Agreement Between Structured Descriptive Assessments and Functional Analyses Conducted Over a Telehealth System

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Science
• Developmental Psychology
• Telehealth Interventions

Background:

• Functional analyses (FAs) are crucial for identifying the purpose of challenging behaviors in children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs).
• Telehealth offers a promising avenue for delivering behavioral assessments and interventions remotely, increasing accessibility.
• Parent implementation of behavioral assessments at home can provide ecologically valid data but requires effective coaching.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if parent-implemented experimental functional analyses (FAs) coached via telehealth yield differentiated results in home settings.
• To compare the functions identified by parent-implemented FAs with those identified through structured descriptive assessments (SDAs) conducted remotely.
• To evaluate the efficacy of telehealth coaching for parents conducting behavioral assessments.

Main Methods:

• Four boys aged 4-8 with IDDs and their parents participated in the study.
• Parents conducted FAs and SDAs in their children's homes, receiving coaching from remote behavior therapists via videoconferencing.
• Data from parent-implemented FAs and SDAs (analyzing antecedent-behavior and behavior-consequence relations) were compared.

Main Results:

• Parent-implemented FAs produced differentiated results for all four participating children.
• SDAs identified approximately half the behavioral functions identified by FAs.
• While analyzing antecedent-behavior and behavior-consequence relations from SDAs showed some accuracy, behavior-consequence analysis tended to overidentify attention as a function.

Conclusions:

• Parent-implemented FAs coached via telehealth are effective in identifying differentiated behavioral functions in home environments.
• SDAs may not capture the full range of behavioral functions identified by experimental FAs, particularly when analyzed remotely.
• Telehealth coaching is a viable method for supporting parents in conducting complex behavioral assessments, though careful interpretation of SDA data is warranted.