An evaluation of resurgence following functional communication training conducted in alternative antecedent contexts via telehealth
Kick off FCT in a spot with zero history of payoff for problem behavior and watch resurgence fade twice as fast.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team taught children with autism to ask for what they want using FCT.
They ran the first lessons on Zoom in a brand-new room the child had never used.
Later they moved the training back to the normal place where problem behavior used to pay off.
They watched how fast problem behavior bounced back when reinforcement stopped.
What they found
Starting FCT in the clean room cut resurgence time in half.
Kids still learned the new words just as fast as in the usual setup.
Telehealth worked fine for teaching and for spotting the bounce-back.
How this fits with other research
Irwin Helvey et al. (2023) saw no change in relapse when they made the reward schedule lean after FCT. Suess et al. changed the place, not the schedule, and got a big drop. The two studies look opposite, but they tested different levers: one thinned consequences, the other scrubbed antecedent history.
WFrazier et al. (2018) also beat resurgence by adding lean schedules and longer practice. Suess shows you can get the same win faster just by picking a fresh spot first.
Tsami et al. (2020) found most kids lost gains when FCT moved from mixed to single cues. Suess moved cues too, but started in the cue-free room, and relapse stayed low. Together they say the move itself is not the risk; the risk is moving into a place with old reinforcement baggage.
Why it matters
You can shave weeks off the extinction burst by holding the first FCT sessions in a neutral space over Zoom. No extra staff, no new materials—just a different room or even a corner the child rarely uses. After the mand is solid, transfer home and keep data. Expect a smaller, shorter spike, and celebrate faster stability with families.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Hold the first three FCT sessions on Zoom from the child’s kitchen instead of the usual therapy room and track any bounce-back when you return to baseline spaces.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Treatments based on differential reinforcement may inadvertently increase the recurrence of problem behavior in the face of challenges because reinforcers for appropriate behavior occur in the same context as problem behavior. The current study evaluated one potential approach to mitigating these problems with differential reinforcement treatments based on behavioral momentum theory. Specifically, appropriate behavior was trained in contexts without a history of reinforcement prior to intervening with problem behavior. Participants were 4 children with autism spectrum disorder. Treatment used telehealth to implement functional communication training (FCT) in three alternative contexts with minimal or no history of reinforcement for problem behavior before initiating FCT in the treatment context. Evaluations of the effects of treatment and tests of resurgence were conducted intermittently during treatment to evaluate maintenance. When FCT treatment was initiated in alternative contexts, initial results were comparable to more typical implementations of FCT. Resurgence was reduced to similar levels during tests of resurgence for all participants when compared to more typical previously published implementations of FCT, but clinically significant reductions in resurgence occurred more quickly in the present study. These findings support training appropriate behavior in an alternative context to mitigate the resurgence of problem behavior during differential reinforcement treatments.
Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, 2020 · doi:10.1002/jeab.551