In this course, students will focus on best practices when assessing target behaviors to both increase and decrease. Students will learn indirect assessment and direct observation methods, experimental (functional) analysis, and methods to assess stimulus preference and adaptive, social, and communication skills. In addition, students will learn how to assimilate information derived from these methods to arrive at hypotheses of the function of a behavior and how to select an intervention method based on assessment results while using evidence-based practices in behavior analysis. Finally, ethical issues related to functional assessment and undesired side-effects of intervention strategies will be discussed.
Prerequisites
Permission of Program Director required