Enhancing Staff Attendance in an ABA Startup Through Shaping Procedures
Scenario
You are an experienced BCBA who is consulting at a startup ABA company. The owner is working to put policies and procedures in place. The first policy to go into place is an attendance policy. The staff are calling out at least once per week, on average, and they are missing 4-5 days of work each month resulting in client cancellations. The owner feels that 4-6 unscheduled absences per year would be acceptable. The owner sent out a survey and followed the FBA process to determine the function of the absenteeism. He hypothesizes the function of behavior is escape/avoidance. The owner has asked for your help rolling out a shaping procedure for staff attendance.
Discussion
Please complete your assigned readings and respond to the following:
Determine a starting behavior, the terminal behavior, and at least two successive approximations between them.
Provide an operational definition for the terminal behavior.
Explain how the shaping procedure would be implemented. What behaviors would be reinforced and placed on extinction throughout the shaping process?
Consider the hypothesized function of behavior. What is a desired alternative behavior? What are some reinforcers you might suggest to reinforce the successive approximations and the terminal behavior? (Hint: Consider the size of the reinforcer should match the proximity to the terminal behavior.)
References
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2019). Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson Education (US).
Please read the following chapter in your text, Applied Behavior Analysis:
Chapter 22: “Shaping”
Chapter 23: “Chaining”
Please read the following chapter in your text, Ethics for Behavior Analysts:
Chapter 9: “Section 4: Responsibility to Supervisees and Trainees”
Library Readin
Chapter 14: “Use Shaping Effectively” in 25 Essential Skills and Strategies for the Professional Behavior Analyst: Expert Tips for Maximizing Consulting Effectiveness (Bailey & Burch, 2010)
Enhancing Staff Attendance in an ABA Startup Through Shaping Procedures
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Understanding how to deal with absenteeism is essential, not only for business owners but also for organizational managers. It allows for a better understanding of the causes of delay and how to deal with current bottlenecks in the organization, thereby increasing efficiency within the organization. Accordingly, this article will focus on the case of 'high staff absenteeism' in an organization, which causes higher costs, reduced efficiency, and bottlenecks in the company's operations. Upon reaching the end of this paper, the author would like to utilize Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in order to reduce unscheduled absences to an acceptable level of 4-6 per year and establish a foundation for ethical, data-driven problem-solving within the company's framework.
Scenario Analysis
As mentioned in the case, the company faces frequent client cancellations due to staff absenteeism, which compromises