The child on which I am writing this paper is completely imaginary. First of all allow me to lay out the bio of the child; he is 5 years old, both of his parents are together, normal height and weight, good student, comes from a hard working middle class family. .
The behavior that I am seeking to change is a gross bad habit. That bad habit is placing chewed bubble gum under chairs, table, counters and anywhere else that has an under ledge or spot to stick old gum too. It's even gotten as bad as seeing a couple of pieces on the living room carpet. What is very interesting is that Sean began to demonstrate this behavior after he met his cousin Jorge who is 2 years older that he is. Sean's cousin just moved here and both of the boys had never met each other until 6 months ago. Jorge's parents have been divorced ever since he was one year old. .
After the first time that Sean met Jorge, Sean was a little disobedient, but after about a week everything went back to normal. Then 3 weeks later both of the children met again, after this encounter is when Sean began sticking his gum under items. Jorge most likely is the antecedent triggering this negative behavior. .
One of the easiest ways to measure if the plan is successful is to inspect random items of furniture and look closely at the carpet to look for gum. Depending on how many pieces I find, that will determine the outcome of either using a token economy or of punishment.
The behavior will be changed in a solid month. Gradually the child should begin to stop his bad habit. Sean loves going to the movies and buying popcorn, soda and candy, and on the weekends he also enjoys watching his Saturday morning cartoons with a big stack of hot cakes in front of him. Out of the previous two actions, one will be the reinforcement and the other will be a form of low level punishment. Once I see that the bad habit has been eliminated, then the token economy or the punishment will be eliminated.
