Distance-Based Collaborations for Assessing and Treating Challenging Behavior

Area of Science:

• Behavior Analysis
• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis (IISCA) and skill-based treatments yield effective outcomes for severe challenging behavior.
• Professional training and implementation are often inaccessible to families, limiting treatment access.
• Distance-based consultation offers a potential solution for disseminating these interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of coaching parents through distance-based collaborative consulting to implement IISCA and skill-based treatments.
• To assess if parents can successfully conduct functional analyses and teach replacement skills to their children with autism.

Main Methods:

• Three parents of children with autism and severe challenging behavior were coached remotely.
• Coaching involved guiding parents through the IISCA process and subsequent skill-based treatment implementation.
• Distance-based collaborative consulting was utilized throughout the study.

Main Results:

• All participating parents successfully completed differentiated functional analyses.
• Parents were able to teach their children functional replacement skills.
• Challenging behavior was significantly reduced in the children relative to baseline levels.

Conclusions:

• Distance-based collaborative consulting is a viable method for training parents to implement IISCA and skill-based treatments.
• This approach can empower families to manage severe challenging behavior in children with autism, increasing treatment accessibility.
• The findings support the dissemination of behavior-analytic interventions through remote coaching models.