Functional Behavioral Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment

Third Edition

Ennio Cipani, PhD

pages 185-204

the target behavior's function is disable,while the replacement behavior's function to the relevant reinforcer is enable.

socially mediated access functions:alternate direct access form

the desired reinforcer is produce by the client engaging in a chain of behaviors that produces the item or event,independent of anyone else's assistance.

allows the client to independent obtain reinforcing item without reliance on other people or having to use communication or social skills(肚子饿了，想吃饭，自己会做饭就可以填饱肚子不用让别人帮忙做给自己吃）

the specific items or event that have been identified as the maintaining reinforcers,these will be made available for direct access and must be readily available without assistance from other people.

trigger analysis

1.set up or wait for a situation in which the person is very likely to want access to the desired item or event,you must ensure that the motivational conditions are as strong as possible,this can be contrived through temporary deprivation of the desired items

2.present a stimulus that signals that the item is now available to the person

3.observe the person's behavior,and record if the target behavior or the chain of direct access replacement behavior occurs.

4.record the time taken to initiate the first response.

5.record the time taken to complete the chain of behaviors and obtain reinfrocement

6.if the replacement behavior was attempt(or performed),record which steps were completed and any prompts required to facilitate the performance of the steps.

7.record if the reinforcing item or event was provided by the staff or care provider.

8.repeat steps 1-4 at least six more times

9.graph or display the data across all baseline sessions

direct access procedures

discrete trials

1.present a prompt for the person to perform the first step in the task

2.provide reinforcement contingent on completing the behavior or chain of behavior

3.if the person does not complete the task or engage in the target behavior,provide an additional prompt to help the person complete the next step

4.provide reinforcement,preferably access to the reinforcing item or event you want the person to directly access with this behavior

5.record data

6. on each successive trial,shap more independent responding by reducing the level of prompt provided

7.once the person is performing the task without the need for additonal prompts,change to incidental teaching method.

incidental teaching 

1.observe for conditions under which the person would usually engage in the target behavior

2.if the person directly accesses an item or event,allow the person to do so

3.if the person does not access the item or event,provide a prompt to engage in the direct access behavior

4.if the person does not complete the task or engage in the target behaviors,do not provide access to the reinforcer(extinction);instead provide an additional prompt to help the person complete the next step

5.on each successive trial,shape more independent responding by reducing the level of prompt provide

6.record data

it is critical that the desired reinforcer be available on a continuous schedule(every time) while the person is learning to perform the direct access replacement behavior(or chain of behavior)连续强化到什么程度？不再需要辅助，能独立进行？能熟练操作？

if the person is simply taking too long to complete the task,you should consider fluency training or differential reinforcement of higher rates of behavior

to implement a group DRL program,determine what level of the target behavior is acceptable for the group as a whole(behaivor standard),next,measure the target behavior across the entire group during a specificed interval of time,the group's frequency of occurrence of the target behavior is compared with the behavioral standard,if the group's frequency of behavior is above the standard,reinforcement is withheld,if the group's frequency is at or below the behavioral standard,reinforcement is provided to the group.

if you have diagnosed the function correctly,it should decrease within a few session or days, if it persists longer than this,consider a more intensive assessment as you may have misdiagnosed the function of the behavior,consider also that it may be a multiple function behavior and that the initial diagnosis was simply incomplete in that it diagnosed only one function.