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

This study examined whether experimental functional analyses (FAs) conducted by parents at home with coaching via telehealth would produce differentiated results, and compared these results to the functions identified from structured descriptive assessments (SDAs) also conducted by parents at home via telehealth. Four boys between the ages of 4- and 8-years old with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their parents participated. All assessments were conducted in the children's homes with their parents serving as intervention agents and with coaching from remote behavior therapists using videoconferencing technology. Parent-implemented FAs produced differentiated results for all 4 children in the study. Overall, analyzing antecedent-behavior (A-B) and behavior-consequence (B-C) relations from the SDA videos identified only half of the functions identified by the FAs. For children whose SDA results were differentiated, analyzing A-B relations correctly identified 4 of 5 functions. Analyzing B-C relations correctly identified 5 of 6 functions identified by the experimental FA, but overidentified attention for all children. Implications for conducting functional analyses and interpreting structured descriptive assessment via telehealth are discussed.