As part of the requirements for this course, you will complete a research paper on a behavior of interest to you. In your Unit 5 discussion, you identified your topic and got your instructor’s approval. In this unit, complete your research and evaluate the methodologies used to define the behavior, the ways in which that behavior is measured in the ABA field, and the treatment methodologies and experimental designs utilized to treat that behavior. You must synthesize the findings of at least five recent journal articles in your final paper. Be sure to address all components in the scoring guide for distinguished work.
Assignment Requirements
Your assignment should meet the following requirements:
• Written communication: Should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to current APA style guidelines. (7TH EDITION APA)
• Resources: A minimum of five scholarly or professional resources.
• Length: 5–10 double-spaced pages, including title page and references.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.
This is my specific topic
The specific target behavior I will discuss for Unit 10 assignment is self-injurious behavior. Self-injurious behavior can commonly be viewed as a personal inflicted behavior that can result to physical harm. Within the case of 14-year-old Travis, self-injurious behavior was classified as using either hand to hit any part of the face, head, or helmet with a closed fist (Banda et al., 2012).
Subject and setting
The subject of interest for this particular case was a 14-year-old boy by the name of Travis. Travis was both autism and Tourette’s syndrome, and was nonverbal. There was a common frequency of SIB displayed by Travis in which severe safety precautions were put into place. Such precautions included padded boxing helmet and light boxing gloves. He repeatedly hit the side of his helmet with a closed fist, in which direct observations revealed that head‐hitting occurred an average of 3 times per minute throughout most of his daily activities (Banda et al., 2012).
The setting of the assessment took place in a secluded classroom, in which, Travis sat at a 1.8 m semicircular table in a 3.7 m × 4.3 m room that was separated from the rest of the classroom by a curtain (Banda et al., 2012).
Design and internal, external, and social validity.
The dependent variable was measured using frequency counts, the third author collected data for all sessions using a stopwatch to time the intervals and a simple tally system to record the frequency of hits in 5‐min sessions, and the data were graphed as the number of hits in 5‐min sessions (Banda et al., 2012). ABAB design was used in this study to evaluate the effect of intervention (Banda et al., 2012). There was a high social validity from parent and teachers (Banda et al., 2012).
Treatment
Intervention was used throughout the treatment process. During the first intervention phase, the student was allowed to hold one large blanket in his hands during 5‐min work sessions while he continued to wear the boxing helmet and gloves (Banda et al., 2012). For daily intervention sessions, the student was asked to bring the blanket he was holding when the researcher arrived to the work table (Banda et al., 2012).
In addition, the researchers trained the teaching assistant to use reinforcement (i.e., social attention) on fixed interval (FI) schedule (10 s) and ignore the occurrence of SIB during the work sessions (Banda et al., 2012). The teaching assistant provided reinforcement every 10 s when Travis did not hit himself (e.g., ‘good job’ or ‘nice work’) (Banda et al., 2012). The teacher would not talk to Travis for 10 seconds if he hit himself. Praise was given to Travis if he completed a task without hitting himself. If SIB took place, the TA would say ‘No’ or ‘Don’t hit’, and blocked SIB, and Travis did not have access to blankets during baseline but did wear a boxing helmet and gloves (Banda et al., 2012). Fading was also implemented, in which the more Travis did not induce SIB the less the blanket was given.
Conclusion
In first baseline phase, Travis hit himself an average of 21.3 hits per session (range 12–32) (Banda et al., 2012). During the first intervention phase, the level of Travis’s SIB sharply decreased and averaged 2.1 hits per session (range 0–9); in the quick return to baseline conditions, the level of Travis’s SIB rose above original baseline levels and averaged 37 hits per session (range 35–39); the intervention fading phase, the level of Travis’s SIB again sharply decreased and averaged 1.1 hits per 5‐min session (range 0–6); and data were recorded after 5 and 6 months, and Travis demonstrated no SIB during any session (Banda et al., 2012). In the future, a continuous study of SIB can be conducted until Travis is 20. This can give a more detailed understanding of how the intervention truly helped Travis. During this time, Travis will be out of his teenage years.
Graph consisted of Travis’s SIB per minute during baseline, intervention, fading, and follow‐up phases (Banda et al., 2012).
Reference
Banda, D. R., McAfee, J. K., & Hart, S. L. (2012). Decreasing Self-Injurious Behavior and Fading Self-Restraint in a Student with Autism and Tourette Syndrome. Behavioral Interventions, 27(3), 164–174. https://doi.org/10.1002/bin.1344

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