Challenging behaviors refer to those behaviors that decrease the child's ability to engage and participate in classroom routines (Dunlap, Wilson, Strain, & Lee, 2013), and therefore, the dilemma in the scenario above is common to early childhood and early childhood special education teachers due to an increase in children experiencing autism…

We compared the effects of escape extinction (EE) plus noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) with sensory integration therapy as treatment for the feeding problems of 2 children. Results indicated that EE plus NCR was more effective in increasing acceptance, decreasing inappropriate behavior, and increasing amount consumed relative to sensory…

Linda Miller describes a model for the practical implementation of behaviour supports. This model, the "5P approach", attempts to delineate a comprehensive and sequentially-stepped model of the assessment and treatment of challenging behaviour with consistent colour-coded themes. The 5Ps include profiling the child, prioritising the challenging…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (E/BD) present unique challenges to the families and educators supporting them. Even though families and educators report that behavioral issues can be identified by age 3 (Walker, Ramsey, & Gresham, 2004), the commonly used wait-and-see approach to intervening results in children with E/BD not…

Aggression and tantrums are common co-occurring problems with autism. Fortunately, positive developments in the treatment of these challenging and stigmatizing behaviors have been made recently with psychologically-based interventions. Evidence-based methods employ behavior modification, which is also often described as applied behavior analysis…

A functional analysis was conducted to identify the role environmental variables had on the maintenance of self-injury and aggression. At the outset of the evaluation, an abdominal x-ray showed a moderate to large amount of stool throughout the colon (i.e., constipation). Consequently, medication was administered to promote bowel emptying. Initial…

Functional analyses identified children whose inappropriate mealtime behavior was maintained by escape and adult attention. Function-based extinction procedures were tested individually and in combination. Attention extinction alone did not result in decreases in inappropriate mealtime behavior or a significant increase in acceptance. By contrast,…

Objectives: Services to children and adolescents with a severe emotional disturbance (SED) have long been inadequate. The wraparound approach has emerged as a promising practice that could address the needs of children with SED and their families through a strength-based, individualized, family-focused team process that emphasizes flexible service…

Functional assessment procedures have proven useful for developing effective individualized interventions for a wide variety of populations and behavioral concerns. However, fewer studies have been conducted with preschool students who exhibit high incidence problem behaviors. The current study includes data from comprehensive functional…

Although individuals may engage in several topographies of aberrant behavior, each with different functions, it is not uncommon for researchers to conduct one functional analysis. We conducted two functional analyses for a child with autism, one with and one without consequences for stereotypic vocalizations. Only the analysis without consequences…

This paper discusses the behavioral and psychological assessment of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) in clinical practice. Following a brief introduction regarding definition and etiology of CSA and discussion on issues of behavioral/psychological consequences of CSA, the paper reviews the various approaches towards behavioral/psychological assessment in…

We examined the effects of an individualized schedule on levels of engagement and self-injury for a student with severe autism. We first conducted a series of functional analyses to identify contexts in which self-injury occurred in his classroom. Results of the functional analyses suggested that self-injury was associated with academic demands.…

To date, only a limited number of studies have focused on functional assessment with typically developing populations. The most commonly reported method of functional assessment with this population seems to be descriptive assessment; however, the methods used in the descriptive assessment often are unclear. This is unfortunate as researchers and…

Functional analysis methodology has become the hallmark of behavioral assessment, yielding a determination of behavioral function in roughly 96% of the cases published (Hanley, Iwata, & McCord, 2003). Some authors have suggested that incorporating the results of a descriptive assessment into the design of a functional analysis may be useful in…

The relevance and contribution of the construct of quality of life to assessments and intervention plans for children and youth in school settings are discussed. Theory, measurement, and research related to perceived quality of life (PQOL) are reviewed leading to the contention that PQOL information contributes incremental validity above and…