Reducing behavior problems through functional communication training.
Teach kids to ask for what the misbehavior used to get, then thin reinforcement with clear signals to lock in the gains.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team worked with four children who had developmental delays. Each child showed severe problem behavior like hitting, screaming, or self-injury.
First the researchers did a quick functional analysis. They found the behavior worked to get adult attention or help. Then they taught each child one simple phrase such as "Help me" or "Play with me."
Whenever the child used the phrase, an adult gave the requested item or attention right away. Problem behavior no longer produced that payoff.
What they found
All four kids stopped the severe behavior within a few sessions. The new phrase replaced the old behavior.
The gains held across different rooms, staff, and times of day. Functional communication training proved it could quickly turn aggression into words.
How this fits with other research
Slaton et al. (2024) later showed the same method can keep behavior near zero for a full year in schools. Their larger, longer study updates and strengthens the 1985 finding.
Cramm et al. (2009) found a catch: when you later thin reinforcement, problem behavior can pop back up. This looks like a contradiction, but it is not. The 1985 paper stopped once suppression was stable; M et al. kept going and tested what happens when reinforcement fades.
Hastings et al. (2001) and Whiting et al. (2015) solved the resurgence issue. They added signaled multiple schedules right after FCT. Kids learn when the new phrase will and will not work, so thinning is safer and faster.
Why it matters
You now have a three-step playbook. First, teach a single, function-matched phrase. Second, reinforce every time at first. Third, switch to a signaled multiple schedule to thin safely. This keeps early gains while preventing resurgence. Use it with any client whose problem behavior is fed by attention, tangibles, or escape.
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Join Free →Pick one functional phrase, reinforce each use, then add a green card for reinforcement periods and a red card for extinction periods to thin without resurgence.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
It is generally agreed that serious misbehavior in children should be replaced with socially appropriate behaviors, but few guidelines exist with respect to choosing replacement behaviors. We address this issue in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we developed an assessment method for identifying situations in which behavior problems, including aggression, tantrums, and self-injury, were most likely to occur. Results demonstrated that both low level of adult attention and high level of task difficulty were discriminative for misbehavior. In Experiment 2, the assessment data were used to select replacements for misbehavior. Specifically, children were taught to solicit attention or assistance or both verbally from adults. This treatment, which involved the differential reinforcement of functional communication, produced replicable suppression of behavior problems across four developmentally disabled children. The results were consistent with an hypothesis stating that some child behavior problems may be viewed as a nonverbal means of communication. According to this hypothesis, behavior problems and verbal communicative acts, though differing in form, may be equivalent in function. Therefore, strengthening the latter should weaken the former.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1985 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1985.18-111