Abstract
Behavioral assessment allows a clinician to identify environmental events that are contributing to challenging behavior to inform effective treatment. Recent developments in behavioral assessment and treatment have been devoted to creating practical procedures that can be conducted by clinicians in socially relevant settings. However, the extent to which these procedural modifications affect treatment outcomes has yet to be fully explored. We conducted a consecutive case series with 13 individuals admitted to an outpatient program to address their challenging behavior. The patients experienced a behavioral package conducted in three phases (practical functional assessment [PFA], behavioral treatment, extension). Results demonstrated near elimination of challenging behavior for all patients after extending the treatment to include denials to reinforcement and instructions to complete other tasks.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Notes
The interviews and observations were not included in the measure of efficiency because this would be inconsistent with previous calculations of assessment efficiency (e.g., Jessel et al., 2021a; Querim et al., 2013; Saini et al., 2020). However, all procedures are included in the estimated costs and time requirement.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Theresa Fiani declares that she is a lead consultant and director of technology at FTF Behavioral Consulting. Joshua Jessel declares a part-time consultative role at FTF Behavioral Consulting.
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Fiani, T., Jessel, J. Practical Functional Assessment and Behavioral Treatment of Challenging Behavior for Clinically Based Outpatient Services: A Consecutive Case Series Evaluation. Educ. Treat. Child. 45, 211–230 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43494-022-00071-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43494-022-00071-9