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 workers 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

Rickys 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 Rickys 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 Rickys worsening condition, one
regional caseworker from the developmental disabilities service agency recommended an
evaluation for institutional placement, an option that Rickys mother would not consider.
When the same agency responded to its own budget problems by withdrawing respite
care support for Rickys family, the family made the decision to move to relocate.

Instructions
You are members of Rickys 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 Rickys 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.