Ep. 47- How and when to prompt during functional communication training

Hey there Behaviorists!

Continuing our jaunt through the functional communication research field, we will be looking at quite a fascinating little article from Landa et al. This article looks at the how and when to prompt when teaching a communicative response. There is a research hole, quite a big one, related to the technological description of prompting in functional communication training. Very few articles describe if a therapist should prompt prior to, immediately after, or delay a prompt based on problem behavior occurring. This large gab in methods is a problem for practitioners, as it can lead to some unwelcome behaviors, such as an extinction burst during a treatment phase. Therefore, these authors examined when it was best to prompt by comparing three commonly used methods. They looked at within session and overall data patterns to determine if there was a more efficient and safer method.

Landa, R. K., Hanley, G. P., Gover, H. C., Rajaraman, A. & Ruppel, K. W. (2022). Understanding the effects of prompting immediately after problem behavior occurs during functional communication training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55(1), 121-137. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.889