Many functional assessment procedures have been developed and validated for use with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, there is a paucity of research exploring the utility and social acceptability of functional assessment methods for people with dementia. We conducted direct observations in the natural environment to produce data for conditional probability analyses and an experimental functional analysis of the behavior of two women with dementia. We found that the conditional probability analysis yielded similar conclusions about function as the data from the experimental functional analysis for both participants. Importantly, staff rated the direct observations as more socially acceptable. We also report barriers to conducting both methods in older adult settings that warrant further exploration, including the use of the assessments with people with dementia and intact vocal verbal repertoires.

中文翻译：

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对痴呆症患者的两种功能评估方法的初步调查：有效性和可接受性

已经开发并验证了许多功能评估程序，可用于智力和发育残障人士。然而，缺乏研究探索功能评估方法对痴呆症患者的效用和社会接受性。我们在自然环境中进行了直接观察，以产生数据用于条件概率分析和实验功能分析，以分析两名患有痴呆症的女性的行为。我们发现，条件概率分析对两个参与者的功能作为实验功能分析的数据得出了相似的结论。重要的是，员工对直接观察的评价为更能为社会所接受。我们还报告了在成年人中进行这两种方法的障碍，值得进一步探索，