discussion reply 143

Peer Responses: Respond to two classmates’ primary posts by identifying an additional indirect assessment tool that would apply to the scenario to compliment what your peer has chosen.

Minimum 100 words.

First Peer:

Hello professor and class,

This weeks discussion is about indirect assessments. The main assessment discussed in this weeks reading was the Behavior Analytic Problem Solving Interview (BAPS-I). This assessment is designed to “identify and describe (1) student-specific interfering behavior(s) and (2) the individual and environmental variables that contribute to, evoke, occasion, and maintain interfering behavior(s).” (Pratt, Wickerd, Guare, Watson, 2016). This means that the it is designed to find the potential SD and reinforce to a specific behavior. This type of assessment is done through interview and should be utilized with caution as the interviewee alone is less reliable than direct observations by a trained individual. However, the BAPS-I can often be used as a good starting point to develop interventions. The interviewer asks questions from the BAPS-I, but might ask the same question different ways if the interviewee seems confused or to cross reference answers strategically.

In the case of Ben for this weeks scenario, one of the behaviors mention was non-compliance. This behavior would be isolated to determine the function separate from the other behaviors. The pre-cursers would be determined by asking the interviewee to describe the response class hierarchy. This will help identify when the client is getting upset without having to resort to him engaging in the inappropriate behavior. From there, potential MOs can be discussed by having the interviewee describe the circumstances that the behavior usually occurs by either the student being deprived of something, being given a task, etc. Finally, the interviewee would be asked to discuss how the behavior is handled typically. This will give the interviewer information on what might potentially be reinforcing the behavior.

Second Peer:

One indirect assessment tool which can be useful in teasing out potentially controlling variables and reinforcing stimuli associated with the target behavior in the hypothetical scenario can be the Behavior-Analytic Problem-Solving Interview (BAPS-I). The BAPS-I serves as an interview form which is designed to identify and describe a student’s specific interfering behavior/s, and the individual & environmental variables that contribute to evoking the opportunity, and maintaining the interfering behavior/s (Steege, Pratt, Wickerd, Guare, & Watson, 2009). In addition, this interview form is based on the eight-term behavior-analytic problem-solving model which includes context, personal characteristics, skill delays/deficits, motivational triggers (MOs), sources of reinforcement (SDs), interfering behavior, reinforcing consequences, and parameters of reinforcement (Steege, Pratt, Wickerd, Guare, & Watson, 2009). Lastly, each section of the BAPS-I form includes questions & prompts in order to guide the interviewer in gathering significant information from caregivers, teachers, or others familiar with the student, as a result it is a very thorough interview process in gaining all of the answers needed to conduct a BIP (Steege, Pratt, Wickerd, Guare, & Watson, 2009).