Distance-Based Collaborations for Assessing and Treating Challenging Behavior.

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.

Minimizing Escalation by Treating Dangerous Problem Behavior Within an Enhanced Choice Model.

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.

Randomized controlled trial of seminar-based training on accurate and general implementation of practical functional assessments.

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.

Evaluating the boundaries of analytic efficiency and control: A consecutive controlled case series of 26 functional analyses.

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.

Achieving socially significant reductions in problem behavior following the interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis: A summary of 25 outpatient applications.

Jessel, Hanley, and Ghaemmaghami (2016) reported the results of 30 interview-informed, synthesized contingency analyses (IISCAs) and found the IISCAs to be an effective tool for identifying the functions of problem behavior across a variety of topographies, participants, and settings. Jessel et al. did not, however, include data on the effectiveness of the corresponding treatments. In the current study, we collected and summarized 25 additional applications, from analysis to treatment, in which the IISCA was applied in an outpatient clinic. The IISCA identified various social functions of problem behavior, which informed personalized treatments of functional communication training with contingency-based reinforcement thinning. A 90% or greater reduction in problem behavior was obtained for every participant by the end of the treatment evaluation. The assessment and treatment process was socially validated by caregivers who rated the procedures highly acceptable and helpful, and the improvement in their child's behavior highly satisfactory.