Search

An interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA; Hanley et al. in J Appl Behav Anal 47:16-36, 2014) and related skill-based treatment process can result in socially valid outcomes for clients exhibiting severe challenging behavior when implemented by professionals and then transferred to parents (e.g., Santiago et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 46:797-811, 2016). However, many families do not have access to professionals trained to implement functional analyses or function-based treatments (Deochand & Fuqua Behav Anal Pract 9:243-252, 2016). Experimenters in the present study coached three parents of children with autism exhibiting severe challenging behavior through implementing an IISCA and resulting skill-based treatment process through distance-based collaborative consulting. All parents achieved differentiated functional analyses, taught their children to emit functional replacement skills, and reduced challenging behavior relative to baseline., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Functional analyses often involve extended exposure to evocative events and problem behavior, which potentially places the client at risk of retraumatization. The performance-based, interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) is a brief analysis that is conducted in a single session and applies a trauma-assumed framework in the development of the assessment procedures (e.g., measures of calm, reinforcing precursors to avoid escalation and physical management). We conducted 12 applications of the performance-based IISCA in the United States and Brazil and (1) compared the results to a subset of 7 applications who also experienced the original IISCA and (2) incorporated a function-based treatment informed by the performance-based IISCA in a further subset of 5 of those 12 applications. The results support the use of the performance-based IISCA in that this variation of the IISCA corresponded with the original IISCA and informed effective treatment of problem behavior., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-023-00792-2., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interestTess Fruchtman declares no conflict of interest. Natasha Raghunauth-Zaman declares no conflict of interest. Aaron Leyman declares no conflict of interest. Felipe M. Lemos declares no conflict of interest. Henrique Costa Val declares no conflict of interest. Monica Howard declares no conflict of interest., (© Association for Behavior Analysis International 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

Food selectivity affects up to 72% and 45% of individuals with and without disabilities, respectively, and there is a need for interventions that rely on positive, unrestrictive strategies. We evaluated an assessment and treatment package for food selectivity for young children with developmental disabilities that prioritized caregiver collaboration, client autonomy, and did not rely on restrictive procedures (e.g. escape extinction). The process involved: (a) collaborating with caregivers on the selection of foods and design of the children's functional analyses; (b) indirectly and directly measuring food preferences prior to treatment; (c) evaluating the sensitivity of mealtime problem behavior to environmental variables through an interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA); and (c) incorporating the assessment results into a progressive treatment process consisting of choice-making opportunities and differential reinforcement of successive approximations to consumption. Children also had the ability to opt in and out of treatment sessions. The treatment was effective in increasing consumption of nonpreferred foods and successfully extended to caregivers. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors., (© The British Society of Developmental Disabilities 2022.)

Functional analyses are often conducted by behavior analysts to understand the environmental variables contributing to an individual's problem behavior to better inform treatment implementation. While functional analyses are integral for designing function-based interventions, they often arrange contingencies to evoke and reinforce dangerous problem behavior. In Study 1 we reviewed 22 functional analyses with open-contingency classes including non-dangerous topographies of problem behavior and we found that participants were more likely to exhibit the non-dangerous behavior in 82% of the applications. We then conducted a single-subject comparison of closed and open-contingency classes with four additional participants in Study 2. Our results suggest that the functional analyses with the open-contingency class reduced the likelihood of observing dangerous problem behavior.

Reinforcers can be delivered dependent on or independent of responding. Both human and nonhuman animals have shown a preference for contexts involving contingent reinforcement, but the generality of this phenomenon to humans and its implications have not yet been described. We present an integrative summary of studies evaluating preference for contingent versus noncontingent reinforcement, including (a) study participants, reinforcer types, response topographies, and contexts; (b) outcomes; (c) potential variables influencing preference outcomes; and (d) suggestions regarding research to expand behavior analysts' ability to design preferred contexts., (© 2021 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB).)

Saini et al. (2019) urged caution with respect to the use of practical functional assessment (PFA) procedures to inform behavioral treatment when they found that responses to an open-ended caregiver interview were only somewhat reliable and showed moderate to weak correspondence with analog functional analyses. Because the practitioner's goal in conducting any functional assessment process is to inform the successful treatment of problem behavior, we replicated and extended Saini et al. by (a) evaluating the reliability of hypotheses gleaned from two independent PFA processes for each of four children, (b) conducting treatment informed by a randomly assigned PFA, and (c) determining the extent to which potentially different levels of reliability impacted the treatment utility of the PFA process. Results indicated that the reliability of the PFA process varied depending on the stringency with which it was evaluated. However, treatments developed from randomly determined PFA processes produced efficacious outcomes on problem behavior and targeted social skills that transferred to the context designed from the other PFA process in all evaluations, suggesting that the PFA has strong treatment utility despite parts of the process having ambiguous levels of reliability. We discuss implications for practitioners tasked with treating severe problem behavior., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest., (© Association for Behavior Analysis International 2022.)

When reported, the methods for prompting functional communication responses (FCRs) following problem behavior during functional communication training (FCT) vary. Some researchers have prompted the FCR immediately following problem behavior but doing so may inadvertently strengthen problem behavior as the first link in an undesirable response chain. This study investigated the effects of prompting FCRs following problem behavior during FCT with 4 children who exhibited severe problem behavior. Problem behavior remained low and FCR rates were near optimal when prompts were delivered immediately following problem behavior for 2 participants. Delaying prompts following problem behavior was instrumental for FCR acquisition for 1 participant but led to escalation of problem behavior for a 2nd participant. The conditions under which immediate prompts following problem behavior may improve or worsen FCT are discussed., (© 2021 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB).)

Despite a growing acknowledgement of the importance of understanding the impacts of trauma on therapeutic approaches across human service disciplines, discussions of trauma have been relatively infrequent in the behavior analytic literature. In this paper, we delineate some of the barriers to discussing and investigating trauma in applied behavior analysis (ABA) and describe how the core commitments of trauma-informed care could be applied to behavior analysis. We then provide some examples of how trauma-informed care might be incorporated into ABA practice. We conclude by suggesting opportunities to approach trauma as a viable avenue for behavior analytic research and argue that omitting trauma-informed care from ABA could be detrimental not only to the public perception of ABA, but to the effectiveness of our assessment and treatment procedures., (© 2021 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB).)

General and long-term outcomes of functional analysis training have not yet been reported. Within a randomized control trial, we trained 18 behavior analytic practitioners to interview caregivers, design and then conduct a personalized analysis as a part of a practical functional assessment (PFA). Participants were randomly assigned to groups, and those who experienced the seminar prior to conducting PFA with a confederate demonstrated more component skills than those who were provided the same materials but did not experience the seminar (mean scores: 87%, 36% respectively). Participants who experienced the seminar considered the training valuable and reported greater confidence in their ability to achieve control in an analysis. Several participants then conducted a PFA with a client who engaged in SPB. Results showed that skills transferred to these authentic applications. Results suggest that a seminar-based training can increase practitioners' ability to functionally analyze problem behavior and leads to subsequent analytic activity., (© 2021 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB).)

Reinforcement procedures are the cornerstone of behavioral interventions. Previous research has focused on manipulating parameters of reinforcement including quality, magnitude, and rate. In this study, we sought to better understand ways to implement reinforcer choice and variation, and to assess preference for these parameters. Across 10 participants with and without disabilities, we assessed preference for varied reinforcement conditions, as well as choice of reinforcers in a concurrent-chains arrangement. Most participants preferred varied reinforcement conditions and subsequently, choice of reinforcers, over a previously preferred varied reinforcement condition. Implications for reinforcement arrangement in teaching situations are discussed., (© 2021 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB).)

To address dangerous problem behavior exhibited by children while explicitly avoiding physical management procedures, we systematically replicated and extended the skill-based treatment procedures described by Hanley, Jin, Vanselow, and Hanratty (2014) by incorporating an enhanced choice model with three children in an outpatient clinic and two in a specialized public school. In this model, several tactics were simultaneously added to the skill-based treatment package to minimize escalation to dangerous behavior, the most notable of which involved offering children multiple choice-making opportunities, including the ongoing options to (a) participate in treatment involving differential reinforcement, (b) "hang out" with noncontingent access to putative reinforcers, or (c) leave the therapeutic space altogether. Children overwhelmingly chose to participate in treatment, which resulted in the elimination of problem behavior and the acquisition and maintenance of adaptive skills during lengthy, challenging periods of nonreinforcement. Implications for the safe implementation of socially valid treatments for problem behavior are discussed., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© Association for Behavior Analysis International 2021.)

Programs that prevent the development of severe problem behavior in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are critically needed. We describe a program designed to do this, and we report on a preliminary evaluation of its effects with four 3- and 4-year-old children with ASD. Parents served as the primary implementers, with twice-weekly coaching from a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Direct measures and Aberrant Behavior Checklist scores reflected decreases in emerging problem behavior. Direct measures also reflected increases in child communication, social, and cooperation skills, and parents rated the process as highly acceptable. A randomized controlled trial will be required to evaluate the extent to which the program prevents the development of problem behavior in young children with ASD., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-020-00490-3., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestDuring the peer review and publication process for this manuscript, Kelsey Ruppel and Gregory Hanley received salaries from FTF Behavioral Consulting, an organization that offers training on the Balance Program among other services. Neither were employed by FTF Behavioral Consulting before or during the conduct of the study. Robin Landa and Adithyan Rajaraman declare no conflict of interest., (© Association for Behavior Analysis International 2020.)

When problem behavior is controlled by a synthesized reinforcement contingency, a simple omnibus mand that yields access to all reinforcers simultaneously has been shown to effectively replace problem behavior. The question arises as to whether teaching an omnibus mand will preclude the acquisition of specifying mands for each of the combined reinforcers. In this study, after 3 students diagnosed with autism acquired an omnibus mand ("My way, please") that yielded all identified reinforcers simultaneously, specifying mands (e.g., "All done," "May I have my toys?" "Play with me") were taught to yield each individual reinforcer (e.g., escape, tangibles, attention). Problem behavior was immediately eliminated for all children, and the omnibus mand was acquired quickly. Teaching an omnibus mand did not preclude acquisition of specifying mands for any learner and instead allowed for the acquisition of specifying mands once problem behavior had been effectively reduced., (© 2020 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB).)

Functional communication training (FCT; Carr & Durand, 1985) is a common function-based treatment in which an alternative form of communication is taught to reduce problem behavior. FCT has been shown to result in substantial reductions of a variety of topographically and functionally different types of problem behavior in children and adults (efficacy). The extent to which these reductions maintain in relevant contexts and result in meaningful changes in the lives of those impacted (effectiveness) is the focus of this paper. This review evaluates the degree to which FCT has been established as an evidence-based practice in psychology (EBPP) according to the definition set out by the American Psychological Association's 2005 Presidential Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice. Our review finds overwhelming evidence in support of FCT as an efficacious treatment but highlights significant limitations in support of its effectiveness. In order to also be recognized as an EBPP, future research on FCT will need to focus more closely on issues related to home, school, and community application, feasibility, consumer satisfaction, and more general and global changes for the individual., (© 2020 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB).)

Bowman et al. (1997) described a dynamic contingency in which severe problem behavior was evoked by adult noncompliance with a variety of child mands, which occurred at high rates, and was reinforced by adult compliance with subsequent mands. They discovered this phenomenon with 2 children for whom standard functional analyses were inconclusive. In recent years, similar contingencies have been shown to influence problem behavior, but the manner in which they have been arranged and described has varied across studies. The purpose of this literature review is to (a) describe contingencies involving mand compliance and the circumstances under which they have been evaluated, (b) summarize procedural variations in analysis and treatment, and (c) discuss what is known and yet to be discovered about the contingency as it relates to problem behavior. Future research focused on improving technology for analyzing and treating problem behavior suspected to be sensitive to mand compliance is discussed., (© 2020 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (SEAB).)

In their review of synthesis within the functional analysis (FA) literature, Slaton and Hanley (2018) reported that most synthesized contingency analyses have included multiple topographies of problem behavior in the reinforcement contingency class. This leaves the question of whether one, some, or all forms of problem behavior are sensitive to the synthesized reinforcement contingencies in published analyses. To address this ambiguity, all topographies of problem behavior that were reported by caregivers to co-occur with the most concerning problem behavior were analyzed for 10 participants. We implemented extinction across one or more forms of problem behavior to determine whether all forms reported to co-occur were sensitive to the same synthesized reinforcement contingency. For nine of 10 participants, the most concerning topographies were sensitive to the same synthesized reinforcement contingencies as the less concerning topographies (results were inconclusive for one). Implications for inferring response class membership from single analyses are discussed., (© 2019 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

We conducted this study to determine if the efficiency of the functional analysis could be improved without detrimental effects on control. In Experiment 1, we reanalyzed functional analyses conducted for the problem behavior of 18 children. We analyzed rates of problem behavior during the first 5 min and first 3 min of the original 10-min sessions and evaluated if changes in the level of control over problem behavior by the programmed contingency were evident from the analyses of shorter session duration. In Experiment 2, we conducted 8 consecutive functional analyses with 3-min sessions to further evaluate the utility of brief session durations. We found that control over problem behavior was demonstrated when conducting functional analyses with sessions as brief as 3 min., (© 2019 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

The functional analysis procedures described in the seminal Iwata et al. (1982/1994) study are prominent in the applied behavior analytic literature, having been replicated hundreds of times over the past 30 years (Beavers, Iwata, & Lerman, 2013; Hanley, McCord, Iwata, 2003). However, the extent to which particular components of this functional analysis model have become more or less prominent over time is not clear from these literature reviews. We therefore conducted a review of the functional analysis literature between the years of 1965 and 2016 to determine the trends in the usage of particular components over time and to determine if the published literature reflects a standardization of the manner in which functional analyses of problem behavior are conducted. Furthermore, we discuss whether or not this standardization of a functional analysis model is currently necessary., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestJoshua Jessel declares that he has no conflict of interest. Gregory P. Hanley declares that he has no conflict of interest. Mahshid Ghaemmaghami declares that she has no conflict of interest., (© Association for Behavior Analysis International 2019.)

Functional analysis (FA) of problem behavior typically includes the contingent delivery of a single reinforcer following problem behavior. However, the FA literature also includes examples of analyses that have delivered multiple reinforcers, arranged multiple establishing operations in one or more test conditions, or both. These analyses have been successfully applied under heterogeneous conditions over several decades and with various synthesized establishing operations and reinforcers, but their qualitative details, outcomes, and contributions to the literature have never been described in a comprehensive manner. The purpose of the current review is to: (a) identify articles that have reported the use of synthesized FAs or treatments; (b) describe the nature and scope of synthesis as it has been applied in the FA literature; (c) analyze outcomes of synthesized FAs and treatments to determine general benefits and disadvantages of synthesis; and (d) offer recommendations for future areas of research., (© 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Response efficiency plays an important role in the initial success of functional communication training (FCT). Although low-effort functional communication responses (FCRs) have been shown to be most effective in replacing problem behavior; more developmentally advanced FCRs are favored later in the treatment process. Attempts to teach these more complex FCRs, however, often lead to the resurgence of problem behavior. In this study, we provide a detailed description of an effective shaping process applied within a changing criterion design to develop complex FCRs from simple FCRs without resurgence of problem behavior. Four children with various language and intellectual abilities participated in this study. A practical shaping procedure, suitable for typical teaching contexts, is described for two participants in Experiment 1. The necessity and efficacy of the shaping process are demonstrated with the participants in Experiment 2. Implications for practice and research are discussed., (© 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Hanley, Jin, Vanselow, and Hanratty (2014) described a functional analysis (FA) format that relied on a synthesis of multiple contingencies described by caregivers during open-ended interviews. These interview-informed synthesized contingency analyses (IISCA) provided effective baselines from which to develop socially validated treatments, but the synthesis precluded a precise understanding of individual contingencies influencing problem behavior. We conducted IISCAs and standard FAs (Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994) for nine children with autism to evaluate the likelihood of differentiation given a number of synthesized versus isolated variables. The IISCA was differentiated for all. The standard FA was differentiated for four; this number increased to six when we included precursors in the standard FA. We then compared treatments based on sets of differentiated analyses for four children. Treatment based on the IISCA was effective for all four; treatments based on the standard FA were effective for two. The role of synthesis in analysis is discussed., (© 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

We evaluated rates of automatically reinforced stereotypy and item engagement for 2 children with autism under multiple and chained schedules in a multielement design. Each schedule included components during which stereotypy was blocked (S-) or allowed (S+), and we used colored cards as schedule-correlated stimuli. We report rates of stereotypy and item engagement during S- and S+ components, as well as the percentage of component time that elapsed before the first instances of stereotypy and item engagement. We observed less stereotypy and more consistent item engagement during chained-schedule sessions, and stimulus control of stereotypy and item engagement was established with the chained schedule. A subsequent concurrent-chains analysis revealed participant preference for the chained schedule. These results highlight the importance of contingent access to stereotypy when therapists attempt to gain stimulus control of stereotypy and increase functional item engagement., (© 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

The speed with which a functional analysis (FA) provides a convincing demonstration of the variables that influence problem behavior may be termed efficiency. Multiple FA formats have been developed to improve analytic efficiency while the core components of the Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, and Richman (1982/1994) procedures are maintained. We attempted to illustrate an alternative efficient process for conducting FAs of problem behavior that relied on modifying those core components. In Study 1, we describe 30 applications of the interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (Hanley, Jin, Vanselow, & Hanratty, 2014), which required an average of 25 min of analysis. The first sessions of these analyses were reanalyzed in Study 2 to determine if contingencies that controlled problem behavior could be identified in only 3 to 5 min. This was the case in 80% of analyses., (© 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

The effectiveness of functional communication training as treatment for problem behavior depends on the extent to which treatment can be extended to typical environments that include unavoidable and unpredictable reinforcement delays. Time-based progressive delay (TBPD) often results in the loss of acquired communication responses and the resurgence of problem behavior, whereas contingency-based progressive delay (CBPD) appears to be effective for increasing tolerance for delayed reinforcement. No direct comparison of TBPD and CBPD has, however, been conducted. We used single-subject designs to compare the relative efficacy of TBPD and CBPD. Four individuals who engaged in problem behavior (e.g., aggression, vocal and motor disruptions, self-injury) participated. Results were consistent across all participants, and showed lower rates of problem behavior and collateral responses during CBPD than during TBPD. The generality of CBPD treatment effects, including optimal rates of communication and compliance with demands, was demonstrated across a small but heterogeneous group of participants, reinforcement contingencies, and contexts., (© 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Using procedures similar to those of Tiger, Hanley, and Heal (2006), we compared two multiple-schedule variations (S+/S- and S+ only) to treat high-rate requests for edible items in the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). Two individuals with autism participated, after they showed persistent requests for edible items after PECS training. Stimulus control was achieved only with the multiple schedule that involved presentation of a discriminative stimulus during reinforcement components and its removal during extinction components (S+ only). Discriminated requests were maintained for the 1 participant who experienced schedule thinning., (© 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Transitions with nonhuman animals are typically framed as inescapable changes in signaled reinforcement schedules that result in a pause in responding unique to switches from rich to lean schedules. Pausing is considered to be a function of the aversive qualities of the contrasting reinforcement schedules. Transitions are typically framed in applied research as physical changes in location that evoke problem behavior maintained by the escape of an aversive event or resumption of a preferred event. We attempted to extend the basic framing of transitions to behaviors and contexts of social significance and evaluate a novel treatment for the problem of dawdling by 3 boys who had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder during rich-to-lean transitions. Dawdling during physical transitions was most readily observed when transitioning to lean contexts in Experiment 1. We then shortened transition duration in Experiment 2 by programming unsignaled and probabilistic rich reinforcement in the upcoming context., (© 2016 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Behavioral interventions preceded by a functional analysis have been proven efficacious in treating severe problem behavior associated with autism. There is, however, a lack of research showing socially validated outcomes when assessment and treatment procedures are conducted by ecologically relevant individuals in typical settings. In this study, interview-informed functional analyses and skill-based treatments (Hanley et al. in J Appl Behav Anal 47:16-36, 2014) were applied by a teacher and home-based provider in the classroom and home of two children with autism. The function-based treatments resulted in socially validated reductions in severe problem behavior (self-injury, aggression, property destruction). Furthermore, skills lacking in baseline-functional communication, denial and delay tolerance, and compliance with adult instructions-occurred with regularity following intervention. The generality and costs of the process are discussed.

Several studies have shown that children prefer contingent reinforcement (CR) rather than yoked noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) when continuous reinforcement is programmed in the CR schedule. Preference has not, however, been evaluated for practical schedules that involve CR. In Study 1, we assessed 5 children's preference for obtaining social interaction via a multiple schedule (periods of fixed-ratio 1 reinforcement alternating with periods of extinction), a briefly signaled delayed reinforcement schedule, and an NCR schedule. The multiple schedule promoted the most efficient level of responding. In general, children chose to experience the multiple schedule and avoided the delay and NCR schedules, indicating that they preferred multiple schedules as the means to arrange practical schedules of social interaction. In Study 2, we evaluated potential controlling variables that influenced 1 child's preference for the multiple schedule and found that the strong positive contingency was the primary variable., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

We used a multiple baseline design across skills to evaluate the effects of a program to teach a classroom of children to respond to their name and a group call (i.e., precursors) as well as to peer mediate these precursors to promote compliance with a variety of multistep instructions. Teachers taught these skills via classwide behavior skills training and a lottery-based reward contingency. Results showed that precursors to compliance, peer mediation, and compliance increased as a function of classwide teaching, and the teachers found the procedures and their effects to be highly acceptable., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

The preschool life skills (PLS) program (Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007; Luczynski & Hanley, 2013) involves teaching social skills as a means of decreasing and preventing problem behavior. However, achieving durable outcomes as children transition across educational settings depend on the generalization and long-term maintenance of those skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate procedures for promoting generalization and long-term maintenance of functional communication and self-control skills for 6 preschool children. When the children's social skills decreased across repeated observations during a generalization assessment, we incorporated modifications to the teaching procedures. However, the effects of the modifications were variable across skills and children. Satisfactory generalization was observed only after the teacher was informed of the target skills and teaching strategies. Maintenance of most social skills was observed 3 months after teaching was discontinued. We discuss the importance of improving child and teacher behavior to promote generalization and maintenance of important social skills., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

In an attempt to address risk factors associated with extensive nonfamilial child care, we implemented the preschool life skills (PLS) program (Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007) in two community-based Head Start classrooms. A multiple baseline design across classrooms, repeated across skills, showed that the program resulted in a 5-fold increase in PLS and an accompanying reduction in problem behavior, replicating the effects observed by Hanley et al. (2007)., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Problem behaviors like self-injury, aggression, or disruption will likely require intervention at some point in the life of a person diagnosed with autism. Behavioral intervention has been proven to be effective for addressing these problems, especially when a functional assessment is conducted. Comprehensive treatment for problem behavior is, however, often fractured across studies, resulting in a dearth of studies that show socially validated improvements in these problem behaviors or illustrate the assessment and treatment process from start to finish. In this article, we describe an effective, comprehensive, and parent-validated functional assessment and treatment process for the severe problem behaviors of 3 children with autism. After an 8- to 14-week outpatient clinic consultation, no problem behavior was observed at the clinic and in the home. Furthermore, behavior that did not occur during baseline (e.g., functional communication, delay and denial tolerance, and compliance with instructions) occurred with regularity.

Previous research has demonstrated the efficacy of behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) for teaching children to protect themselves. However, BST may be resource intensive and difficult to implement on a large scale. We evaluated a computerized version of BST (CBST) to teach safety skills and determined the extent to which safety skills generalized across different dangers. In Study 1, 11 children learned, via CBST and IST, to respond safely when asked to leave with a stranger. In Studies 2 and 3, IST was implemented with 16 children for 1 or 2 dangers after exposure to CBST for 3 dangers. Participants correctly self-protected from dangers after CBST and IST, and performance generalized to similar dangers for which participants did not receive IST. CBST may be an acceptable substitute for BST when combined with IST to improve efficiency and maintain efficacy in a comprehensive safety skills program., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Although researchers have evaluated assessment methods for identifying preferred tangible and edible items for children with developmental disabilities, few have evaluated assessment methods for identifying preferred topographies of attention. In the current study, indirect and direct assessments were conducted to identify 7 topographies of attention to include in subsequent preference and reinforcer assessments. Two different assessment formats were evaluated until reliable results were achieved with 1 of them. In both formats, a therapist presented photos that depicted the topographies of attention included in the stimulus array, and a control card (resulting in no consequence) was included. After evaluation of the 2 formats, a reinforcer assessment was conducted with a socially relevant target behavior (i.e., mands) to determine the predictive validity of the preference assessments., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

We used a multiple baseline design across behaviors to evaluate peer-mediated behavioral skills training to improve a complex repertoire of conversational skills of an undergraduate student diagnosed with a learning disability NOS. Following treatment, we observed a decrease in interrupting and content specificity and an increase in questioning. Treatment effects maintained with naïve peers during unstructured conversations and outcomes compared favorably with normative data on the conversational skills of three undergraduates without learning disabilities.

We used a multiple baseline design across participants to evaluate the effects of teaching 4 typically developing preschoolers to attend to their names and to a group call (referred to as precursors) on their compliance with typical classroom instructions. We then measured the extent to which the effects on both precursors and compliance were maintained when the teaching procedures were removed. Levels of compliance eventually decreased for all children. A multiple baseline design across participants was then used to evaluate the effects of peer mediation on the maintenance of precursors and compliance. Peer mediation involved teaching the children to either remind one another to engage in a precursor or praise one another for engaging in a precursor. Compliance improved with all children as a function of teaching precursors, and these changes were maintained through the use of peer mediation., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

We evaluated the effects of the preschool life skills program (PLS; Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007) on the acquisition and maintenance of functional communication and self-control skills, as well as its effect on problem behavior, of small groups of preschoolers at risk for school failure. Six children were taught to request teacher attention, teacher assistance, and preferred materials, and to tolerate delays to and denial of those events during child-led, small-group activities. Teaching strategies included instruction, modeling, role play, and differential reinforcement. Six additional children randomly assigned to similarly sized control groups participated in small-group activities but did not experience the PLS program. Within-subject and between-groups designs showed that the PLS teaching procedures were functionally related to the improvements and maintenance of the skills and prevention of problem behavior. Stakeholder responses on a social acceptability questionnaire indicated that they were satisfied with the form of the targeted social skills, the improvements in the children's performance, and the teaching strategies., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

Use of automatically reinforced stereotypy as reinforcement has been shown to be successful for increasing socially desirable behaviors in persons with intellectual disabilities (Charlop, Kurtz, & Casey, 1990; Hanley, Iwata, Thompson, & Lindberg, 2000; Hung, 1978). A component analysis of this treatment was conducted with 3 adolescents who had been diagnosed with autism, and then extended by (a) progressively increasing the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the response requirement to earn access to stereotypy, (b) arranging objective measures of client preference for contingent access to stereotypy compared to other relevant treatments for their automatically reinforced stereotypy, and (c) assessing the social validity of this treatment with other relevant stakeholders. Implications for addressing stereotypy and increasing the leisure skills of adolescents with autism are discussed., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

We evaluated the effects of assessment-based interventions on the treatment of sleep problems in 3 young children, 2 of whom had been diagnosed with autism. We used sleep diaries and infrared nighttime video in the child's bedroom to obtain measures of sleep onset, sleep-interfering behaviors, night waking, total sleep, parental presence, and medication administration each night. We then identified environmental factors that contributed to sleep problems using an open-ended interview called the Sleep Assessment and Treatment Tool. Individualized treatment packages were designed with the children's parents based on the idiosyncratic results of the assessment. Treatment packages included adjustment of the sleep schedule based on developmental norms and current sleep phases, design of a sleep-conducive environment, elimination of inappropriate sleep dependencies, and function-based interventions to decrease sleep-interfering behaviors by disrupting the contingency between the interfering behavior and its likely reinforcement. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across subjects revealed that treatment was effective for all 3 children. In addition, social acceptability measures showed that the parents were satisfied with the assessment process, the treatment, and the amount of behavior change., (© Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.)

We assessed teacher-child relations with respect to children's name calls, instructions, and compliance in a preschool classroom. The most frequent consequence to a child's name being called was the provision of instructions. We also observed a higher probability of compliance when children attended to a name call. Next, we evaluated the effects of teaching preschoolers to attend to their names and a group call on their compliance with typical instructions. We used a multiple baseline design across subjects and a control-group design to evaluate whether gains in compliance were a function of treatment or routine experience in preschool. Results showed that compliance increased as a function of teaching precursors for all children in the experimental group, and the effects on compliance were maintained despite a reduction of the occurrence of precursors. Moreover, it appeared that precursor teaching, not routine preschool experience, was responsible for the changes in compliance.

We conducted 2 studies to determine whether dense and thin NCR schedules exert different influences over behavior and whether these influences change as dense schedules are thinned. In Study 1, we observed that thin as well as dense NCR schedules effectively decreased problem behavior exhibited by 3 individuals. In Study 2, we compared the effects of 2 NCR schedules in multielement designs, one with and the other without an extinction (EXT) component, while both schedules were thinned. Problem behavior remained low as the NCR schedule with EXT was thinned, but either (a) did not decrease initially or (b) subsequently increased as the NCR schedule without EXT was thinned. These results suggest that dense schedules of NCR decrease behavior by altering its motivating operation but that extinction occurs as the NCR schedule is thinned. The benefits and limitations of using dense or thin NCR schedules are discussed.

Hundreds of studies have shown the efficacy of treatments for problem behavior based on an understanding of its function. Assertions regarding the legitimacy of different types of functional assessment vary substantially across published articles, and best practices regarding the functional assessment process are sometimes difficult to cull from the empirical literature or from published discussions of the behavioral assessment process. A number of myths regarding the functional assessment process, which appear to be pervasive within different behavior-analytic research and practice communities, will be reviewed in the context of an attempt to develop new lore regarding the functional assessment process. Frequently described obstacles to implementing a critical aspect of the functional assessment process, the functional analysis, will be reviewed in the context of solutions for overcoming them. Finally, the aspects of the functional assessment process that should be exported to others versus those features that should remain the sole technological property of behavior analysts will be discussed.

We evaluated the strategy of increasing precursors to compliance on the compliance of 2 preschool boys. Modeling and differential reinforcement were used to increase specific responses to his name being called prior to the opportunity to comply with an instruction. The precursors were stopping the ongoing activity and orienting to, making eye contact with, and saying "yes" to the instructor. High levels of precursors occurred during treatment, and increases in compliance also were observed, even though the consequences for compliance and noncompliance did not change.

We evaluated the effects of different intertrial intervals (ITIs; time between programmed learning opportunities) on the acquisition and generalization of 2 preschoolers' social skills. Independent and generalized skills were observed only when the daily ITI was gradually increased from short to progressively longer intervals.

This study describes an unexpected behavioral process that influenced behavior during the teaching of concepts to a 4-year-old girl. The efficacy of and preference for three strategies that varied in teacher directedness were assessed in a multielement design and concurrent-chains arrangement, respectively. The strategy that involved the most teacher direction was most efficacious and preferred. In addition, embedded teacher prompts, common in child-led teaching procedures, functioned as a punisher for the child's toy play. Implications for designing effective and preferred teaching conditions are discussed.

A task force authorized by the Executive Council of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) generated the statement below concerning the techniques called restraint and seclusion. Members of the task force independently reviewed the scientific literature concerning restraint and seclusion and agreed unanimously to the content of the statement. The Executive Council accepted the statement, and it was subsequently approved by a two-thirds majority vote of the general membership. It now constitutes official ABAI policy. The position statement is posted on the ABAI Web site (www.abainternational.org/ABA/statements/RestraintSeclusion.asp). The purpose of the position statement is to provide guidance to behavior analysts and other professionals interested in the position of ABAI on these controversial topics. In extreme cases, abuses of procedures erroneously used in the name of behavior analysis are not defensible. On the other hand, behavior analysts acting ethically and in good faith are provided with guidelines for sound and acceptably safe practice. To the extent that behavior-analytic positions influence public policy and law, this statement can be presented to officials and lawmakers to guide informed decision making. At the conclusion of the document, a bibliography is provided of articles and presentations considered by one or more task force members in developing the position statement.