ABSTRACT
A Board Certi‡ed Behavior Analyst (BCBA) consulting with a group home receives a referral for a young developmentally disabled man who is described as engaging in “self-stimulatory behavior.” He asks the staŠ to begin data collection, which involves counting the number of incidents per day. Two weeks later he reviews the baseline data and tells staŠ members that they do not have a signi‡cant problem and not to worry because the behavior is occurring only two to three
times per day. On his next visit, the BCBA inquires about the client only to discover that he was taken to the emergency room with lacerations to his scalp requiring six stitches. A review of the case determined that the BCBA failed to inquire about the severity of the behaviors and failed to ask the nursing staŠ to perform skin ratings.
