Functional communication training in the treatment of problem behavior maintained by access to rituals.

Three children with autism kept hitting or screaming when staff moved their toys out of line. The team asked: can we teach them to ask instead of melt down?

They used FCT. Kids learned one phrase like "fix it please." Staff ignored problem behavior and honored the new request. Later they made the kids wait longer before getting help.

All three kids stopped hitting and screaming. They used the new phrase instead. One child kept the skill in a new room with a new adult.

Waiting longer did not bring the problem back. The ritual stayed fixed, but the kids asked calmly.

Leon et al. (2013) tested the same FCT plus ignore package on one boy the year before. Both studies got the same big drop in tantrums. The new paper adds two more kids and shows the wait-time stretch still works.

Ghaziuddin et al. (1996) also taught preschoolers to mand instead of scream, but they let kids pick between two mands. Both papers show talking beats hitting, yet Mandy et al. focus on rituals while M et al. focus on any reinforcer.

No clash here: the older paper widens the idea, the new paper sharpens it for rigid play routines.

If a client blows up when you touch his lined-up cars, try this: teach "fix it," stop giving cars after screams, then slowly make him wait. You get calm requests and keep the ritual intact. One kid even used the phrase with a new teacher, so probe generalization early.