Parent‐implemented brief functional analysis in the home

Gerow et al. (2020) asked three moms to run a brief functional analysis at home. Each mom had a toddler with developmental delay. The team taught the moms to test four short conditions in one afternoon. Total time: two to four hours.

The goal was to see if parents could find the true reason for problem behavior without a clinic visit.

All three moms got clear results. The brief FA matched later treatment success. Problem behavior dropped when the matched intervention started.

Parents said the process was easy and fit daily life.

Rajaraman et al. (2022) also show that short FAs lead to good treatments. They used a clinician-run Practical FA, while Gerow used parent-run sessions. Both studies say the same thing: you do not need long clinic visits to get useful data.

Older work backs this up. Matson et al. (1999) and Fox et al. (2001) proved that function-based plans beat generic care. Gerow moves that idea into the living room.

Prigge et al. (2013) ran FAs in preschool classrooms with teachers. Gerow shifts the setting again, showing parents can take over the whole job.

You can teach a parent to finish an FA before the next snack time. A short home test gives you the function, the treatment, and a caregiver who already knows the plan. Use the saved clinic hours for treatment instead of assessment.