Sabrina Moore

The At Risk Child in Early Childhood Education

Behavioral Observation/Assessment Paper
April 7th, 2014

Sabrina Moore

Observation/Assessment Paper
1. HISTORY
a. John was fully adopted by his parents in 2011 when he was 1 year old. Prior to
that, his adoptive parents had fostered him for 8 months. He is African American.
His biological mother was addicted to cocaine. He is also the only child in his
family. His adoptive parents are both very well rounded people who are both
greatly involved in his life.
b. The classroom that he was observed in has 20 children on a day to day basis. It is
a full day program so the children are served breakfast, lunch and snacks. The
room that the children are in is a multipurpose room, meaning that they learn, eat,
sleep and play all within the same room. The room is approximately forty feet by
forty feet. The center is opened from 6:30am until 6:30pm however John is
usually only there from 8:30am until about 5:00pm.
c. John and I have a very good relationship. Each day we greet each other with a hug
and discuss how his morning along with his night before went. I have known him
for about a year and a half however he has only been a part of my classroom for
about 7 months.
2. DESCRIPTION OF CHILD
a. I chose this child because they showed a clear behavior that could consider them
to be at risk. Because this child shows this behavior almost daily, it is easy to
gather information to be able to assess their behavior and to create a plan to be
able to help them move past this situation. I also have the opportunity to see this
child five days a week which allows me more time with him so that I am able to
more closely monitor the behaviors.
b. This childs strengths are: he is very loving; he loves to give bear hugs and cuddle
in the mornings. He loves to show off his work, he is very proud of the things that

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he makes, whether it is with crayons or building objects with blocks. He is very

interested in his friend and loves to play with them. He is very confident and does
not doubt his abilities. His challenging behavior is that after lunch, when it is time
to lay down for nap, he is very resistant. Also, at centers, if a child has a toy that
he wants to play with he will take it away from them without asking.
c. This child has been demonstrating difficult behaviors since the first day that he
was placed into my class.
3. TARGET BEHAVIORS
a. The target behavior is that every day after lunch when the child is asked to lay
down on his cot for nap, he refuses. Each day one or more of the following occur,
he screams, throws his stuffed animal and/or his blanket, moves on his cot to
make it screech across the floor, hits/kicks/bites his teacher, runs across the room
and runs to a different place each time the teacher tries to approach him or throws
a tantrum on his cot kicking and hitting at the air. Depending on how aggressive
the child gets, the behavior can last anywhere from 5-25 minutes.
b. The antecedent is asking the child lay down on your cot or it is time to get
ready for nap time.
c. The child is sleeping for a long period of time at night (8:30pm-7:30am as stated
by the father) which could result in them refusing to rest at nap time.
d. The child is generally removed from the room so that he does not wake the other
children up, because of this the consequence is that he avoids taking a nap/resting
at nap time because he is moved to the directors office where there is light and
constant movement aiding him in staying awake.
e. I chose this behavior because it is a behavior that happens on a daily basis so that
it is easy to observe and record and also because if this behavior can be changed,
it will benefit both the child because he will be able to easily get a much needed
rest at nap time and also the classroom because the other children will not be

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disturbed while they are resting and the teacher will not have to struggle with the
child to get him to lay down quietly.
f. This behavior has been occurring in the classroom since John started in
September of 2013, however when talking to his previous teacher, he has the
same issues at nap time in her classroom as well and he was in that room since
September of 2012.
g. This behavior only happens at nap time. According to Johns father, this behavior
does not happen at home prior to bedtime. This behavior also occurs for any
teacher, not just his primary teacher. This meaning that the behavior occurs with
substitutes, assistants or any other adult that is in the room at the time.
4. HYPOTHESIS
a. When John is asked to lay down for nap, he hits and kicks the teacher, yells NO I
DONT WANT TO LAY DOWN and runs to the other side of the classroom, in
order to avoid taking a nap. As a result, Johns teachers remove him from the
room to avoid waking other children up.
b. The hypothesis was determined by observing the child avoiding getting on or
staying on his cot and when asked to lay down for nap, screaming, kicking, hitting
and showing other aggressive behaviors that would lead one to assume that he
does not want to take a nap.
c. The data collection forms that I used were:
i. Functional Assessment Form (A-1)/Planning Sheet
ii. Motivation Assessment Scale
iii. ABC Observation Form
d. The Functional Assessment Form provided the information of when the behavior
is most likely to occur and in what situations are most likely to set off the
behavior. It allows you to see the different types of aggression that is present in
the behavior and gives a small insight to the home life of the child to allow you to
see if this behavior is also present at home and to what degree is happens at home.

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The Motivational Assessment Scale gives you a general idea of the function that
is behind the childs challenging behavior, while the ABC observation form
provided the antecedent for the behavior.
5. DESCRIBE PLAN
a. The prevention strategies that we would teach to John are as follows: Using visual
cue cards to help him remember what to do in times of distress, pre-teach verbal
and physical skills by role playing with a scripted story. We would then teach him
the new skills which consist of placing his hand out in front of him and saying
stop prior to an adult approaching him and then he can move himself to the
cozy corner for 5 minutes and relax prior to laying down on his cot for rest time.
Another option is that John may ask the adult, in a calm manner, for a silent
activity to work on for 5 minutes prior to rest time such as reading a book or
playing with play-dough. If it is the beginning of a tantrum, we will show John his
visual cue cards that has pictures of an upset adult and sleeping children to help
remind him that he needs to be mindful of others feelings. After he sees the cue
cards we will remind him that he has other options aside from just laying down
for nap. Such as cozy corner time or silent activity time. John will also have a
sticker chat and every time he has a good day lying down for nap, he will get to
place a sticker on his chart when he wakes up. If he does not have a good nap
time or does not transition well from cozy corner or silent activity to nap time, he
does not get to place a sticker on the cart. After five stickers, John will receive a
special prize such as a car or a train. With these new skills come new adult
responses. When John is throwing a tantrum, the adult should show the cue cards
of the sleeping children and the upset adult and then calmly remind John that he

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has other options aside from lying down from nap right away. Also remind John
that if he does a good job laying down, he will get to place a sicker on his chart
when he wakes up. Then the adult should allow John a moment to consider his
options and allow him to make a decision. After a few moments, if John has not
made a decision, ask him again if he would like to choose one of the other options
instead of lying down for nap right away and if he does not make a decision the
adult should make a decision for him. John will then be able to try again the
following day.
b. We are implementing the prevent, teach and reinforce strategies in hope that they
will help John with the transition from lunch into nap time. John is very loving
and cares deeply how others feel about him so we are showing him the cue cards
of the children sleep and the upset adult so that he can understand what emotions
his actions are creating. We are using the sicker chart with prizes such as cars and
trains because those are some of his favorite actives and he may lay quietly with
the knowledge that there is an incentive that will come from it. We are using the
physical action of holding his hand up and saying stop and allowing him to go to
the cozy corner to prevent him from starting the tantrum in the first place.
c. The teacher and the assistant will implement the plan. Also any substitute teacher
that is placed into the classroom will be informed of the plan. The parents will
also be informed of the plan and are requested to follow it to keep the child on
consistent schedule.
d. The parents will be informed of the plan. Also, if the issue occurs at home on the
weekends during nap or any night prior to bed time, they will be given copies of
the same cue cards that are used at school along with copies of the sticker chart

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that is used in the classroom so that they can follow the plan the same way that it
is done at school.
6. WHAT COULD GO WRONG
a. The variables in my plan are: the mood that the child is in that day, the adults that
are in the room implementing the plan, if there is a special event going on that day
that prevents the routine from occurring.
b. The things that could go wrong in this behavior plan are: A substitute teacher
could misread the directions and not follow the plan as it is usually preformed,
John may not be as comfortable with a substitute teacher and therefore will not
react the same to their instructions as he may with his primary teacher, John could
continue to still throw tantrums after this cozy corner time or silent activity time,
making those choices irrelevant because they are not preventing the behavior.