National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders

Module: Functional Communication Training

CASE STUDY Ben

Ben is a six-year-old kindergartener with ASD. Prior to starting kindergarten, he attended a community preschool for 2 hours a day. He did well in this environment, and his teachers did not have any concerns with his behavior. In kindergarten, however, Ben started exhibiting some interfering behaviors during physical education class. Several times per week, Ben would run from the gym and try to leave the school. This also occasionally happened in the lunchroom.

Ben's team decided that an FBA was needed to determine why he was fleeing P.E. and lunch. They had several hypotheses. For example, maybe he did not like the activity, or maybe he was avoiding the teachers. A thorough FBA determined that Ben was fleeing to avoid the noise level in the gym and cafeteria. Ben's speech therapist and teacher, who both knew him well, discussed what kind of communicative act they could teach Ben that would be easy for him to use when he was feeling uncomfortable with the noise. Although Ben was verbal, his language skills were delayed and he frequently relied on other methods of communication.

Read the case study above:

-Determine and write up what you believe the function of the behavior is

-Design a functional communication method beginning at step 3 and continuing through step 7 (Make sure each step is clearly indicated

-Step #3 is Identify a Replacement Behavior as a substitute (choose form of communication, choose efficient/acceptable replacement behavior, teacher others replacement behavior, teacher to gain attention for replacement behavior)

-Step #4 Design and Implement data collection (looking to see if the student is using the replacement behavior more than the problem behavior, collect baseline (FBA) and then ongoing-Focus on: antecedents, prompts needed, frequency of problem behavior and replacement behavior, & consequence of behavior)

Step #5 Manipulating Environment to Elicit Problem Behavior (Teach replacement behavior in environment where problem occurs, manipulate environment for repeated practices of replacement behavior)

Step #6 Generalization (multiple communication partners, multiple environments, how to respond to communication of replacement behavior, multiple actions/activities/items

Step #7 Prompting (errorless learning at first)

-Describe how you would complete Step 9 (Step #9 is Provide Reinforcement)

-Describe how you would complete step 11 (Step #11 is fade the use of prompts (data driven))