Teacher use of descriptive analysis data to implement interventions to decrease students' problem behaviors.
Train teachers to run a class-based functional analysis and then deliver FCT with extinction to cut problem behavior fast.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors showed teachers how to run a quick functional analysis in class.
Then they trained the same teachers to give kids a simple way to ask for what they wanted instead of acting out.
They used a multiple-baseline design across students to see if teacher-led FCT plus extinction would work.
What they found
Problem behavior dropped and appropriate requests went up for every student.
The teacher did the whole plan alone after brief training.
How this fits with other research
Hollo et al. (2018) mapped later studies and found that one in four school behavior plans already use FCT pieces, even when the plan does not say “FCT.”
Lambert et al. (2017) and Stevens et al. (2018) built on this 1993 base by adding serial mands and lag schedules to stop resurgence when reinforcement thins.
O'Reilly et al. (2012) used an antecedent twist: they had children request the item before it appeared. That study also cut tangible-maintained behavior, showing the idea works whether the request comes before or after the problem.
Why it matters
You do not need an outside expert to run FCT in school. Train the teacher to test the function, pick a simple mand, and withhold the old payoff. The 1993 study proves one teacher can do it with almost no extra staff. Try it next week: pick one student, teach one request, block the old behavior, and watch the numbers fall.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We conducted two field studies using a behavioral consultation approach to reduce children's problem behaviors in public school settings. The first study consisted of a descriptive analysis in which the students and their teachers were observed during naturally occurring classroom activities. The results of the descriptive analysis provided hypotheses regarding the operant function of the students' problem behaviors. The hypotheses were tested in the second experiment directly through a modified experimental analysis and indirectly through an evaluation of the treatment effects. The interventions were designed to disrupt the inappropriate response-reinforcer relation by discontinuing contingent reinforcement (i.e., extinction), providing the reinforcer contingent on appropriate play behaviors, and teaching the students verbal skills functionally equivalent to the inappropriate response. The classroom teachers were trained to implement the interventions and conduct the experimental analyses during classroom activities in which the problem behaviors occurred most frequently. The interventions were effective in decreasing the students' problem behaviors while concurrently increasing their appropriate verbal skills.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1993 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1993.26-227