330664/viewContent/4096085/
View

N.a. (2020). Functional Behavioural Assessment Interview Form [PDF]. N.a: Kansas Institute for
Positive Behaviour Support.

N.a. (2020). Functional Assessment Observation Form. Retrieved October 14, 2020, from
http://www.pent.ca.gov/frm/functobserv.pdf