Using wearable technology to evaluate the electrodermal activity of therapists assessing challenging behavior

Three therapists wore small wrist sensors during regular functional-analysis sessions. The sensor tracked tiny sweat surges on their skin—called electrodermal activity or EDA—while they worked with clients who showed severe problem behavior. Every time a hit, bite, or scream happened, the team marked it on video and looked for matching EDA spikes.

Therapists’ skin-conductance jumped right when challenging behavior started. The peaks were clear enough to spot without fancy math. In short, the therapist’s body sounded an alarm at the same moment the client’s behavior escalated.

Neely et al. (2025) used a wrist accelerometer on the client to catch self-hits during the same kind of FA. Together the papers show wearables can watch both sides of the interaction—client movement and therapist stress.

Palka Bayard de Volo et al. (2021) tracked preschoolers’ heart rate during FCT and saw drops in outburst length when physiology calmed. Sullivan flips the camera: the adult’s EDA, not the child’s, lit up.

Ruiz-Robledillo et al. (2015) found ASD caregivers had lower, not higher, EDA during lab stress even though they felt more anxious. That seems opposite to Sullivan’s peaks, but the settings differ—caregivers sat in a quiet lab while therapists faced live aggression. The two studies don’t clash; they map different worlds.

If a cheap wrist band can flag the exact second your own stress spikes, you can pause, tag in a partner, or take a quick breath before continuing the FA. Over time you get a personal heat-map of the hardest conditions and can build staff rotation plans that keep everyone safe and data clean.