Case Study Vignettes to use for Role Play
Case Study 1: Ricky1
Roles to assign
General education classroom teacher, special education classroom teacher, behavior specialist, school nurse, parent, school counselor/psychologist, speech and language pathologist.
Vignette
“Ricky is a sociable, dark-haired 9-year-old, one of four children born to a Spanish-speaking, migrant farm worker’s family in California. Ricky was born prematurely and sustained serious complications following birth. He has developmental disabilities (described as severe mental retardation) and serious behavior disorders, including episodes of self-destructive behavior and violence toward property and other children. Most of the time, however, Ricky is pleasant, sociable, and attentive…
Ricky’s family lived in a town in Central California. There, Ricky was placed by the County Office of Education in a separate school for children with severe disabilities called a “Developmental Center for the Handicapped.” It was there that Ricky “developed” some of the more extreme forms of his aberrant behavior patterns. Services available to Ricky’s family in the central California town were few and inadequate. The school offered no after-school programs and no advice to the family on how to look after Ricky at home and in the community. Because of Ricky’s worsening condition, one regional caseworker from the developmental disabilities service agency recommended an evaluation for institutional placement, an option that Ricky’s mother would not consider. When the same agency responded to its own budget problems by withdrawing respite care support for Ricky’s family, the family made the decision to move to relocate.”
Instructions
You are members of Ricky’s interdisciplinary team at his new school. You have been provided with a minimum of documents from his old school, but his mother is present and can give some historical information. Your first goal is evaluate Ricky’s problem behavior and identify several possible approaches for assessment and intervention. What approaches would you be most likely to recommend, given your role on the team?
Based on a case study in: Sailor, W. (1996). New structures and systems change for comprehensive positive behavioral support. In L. K. Koegel, R. L. Koegel, & G. Dunlap (Eds.), Positive behavioral support: Including people with difficult behavior in the community (pp. 163-206). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.