Sustaining behavior reduction by transitioning the topography of the functional communication response
Open FCT with a card request, then shift to speech; you block resurgence and still get a vocal response.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team started FCT with a picture card instead of speech.
Later they faded the card and moved the response to spoken words.
They watched whether problem behavior popped back up when the card disappeared.
What they found
Starting with the card kept resurgence low.
The move-to-speech plan worked with only a tiny spike in problem behavior.
The child ended up talking for the item and kept the card in his pocket.
How this fits with other research
Diaz‐Salvat et al. (2020) also saw less resurgence when kids had more ways to ask.
Their study added extra picture or toy responses, not a card-to-voice switch.
Both papers show the same rule: give the learner more than one way to get help and problem behavior stays down.
Why it matters
You can run FCT in two clean steps.
Teach the card first for a quick win, then move to speech when the team is ready.
If the card ever gets lost, the learner already has the vocal response, so you skip the meltdown.
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Start the next FCT case with a card exchange; plan three sessions ahead to fade the card and transfer to a spoken word.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
When a functional communication response (FCR) can be reliably occasioned, destructive behavior tends to be lower. However, the form of FCR may affect the durability of functional communication training, as missing FCR materials may promote resurgence. Experiment 1 demonstrated that resurgence of target responding was lower when a vocal FCR remained available but was placed on extinction compared to when a card-based FCR was unavailable. Experiment 2 replicated the finding that initiating treatment with a card FCR produced less target responding than when initiating treatment with a vocal FCR. We then evaluated a set of procedures for transitioning the card FCR to the previously unlearned vocal FCR. These findings suggest benefits of training different types of FCRs at different stages of treatment and provide a preliminary set of procedures for transitioning between FCR topographies while occasioning minimal target responding.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2021 · doi:10.1002/jaba.824