B3-C: Evaluation of Functional Analysis Screening Methods

Functional analysis (FA; Iwata et al., 1982/1994) is considered the gold standard in the assessment of problem behavior and an effective component in the development of function-based treatment. Adoption in clinical practice has remained low, with insufficient time and space reported as prevalent barriers. Research has focused on developing refinements and modifications to FA procedures to address these barriers and improve efficiency. The automatic reinforcer screener was reported to demonstrate high predictive validity, increasing assessment efficiency (Querim et al., 2013). Slanzi et al. (2022) extended this line of research demonstrating the utility of FA screening methods with socially mediated behavior. The purpose of this study was to further evaluate the utility of an enhanced automatic reinforcer screener (i.e., alternating play / no interaction conditions) to identify problem behavior sensitive to socially mediated and automatic reinforcement. Preliminary results of the screener accurately predicted socially mediated (5 participants) or automatic reinforcement (3 participant) for all participants.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify barriers to functional analysis implementation in clinical practice.
2. Identify refinements/modifications that aim to mitigate these barriers.
3. Identify ways to improve efficiency in adopting functional analysis to assess problem behavior sensitive to socially mediated and automatic reinforcement.

Speakers