Evaluation of Treatment Integrity Errors on Mand Acquisition

Manding (requesting) is a vital component of successful language development and allows children to access reinforcers in their environment. When training mands, caregivers may not implement the training program as designed ( treatment integrity failures ). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of incorrect-item delivery (Experiment 1) and response-independent item delivery (Experiment 2) across four levels of treatment integrity (0%, 40%, 70%, and 100%) on mand acquisition. A total of six children (three in each experiment), who communicated vocally using full sentences and engaged in some independent manding participated in the study. During Experiment 1, two of the three participants acquired the mand fastest during 100% integrity. Delivery of the incorrect item was detrimental to mand acquisition, but the effects were idiosyncratic across the two participants. The third participant did not acquire any mands. During Experiment 2, all three participants acquired the mand fastest during the 100% integrity condition. All participants acquired the mand trained with 70% integrity. None of the participants acquired the mands trained with 40% and 0% integrity, suggesting that delivery of the item independent of responding was detrimental to acquisition. For mand training to be most effective, caregivers must implement mand training with high levels of integrity

ASSESSING THE UTILITY OF A DEMAND ASSESSMENT FOR FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

We evaluated the utility of an assessment for identifying tasks for the functional analysis demand condition with 4 individuals who had been diagnosed with autism. During the demand assessment, a therapist presented a variety of tasks, and observers measured problem behavior and compliance to identify demands associated with low levels of compliance or high levels of problem behavior (low-probability demands) and demands associated with high levels of compliance or low levels of problem behavior (high-probability demands). Results showed that clearer functional analysis outcomes were obtained for 3 of the 4 participants when low-probability rather than high-probability demands were used

FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS AND TREATMENT OF AGGRESSION MAINTAINED BY PREFERRED CONVERSATIONAL TOPICS

After an initial functional analysis of a participant's aggression showed unclear outcomes, we conducted preference and reinforcer assessments to identify preferred forms of attention that may maintain problem behavior. Next, we conducted an extended functional analysis that included a modified attention condition. Results showed that the participant's aggression was maintained by access to preferred conversational topics. A function-based intervention decreased aggression and increased an appropriate communicative response

Further Evaluation of Leisure Items in the Attention Condition of Functional Analyses

Research suggests that including leisure items in the attention condition of a functional analysis may produce engagement that masks sensitivity to attention. In this study, 4 individuals' initial functional analyses indicated that behavior was maintained by nonsocial variables (n  =  3) or by attention (n  =  1). A preference assessment was used to identify items for subsequent functional analyses. Four conditions were compared, attention with and without leisure items and control with and without leisure items. Following this, either high- or low-preference items were included in the attention condition. Problem behavior was more probable during the attention condition when no leisure items or low-preference items were included, and lower levels of problem behavior were observed during the attention condition when high-preference leisure items were included. These findings suggest how preferred items may hinder detection of behavioral function

RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THREE DESCRIPTIVE METHODS: IMPLICATIONS FOR BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT

This study compared the outcomes of three descriptive analysis methods—the ABC method, the conditional probability method, and the conditional and background probability method—to each other and to the results obtained from functional analyses. Six individuals who had been diagnosed with developmental delays and exhibited problem behavior participated. Functional analyses indicated that participants' problem behavior was maintained by social positive reinforcement (n  =  2), social negative reinforcement (n  =  2), or automatic reinforcement (n  =  2). Results showed that for all but 1 participant, descriptive analysis outcomes were similar across methods. In addition, for all but 1 participant, the descriptive analysis outcome differed substantially from the functional analysis outcome. This supports the general finding that descriptive analysis is a poor means of determining functional relations