I have enjoyed serving as Guest Editor for this Special Issue on Challenging Behavior. One of the central themes of the issue is on understanding the cause of challenging behavior for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) through the use of functional analysis methodology. Over the past 20 years or more, the use of an analogue functional analysis to inform the intervention process has become widespread, not only as a component of research, but in everyday clinical and educational settings (Beavers et al. Citation2013). While not all challenging behaviors require an analog functional analysis, the studies represented in this special issue are with children and adults with severe forms of behavior that have not been responsive to intervention, thus, the use of a more precise form of functional assessment was required. Three of the papers describe interventions that are based on functional analysis outcome. Fragale and colleagues identified a communication-based antecedent intervention that was effective in reducing the self-injury and aggression of four children. In addition to reducing challenging behavior, they were also able to increase academic engagement during instructional sessions. Zangrillo and colleagues found that for children with challenging behavior that occurred to escape instruction, enhancing the consequence for compliance resulted in reductions in challenging behavior and increases in compliance. Finally, Scheithauer and colleagues demonstrated that token reinforcement systems were most commonly and effectively used with individuals with escape-maintained challenging behavior because they were easy to use to reinforce compliance and other on-task behaviors. These studies demonstrate that identifying the function of challenging behavior was a key to identifying an effective intervention.
The information obtained through an analog functional analysis can also be correlated with other variables that may affect challenging behavior. For example, Liddon and colleagues found that individuals with IDD and autism were more likely to have challenging behavior to obtain items and activities vs. individuals with autism without IDD who were more likely to have challenging behavior maintained by sensory or automatic reinforcement. The authors also found that there were significant differences in terms of the level of behavioral flexibility between these two groups. Schmidt and colleagues evaluated how the function of challenging behavior correlated with adaptive behavior skills. They found that individuals with behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement had lower Vineland-II Adaptive Behavior scores. The need for additional supports and interventions for individuals with challenging behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement was further studied by Zarcone et al. In their study, the authors looked at the complexity of intervention plans for individuals admitted to an inpatient unit for the assessment and treatment of severe challenging behavior. They found that more medications were used and more intrusive behavioral interventions were required for individuals who engaged in automatic self-injurious behavior.
The use of functional analysis during medication trials is also an important trend in the intervention of challenging behavior. Cox and Virues-Ortega provide a nice review of the literature in this area and the key issues to using functional analysis during medication trials. Valdovinos and colleagues take these ideas a step further by conducting functional analyses and other measures during the course of medication trials being conducted with adults with IDD. The authors ran repeated functional analysis sessions during the course of naturally occurring medication changes to see if changes in medication type and dose would affect the function of problem behavior. They found that in many cases, while the rate of behavior changed, the function of the behavior was less susceptible to changes in medications and dose.
Although the focus of the special issue was on interventions for challenging behavior, we are highlighting one important component of this process: the need to identify the variables maintaining the behavior via some form of functional behavioral assessment. Understanding the function of challenging behavior helps us to select more effective interventions, but it may also help us to understand several important risk factors associated with challenging behavior as well.
Note from the editors
The editors of the International Journal of Developmental Disabilities (IJDD) would like to thank the guest editor, Jennifer R. Zarcone for her hard work and commitment in bringing this fourth special issue of the IJDD to fruition, as well as the individual contributors and authors for the insightful papers that comprise the special issue. Challenging behavior and intervention strategies are extremely important, particularly in those with intellectual disabilities, and this special issue will have a major impact on this area of research. Arturo Langa and Brian Salmons