ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION FOR THE PROBLEM BEHAVIORS OF AN ADULT AT HOME

Damon, a 37-year-old man with severe retardation (IQ = 39), lived at h ome with his mother and, for the past 15 years, had worked in a shelte red workshop. Incidents of problem behavior had been rare both at home and at work. Two weeks before this study started, Damon's behavior ch anged suddenly. When asked to get up in the morning to get ready for w ork, he yelled, ''No'' and threw things at his mother. If she persiste d, his behavior escalated into hitting, kicking, and swearing. This st udy was conducted in two phases. The first phase, which combined descr iptive and experimental (analogue) methods, indicated that Damon's pro blem behaviors were escape motivated, but did not indicate the specifi c activities or conditions from which Damon wanted to escape. The seco nd phase included additional descriptive assessment with the workshop staff, and hypothesis development and hypothesis testing and intervent ion within naturally occurring routines at home. These procedures iden tified that Damon's problem behaviors did not occur when he was able t o participate in a more preferred activity (a day activity program), w hether or not he was allowed to choose the preferred activity. The res ultant intervention immediately eliminated all problem behavior and re ceived very high treatment acceptability ratings from Damon's mother, the person who was directly responsible for its implementation in the home.