Incorporating Interview-Informed Functional Analyses into Practice

One child got the full Hanley package. First the team asked mom open-ended questions. They learned when, where, and why problem acts happened.

Next came a short test. If results were unclear, they ran longer conditions. Last, they taught three ways to ask and practiced waiting up to 34 minutes.

Problem behavior dropped fast. The child used all three requests at home and at school. Mom said life felt normal again.

Gains held one month later. Social-validity scores were high.

Call et al. (2024) found FCT works even without a functional analysis. That seems opposite, but their kids were in preschool, not at home. Setting and team size explain the clash.

Gerow et al. (2021) stretched the same model to telehealth. Parents ran brief FAs while clinicians coached on Zoom. Both studies keep the brief-to-extended logic.

Torres-Viso et al. (2018) and Boyle et al. (2019) echo the core: teach a request, add extinction, then stretch the wait. Each paper swaps the target response but the skeleton matches.

You can copy this package Monday. Ask caregivers five open questions, run a 10-minute test, then pick two useful mands. Start with a 5-second delay and grow it each day. One solid case is enough to show your team the model works.