Treating elopement without extinction in a preschool setting

Boyle et al. (2023) worked with one preschooler with autism who kept running out of the room.

They first used FCT without extinction. The child could ask for a break instead of eloping.

When one reason for elopement kept going, they added response blocking only for that reason.

FCT alone stopped the child from running when he wanted to leave work.

The same plan did not stop running when he wanted attention.

Adding response blocking only for the attention reason then worked.

Kamlowsky et al. (2021) showed a quick latency-based FA can find why kids elope. Boyle used that idea and then treated each reason.

Dowdy et al. (2020) also skipped extinction. They cut pool-transition problem behavior for teens with simple DR. Boyle shows the same gentle start works for preschool elopement.

Perez et al. (2015) had parents run FCT at home and cut problem behavior by over 90%. Boyle moves FCT back into the classroom and keeps the big drop.

You can start elopement treatment without blocking or extinction. Teach a break request first. Watch the data. If one function lingers, add response blocking only for that function. This keeps the plan light, friendly, and still fast.