A simplified methodology for identifying the function of elopement.
A single room is enough to find the function of elopement.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested a one-room way to run a functional analysis of elopement.
They worked with four children who had developmental delays.
Instead of using two rooms and walking the child back each time, they stayed in the same space and let the child reach the door.
What they found
Every child showed the same function in the single-room setup that the old two-room method would have shown.
The simpler space still gave a clear answer about why each child ran.
How this fits with other research
Lord et al. (1997) did the very first FA of elopement and used two rooms. The new study keeps the logic but drops the extra room.
Griffith et al. (2021) also trimmed FA logistics by cutting session time to five minutes. Both papers make the test easier without losing accuracy.
Farros et al. (2023) went further and ran FA over Zoom with parents. Together the three studies show you can shrink space, time, or even staff location and still trust the results.
Why it matters
If you have only one therapy room, you can still find out why a child elopes. No need for adjoining rooms or extra staff to chase and return. Set the control condition so the child can reach the door, then deliver the reinforcer in place. Try it next time space is tight.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Functional analyses of elopement (i.e., leaving a specific area without permission) are challenging to conduct because clients must have repeated opportunities to elope from one room (or area) to another safely. These analyses often require two or more adjoining rooms and retrieval of the client following each instance of elopement (e.g., Piazza et al., 1997). These room arrangements may be impractical in some settings, and therapist delivery of attention or demands during retrieval may confound the results. To address these issues, we evaluated the viability of conducting a functional analysis (FA) of elopement within a single room. Participants were 2 children and 2 adults with developmental disabilities who eloped from rooms at their day programs. Results of the single-room assessments were compared to those of a second FA that was conducted using methods similar to those described in previous studies. Function-based treatments were implemented for each participant. Results suggest that the single-room assessment may be a viable alternative for identifying the function of elopement.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2013 · doi:10.1002/jaba.22