Teaching a child with autism and severe language delays to reject: direct and indirect effects of functional communication training

Abstract

We used functional communication training to teach Bob, a 10‐year‐old student with autism and severe language delays, to reject items by touching an icon. Our initial assessment revealed that Bob’s behaviours serving a rejecting function consisted of pushing away, yelling, bear hugging‐grabbing, and leaving. We used prompting, differential reinforcement, and error correction procedures to replace pushing away with touching an icon to reject. We examined the effects of this direct intervention on pushing away on Bob’s other rejecting behaviours to determine if there was any response co‐variation. Results indicate that we were successful at replacing pushing away with touching an icon to reject items, but that this intervention had variable effects on the other behaviours serving a rejecting function. We discuss the implications of our procedures and results for the use of functional communication training in the treatment of problem behaviours in children with autism.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Bob, his family, and his teacher for their participation in this study. This study was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Research, Grant H324C020098, and by the South Carolina Autism Society. The opinions expressed herein, however, do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Department of Education or of the South Carolina Autism Society.