Behavioral assessments in Applied Behavior Analysis

Integration 1 Overview of Assessment The purpose of this assignment is to integrate, apply, and generalize the information that you are learning about the importance and process of behavioral assessments. Length of Paper: All Integration assignments have a 3-page limit. The reference page does NOT count toward this limit. This equates to about 7-8 paragraphs, which should give you plenty of space to craft your narrative. This page limit may require you to work on your concision. If you have trouble meeting the page limit, please reach out. We will only grade the first three pages of your assignment. Text on pages four and beyond will not be read, so please adhere to this requirement. Sources & Overview You will use the information in the course readings, lectures, and videos from these sections: -The Foundations of Assessment in the Science -Practice of ABA and An Overview of Assessment You should include at least 5-7 in text citations with a reference list of at least 5 different sources from these modules at the end of the document. These should be from the course readings, lectures, and videos of these sections and inclusion of multiple and different sources from these modules increases the likelihood that you are integrating and understand how they fit together around the topic. If you include other references, they will be in addition to the 5-7 from these modules. You are not allowed to use AI to generate the text or ideas as this is an activity to help you learn the concepts and information by generalizing and integrating the information yourself. The headers below should be included in your essay, and each section should be numbered to match the instructions (1-7). Purpose Why do we assess? 1. Describe the purposes and importance of the behavioral assessment process. Purposes in this context describes the impact we, as behavior analysts, wish to have when it comes to assessment. Importance in this context should be about the value to the individual served and value to intervention services in general importance. Tie back individual importance to specific quality of life improvements (just saying improved quality of life is not enough), increased opportunities for reinforcement, and reductions of difficult conditions. Give specific examples. Contexts, Areas/Domains What do we assess? 2. Describe the contexts (settings and services) of assessment where ABA is delivered. 3. Describe the domains/areas of assessment and why each is important. These can be found in the APBA Assessment Tips (2024) document, which you should cite. 4. Describe what is meant by direct and indirect assessments. Why are both kinds of assessment important to different areas/domains, and complimentary, to the entire behavioral assessment process? Types Why do we use more than one assessment? 5. Describe the importance and rationales for conducting multiple assessments during the behavioral assessment process. The importance is asking about the impact we wish to have, and the rationale asks about why those things are important. What assessments do we use? 6. Describe examples of the different types of assessments that may be included within the scope of assessment (e.g., direct [standardized, normative, criterion referenced, curriculum based, anecdotal & ABC observations, direct observations in sessions and natural ecologies] & indirect [interviews, checklists, ratings]). Include at least two specific examples, explaining their purposes and the types of information (data) that may be gained by these. Example How do we assess? Describe an example. 7. You, a BCBA, are assigned to a new client. Choose ONE of the 3 case scenarios below. Given the client you chose and, describe a brief example of what the whole behavioral assessment process may look like from start to finish. Give examples of assessments you would conduct at intake, throughout, and at follow up. You may also include a diagram to illustrate the sequence. Scenarios Early learner A 4-year-old autistic boy named Muhammad just moved to your town, with his mother, father, and younger sister, from the UK. In the UK, Muhammad attended an ABA preschool and his mother, Naureen, would like to get him enrolled at your clinic as soon as possible to keep him progressing. Adolescent learner A 15-year-old autistic teenager named Izabel just completed her first semester of high school. Her father, Roberto, wants to enroll Izabel in your after school social skills group because Izabel is sad that she has no friends at school and eats lunch alone. She says that she wants to be popular like her twin sister Pilna. Adult learner A 45-year-old multiply disabled woman named Abigail lives in a state supported living facility. Her parents passed away when she was 4 and she has lived in the facility since then. Her older sister was adopted and lives a few hours away and visits her each month. Abigail attends a supported employment program and is usually calm and content but is not participating in the activities. Integration 1 Overview of Assessment Rubric Fall ’25 Important Note: Tech Help If you experience technical difficulties submitting, please check the following: Document is less than 40mb and has at least 20 words Acceptable formats: .hwp, .rtf, .txt, .doc, .docx, .odt, .wpd, .ps Browser: Chrome (recommended) or Mozilla Firefox Improved internet connectivity If none of these recommendations work, please submit a ticket to the student help desk to the left of your screen. If you are unable to submit to Canvas before the deadline, please be sure to email a copy of your assignment to the course email address before the deadline. Preparing for Integration Components Dear Students, As you prepare to write your first integration component, please read the instructions carefully. Pay particular attention to the word count, citation requirement, and required sections. You will be applying what you are learning to a scenario for all integration components. Please pick ONE case scenario and use it for all integration components (i.e., do not switch among the three possible scenarios). Before you begin writing your integration component, please review the information about Artificial Intelligence in your syllabus and on Canvas. Your integration components are graded by how well you address the different sections or components of the paper, how you apply your knowledge to your scenario, and on the quality and mechanics of your writing. By the quality of your writing, we expect you to write clearly, cohesively (i.e., sentences within a paragraph go together, paragraphs fit together in a cohesive unit), and with logical structure (i.e., your writing makes good sense from beginning to end.). Every grading rubric has a section on organization and mechanics. Let’s take a closer look at what we expect from a well-organized paper with proper mechanics. Organization refers to the extent to which writing is clear, and information is relevant and presented in a logical order from intro to conclusion. Here are some tips to optimize your paper’s organization: 1. Pay attention to word limit and stay under it. For the most part, papers should be roughly 6-9 paragraphs, give or take. 2. Sentences within a paragraph, and paragraphs within a section, should fit cohesively together and flow logically. 3. To achieve a well-written, organized, coherent paper, outline your paragraphs before you start writing. Mechanics refers to how your sentences are constructed, and the frequency of mistakes related to grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Everyone makes mistakes now and then, but frequent mistakes are avoided by paying close attention, and using the spelling and grammar checks before submitting your paper. Some frequent mechanics errors I see include: 1. Run-on sentences. Run-on sentences usually happen when you connect two independent clauses incorrectly. In a run-on sentence, you can actually easily make two sentences by merely adding a period (that is one way to fix it). Another way to fix a run-on sentence is to join the clauses with a comma, a conjunction, or a semicolon. Grammarly has some great examples of run-ons and how to fix them. Give them a read. 2. Subject-verb agreement. If you are unsure if your subject is singular or plural, take some time to look it up. Note that “data” is always plural. So, when writing about data as your subject, your verbs must agree. Data are…, not data is. Data show…,not data shows. 3. Casual, colloquial language. There is a time and place for casual, colloquial writing (here, for example). Your integration components, however, are intended for you to practice your professional, scientific writing. When writing for a professional, scientific audience, avoid overly casual and colloquial phrasing. I strongly encourage you to organize your thoughts into a topic-sentence outline (that corresponds to assignment sections) before writing paragraphs. So often, unclear writing is simply an outcome of unclear thinking. Crafting a topic-sentence outline and really thinking about what you want to say, will help with this. My aim with this announcement is to help set expectations and give you strategies to improve your writing. How you answer the integration component prompts/sections (i.e., the content) is the most important part, and is weighted heavier than style/mechanics. In previous semesters, students tend to have more questions about the writing expectations, so I wanted to provide information on writing conventions up front.