Prevalence of resurgence of destructive behavior when thinning reinforcement schedules during functional communication training

Briggs et al. (2018) watched 17 kids who had just learned a new communication response.

The kids were in the middle of FCT and the team was thinning the reinforcement schedule.

Each time the schedule got leaner, the researchers counted if destructive behavior popped back up.

Resurgence showed up in 76 out of every 100 thinning steps.

Sometimes the spike beat the original baseline level.

The takeaway: plan for relapse, not luck.

Muething et al. (2021) ran the same checklist and saw resurgence in only 41 of every 100 steps.

The drop looks like a contradiction, but the 2021 team used richer “multiple schedules” that still gave some reinforcement.

That small change cut the bounce-back rate in half.

Kranak et al. (2021) moved the question to an inpatient ward and hit 91% resurgence.

Same procedure, stricter setting, higher numbers.

Together the three papers draw a line: leaner schedules and stricter contexts make relapse more likely.

Expect resurgence in three of every four schedule-thinning steps.

Build booster FCT sessions into the plan before you stretch the ratio.

Track both problem behavior and the new communication response; both can wobble.

If the bounce is big, step back to the last safe schedule, re-teach, then thin more slowly.