Diana Deisinger

I. HISTORY

Assessment Paper 2013

a. EJ is a 3 year old male born October 16, 2009. He is an only child. His mother and father have been together for 12 years, married for 5 years (6 years in May). They are from a lower middle income household. Up until about 6 months ago EJs parents lived in a two bedroom apartment, but now are renting a three bedroom house in the Livonia area. A couple months after EJs birth his maternal grandfather moved in with them, no longer living with them since the move. At the beginning of 2013 EJ was enrolled in child care, before then he was being taken care of by grandparents and family friends. b. I observed EJ at his child care center. At the center there are five rooms, one room for each age group. EJ is in the 3-4 year old room. In his classroom he has one primary teacher and an assistant teacher. In EJs class alone there are about 12 students in the room, less on some days. c. I have been friends with his mother for 13 years and his father for 12 years. I am considered an aunt, but not of blood relation. I have personally known EJ since he was a day old. II. DESCRIPTION OF CHILD a. I chose EJ for this because his mother had previously mentioned to me that she was tired of his teachers telling her that her son was a problem child. So when she told me this I just knew that he would be the perfect child for my assignment. It also allowed me to go into the room to see what was actually going on. It was arranged with the director of the center for me to come in and observe. The director of the center had concerns that the teachers were discriminatory against

Diana Deisinger

Assessment Paper 2013

EJ, so she had me coming in under the assumption that I was there to observe a different child. b. EJs strengths are caring toward other children when upset, helping classmates when asked and when not asked, able to put on and take off own shoes, jacket, and mittens without assistance, when given direction is able to follow them. EJs challenges are that he struggles with sharing, has a hard time joining in play with others, use of physical aggression to obtain something. c. EJs difficult behavior began about two weeks after being enrolled in child care. Slowly progressed within first month while within child care. III. TARGET BEHAVIOR a. EJ has been demonstrating the use of physical aggression to obtain what he wants. During choice/work time EJ uses his hands to grab the toy dump truck or other toys that Bobby has taken from him. This happens at least 4 to 5 times a week, possibly more. b. During choice/work time EJ plays in the toy area plays with the toy dump truck or other toy cars on the track map that is in the area. Bobby comes over to the toy area, grabs and takes the toy that EJ is playing with. c. Six months ago EJs parents moved from a two bedroom apartment in Westland to a three bedroom house in Livonia. Before being enrolled in child care four months ago EJ was being taken care of by his maternal grandmother, sometimes maternal grandfather, other family members, and family friends. At the age of two he had an MRI to figure out why he was holding his head to the

Diana Deisinger

Assessment Paper 2013

left. It was determined that when he had a headache that was when he would hold his head to the left. d. What keeps EJ grabbing and taking the toy from Bobby is to obtain the toy back as he had originally been the one playing with the toy. Sometimes EJ gets the toy and goes about again playing the toy. Sometimes the teachers see EJ grab and take the toy, thus them him into time out. e. My reason for choosing this behavior is because it is the one behavior that has occurred the most out of any behavior that "EJ" has exhibited. It is also the behavior that the teachers have expressed most concern about to his parents, thus his parents voicing their concern to me as have previously had experience working in child care. His parents had asked for my input as how this behavior might be corrected. f. EJs behavior of grabbing and taking toys from Bobby has going on for a little less than four months. Behavior about two weeks after starting going to the child care center. g. I know that EJs behavior is a result of another childs behavior. Bobby has been taking toys from EJ which in turn causes EJ to immediately take that same toy from Bobby. Which then causes EJ to be the one getting in trouble with the teachers instead. Upon my observations I have noticed that teachers play favoritism toward particular students. I then noticed that the teachers ignore the bad behavior of their favorite students. The best way that I could explain this is that some of the students could do no harm, while others were always getting into trouble for behaviors that may not have been completely their fault.

Diana Deisinger
IV. HYPOTHESIS

Assessment Paper 2013

a. During choice/work time EJ will be playing with the dump truck, Bobby will come over to EJ and take the dump truck from him. EJ will use physical aggression with his hands (grabbing) in order to obtain the toy that Bobby has taken from him. When this occurs the peer relinquishes the toy and/or a teacher will intervene and provide EJ with negative attention. b. When coming up with my hypothesis I carefully looked at all the data collected. In the data I was able observe that EJ had one behavior that was reoccurring, as well as a reoccurring maintaining consequence. c. The forms that I used to help me collect data and come to my hypothesis included the Recording Form, Functional Assessment Interview Form, Motivation Assessment Scale, and Describe Challenging Behavior. d. Using the Recording Form allowed me to break the behavior down into three parts; what the specific behavior was and what it looked like, what was the trigger to cause this behavior, and finally what was the result, what did EJ obtain from his behavior. The Functional Assessment Interview Form allowed me further insight to see if there were other factors that could possibly be playing a vital role into why EJ is doing this behavior. It gave me an insight as to whether there were factors from his home life or health that could be affecting him. The Motivation Assessment Scale allowed me to see if his behavior was Sensory, Escape, Attention, or Tangible. Finally Describe Challenging Behavior helped me to break down what the behavior looked like exactly.

Diana Deisinger

Assessment Paper 2013

e. The Recording Form gave me much insight to see that there is one common denominator that is the trigger to EJs behavior, as well as one common consequence as a result of his behavior. I found the Functional Assessment form to mainly give me insight into what his daily routine looks like and to whether there were any outside factors that could be triggering to his behavior but not as to what is really the cause of his behavior. The Motivation Assessment Scale allowed me to see that EJs behavior was mostly tangible, but it almost is sensory as well. The Describe Challenging Behavior form broke the behavior down for me. It helped me to state that the trigger is when an object is taken from EJ but that when the object is taken from him the consequence is that he gets the object or that he is given negative attention by the teachers and is put in time out. It further helped me to know that EJs behavior is in order to obtain the dump truck that was taken from him. V. BEHAVIOR PLAN a. There are a few things that need to be done to replace EJs behavior. The first thing that has been recommended is for the parents to read a social story every day at drop off before to going to work. In the social story it is going through the sequence of EJs day and what he is to do when Bobby or maybe even another child were to take a toy from him. The solution for solving to get the toy back is for EJ to go up to the child and let them know that he was playing with that toy and that when he was done playing with the toy he would then give that child the toy so they can then play with it. The other thing is for the teachers to add more

Diana Deisinger

Assessment Paper 2013

toy dump trucks to the toy area. Furthermore the teachers need to be closer to EJ and Bobby when they are playing in the same area. b. Both the parents and the teachers will be implementing parts of the plan. The parents will be reading EJ the social story. The teachers will be the ones monitoring play between EJ and Bobby, but they are also the ones who will be helping EJ to go up to the child who has taken the toy and letting them he was playing with the toy and that they can have it when he is done. The teachers may need to role play with EJ on how to go about doing this. c. Reasons for this are to stop EJ for aggressively using his hands to get what he was play with back. It is for him to expressively use his words to get what he needs. Furthermore it is for EJ and Bobby to able to play in the same area and be conflict free. d. The parents are being included in this plan by reading the social story to EJ every day at drop off. VI. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? a. When EJ suggests giving the toy to the other child when he is done, the other child may not agree to giving the toy back to EJ. If is the case then EJ is to suggest a way for the both of them to be able to play with the toy. The teacher should be there to moderate the two children while they work on a solution that both of them could agree on. b. Things that could go wrong is that someone other than EJs parents may drop him off at child care and not read the social story to him before leaving. If that were happen the teachers then should take it upon themselves to read EJ the

Diana Deisinger

Assessment Paper 2013

social story. Another thing that could go wrong is that there could be a substitute in the classroom and doesnt know that EJ and Bobby cannot always play well together. The substitute may not also know that EJ is supposed to use his words to obtain the toy back.