Therapist effects on functional analysis outcomes with young children.
FA results can flip when a stranger runs the test—always cross-check with a parent session.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Busch et al. (2010) watched the same kids work with two different people. One person was mom or dad. The other was a new therapist the kids had never met.
They ran short functional analyses with each adult. They wanted to see if the same child would show the same problem behavior for both adults.
What they found
The kids often looked different depending on who ran the test. With unfamiliar therapists, some kids showed no problem behavior at all. Others showed less behavior or even a new function.
When parents ran the same test, the true function usually popped out. The stranger's data could miss it.
How this fits with other research
Guest et al. (2013) later saw the same thing in 52 kids. When staff FA was unclear, letting parents run it fixed the picture and treatments later cut problem behavior by 96%.
Lang et al. (2008) found a similar split, but for rooms instead of people. FA results changed between clinic and classroom, just like they changed between stranger and parent.
Gerow et al. (2021) pushed it further. Parents ran brief FAs at home on Zoom. Four of seven got clear answers without ever leaving the couch.
Why it matters
Before you write a treatment plan, always run at least one FA session with a parent or familiar caregiver. If the stranger's data feel muddy, a parent's quick check can save weeks of wrong guesses.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add one parent-run FA condition to any unclear assessment this week.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Analog functional analyses (FAs) are commonly used to assess factors that maintain problem behavior of individuals with intellectual disabilities. These analyses are usually conducted by trained staff in clinic settings. However, recent research suggests that FAs conducted by unfamiliar individuals, such as hospital or clinic staff, may result in inaccurate or at least different outcomes. This finding, though, has not been sufficiently examined with young children (i.e., under 5 years of age), where therapist familiarity likely has more influence. The current study compared the outcomes of FAs conducted by unfamiliar staff with FAs conducted by parents for five children ages 2-5 years. Results demonstrate that FAs conducted by unfamiliar therapists may result in a number of differing outcomes, including no responding from the child, failure to identify a particular behavioral function, and decreased rates of responding.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.02.005