Assignment task:
Jamisha is a 7-year-old girl with Fragile X syndrome. She is a recent arrival to your clinic, and you are the Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) developing and overseeing her programming. There will be two Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT) who will be working with Jamisha on a daily basis, from 8:30-3:00pm. Although she does have some language, it is pretty minimal and she mostly points, grunts, and drags people to things she wants, or tries to walk away if she doesn't want to do something. She has about five words she can consistently use to request preferred foods. You immediately begin implementing a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to address this communication barrier. You will still be teaching her to vocally communicate as you work on PECS.
In addition to communication problems, which you are addressing, there are significant skill deficits. One area that stands out is a lack of basic receptive and expressive language - she is unable to hand you requested items (receptive) and is unable to vocally label items (expressive). These are going to be areas to target, and you know it would be best to start with teaching her to receptively and expressively identify the things she's likely to come into contact with on a daily basis (e.g., toys, clothes, common items) and receptive comply with instructions (e.g., come here, clap your hands, stand up). These will be your first targets, and you know you'll use Discrete Trial Training to teach these behaviors.
Given that her language is so minimal, and instruction will be intense, it is essential that you develop a list of potential reinforcers. She is unable to tell you the things you like, and her parents say, "it just changes from day to day." You know you'll need to run preference assessments, and fairly frequently.
Section I: Preference assessment using free operant preference assessment
Identify a specific preference assessment(free operant) you think would be most appropriate for the situation. Provide a justification for this procedure over other potential procedures.
In detail, describe the steps of the procedure you selected (e.g., what are the steps specifically? How many trials will you conduct? How will you determine item preference? How often will you conduct the preference assessment? Etc.).
Develop a data sheet to accompany your preference assessment.