Overview
One basic form of direct observation for a direct assessment is ABC recording. With ABC—antecedent, behavior, consequence—recording, the observer records a descriptive, temporally sequenced account of all behaviors of interest, as well as the antecedent conditions and consequences for those behaviors, as those events occur in the client's natural environment.
The goal is to identify a correlation between the target behavior and time of day, context, or activities. Using a scatterplot—a graphic display of data in a grid format—the behavior analyst can identify what conditions apply when the behavior occurs the most and the least. They can also find similarities in incidences of the behavior's occurrence—such as the setting, activity, peers present, time of day, and so on. For this assignment, you will gather ABC data for Monica's property destruction and write a descriptive analysis of the ABC data.
Instructions
- Go to the Functional Behavior Assessment: ABC Descriptive Analysis media piece.
- Watch the baseline video again and use the ABC Data Collection Form [DOCX] to collect the data. Each time the target behavior of property destruction occurs, record what happened immediately before (antecedent), the target behavior, and what happened immediately afterwards (consequence).
- Write a descriptive analysis of the ABC data in the text boxes on the Functional Behavior Assessment: ABC Descriptive Analysis media piece.
- Identify any patterns or consistencies in the antecedents or consequences that appear to be related to the challenging behaviors.
- Describe Monica's property destruction.
- Describe Monica's cooperative behaviors.
- Identify the hypothesized function of the behavior based on the ABC data. Support the hypothesis with recent, relevant academic literature.
To complete this assignment, copy and paste your ABC descriptive analysis from the media piece into your FBA Template and submit your ABC Data Collection Form and your template to the assignment area.