Jeffrey H. Tiger

Functional Communication Training: A Review and Practical Guide

Functional communication training (FCT) is one of the most common and effective interventions for severe behavior problems. Since the initial description of FCT by Carr and Durand (1985), various aspects of the FCT treatment process have been evaluated, and from this research, best practices have emerged. This manuscript provides a review of these practices as they arise during the development of effective FCT interventions.

TEACHING EARLY BRAILLE LITERACY SKILLS WITHIN A STIMULUS EQUIVALENCE PARADIGM TO CHILDREN WITH DEGENERATIVE VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS

Despite the need for braille literacy, there has been little attempt to systematically evaluate braille-instruction programs. The current study evaluated an instructive procedure for teaching early braille-reading skills with 4 school-aged children with degenerative visual impairments. Following a series of pretests, braille instruction involved providing a sample braille letter and teaching the selection of the corresponding printed letter from a comparison array. Concomitant with increases in the accuracy of this skill, we assessed and captured the formation of equivalence classes through tests of symmetry and transitivity among the printed letters, the corresponding braille letters, and their spoken names.

Progressing from initially ambiguous functional analyses: three case examples.

Most often functional analyses are initiated using a standard set of test conditions, similar to those described by Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, and Richman [Iwata, B. A., Dorsey, M. F., Slifer, K. J., Bauman, K. E., & Richman, G. S. (1994). Toward a functional analysis of self-injury. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27, 197-209 (Reprinted from Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities, 2, 3-20, 1982)]. These test conditions involve the careful manipulation of motivating operations, discriminative stimuli, and reinforcement contingencies to determine the events related to the occurrence and maintenance of problem behavior. Some individuals display problem behavior that is occasioned and reinforced by idiosyncratic or otherwise unique combinations of environmental antecedents and consequences of behavior, which are unlikely to be detected using these standard assessment conditions. For these individuals, modifications to the standard test conditions or the inclusion of novel test conditions may result in clearer assessment outcomes. The current study provides three case examples of individuals whose functional analyses were initially undifferentiated; however, modifications to the standard conditions resulted in the identification of behavioral functions and the implementation of effective function-based treatments.

Therapist- and self-monitored DRO contingencies as a treatment for the self-injurious skin picking of a young man with Asperger syndrome.

The use of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) has decreased, at least partially due to the development of less effortful alternative behavioral interventions (e.g., noncontingent reinforcement; Vollmer, Iwata, Zarcone, Smith, & Mazaleski, 1993). The effort associated with DRO contingencies may be lessened by incorporating self-monitoring components in which clients are responsible for the delivery of reinforcers for their own behavior. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of DRO in the treatment of self-injury when implemented first by the therapist and subsequently by the client.

AN EVALUATION OF THE VALUE OF CHOICE-MAKING OPPORTUNITIES IN SINGLE-OPERANT ARRANGEMENTS: SIMPLE FIXED- AND PROGRESSIVE-RATIO SCHEDULES

The current study compared the effects of choice and no-choice reinforcement conditions on the task responding of 3 children with autism across 2 single-operant paradigm reinforcer assessments. The first assessment employed simple fixed-ratio (FR) schedules; the second used progressive-ratio (PR) schedules. The latter assessment identified the differential strength of choice-making conditions in promoting task responding relative to no-choice conditions for 2 participants; no differential findings were obtained during the FR assessment.

REDUCING COVERT SELF‐INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR MAINTAINED BY AUTOMATIC REINFORCEMENT THROUGH A VARIABLE MOMENTARY DRO PROCEDURE

Covert self-injurious behavior (i.e., behavior that occurs in the absence of other people) can be difficult to treat. Traditional treatments typically have involved sophisticated methods of observation and often have employed positive punishment procedures. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a variable momentary differential reinforcement contingency in the treatment of covert self-injury. Neither positive punishment nor extinction was required to produce decreased skin picking.

AN ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFICIENCY OF AND CHILD PREFERENCE FOR FORWARD AND BACKWARD CHAINING

Comparative studies of forward and backward chaining have led some to suggest that sensitivity to each teaching procedure may be idiosyncratic across learners and tasks. The purposes of the current study were threefold. First, we assessed differential sensitivity to each chaining procedure within children when presented with multiple learning tasks of similar content but different complexity. Second, we evaluated whether differential sensitivity to a chaining procedure during a brief task predicted differential sensitivity during the teaching of longer tasks. Third, we directly assessed childrens preferences for each teaching procedure via a concurrent-chains preference assessment. Learners acquired all target skills introduced under both chaining conditions, but individual children did not consistently learn more efficiently with either procedure. Short-duration tasks were not predictive of performance in tasks of longer duration. Both chaining procedures were preferred over a baseline condition without prompting, but participants did not demonstrate a preference for either procedure.

Determining Preschoolers' Preferences for Choice-Making Opportunities: Choice of Task Versus Choice of Consequence.

Individuals may prefer contexts with the option to choose between 2 reinforcing stimuli or between 2 tasks relative to contexts in which others select the same events. We evaluated childrens preferences for conditions characterized by (a) the opportunity to choose between tasks and (b) the opportunity to choose between putative reinforcers delivered following the completion of a task relative to no-choice and no-reinforcement control conditions. Three of 4 participants preferred the consequence-choice condition; the task-choice condition was no more preferred than the no-choice condition in any case.

Providing Alternative Reinforcers to Facilitate Tolerance to Delayed Reinforcement Following Functional Communication Training.

The earliest stages of functional communication training (FCT) involve providing immediate and continuous reinforcement for a communicative response (FCR) that is functionally equivalent to the targeted problem behavior. However, maintaining immediate reinforcement is not practical, and the introduction of delays is associated with increased problem behavior. The present study evaluated the effects of providing alternative reinforcers during delays to reinforcement with a 13-year-old boy with an intellectual disability. Problem behavior was less likely when alternative reinforcers were available during delays.

An Approach to Identifying the Conditions Under Which Response Interruption Will Reduce Automatically Reinforced Problem Behavior

Response interruption is a common intervention for problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement, but this intervention is challenging for caregivers to implement with consistent fidelity. In the current study, we challenged the integrity of response interruption across two participants by examining carry over into conditions in which the procedure was not implemented, by removing the presence of an interventionist, and by introducing delays to implementation. The results indicated that these challenges severely compromised treatment efficacy. Conditions under which response interruption procedures are likely to be effective and possible strategies to increase the effectiveness of response interruption are discussed.