Individuals with developmental disabilities often have limited verbal repertoires and may engage in maladaptive behaviors in lieu of appropriate behaviors to access preferred stimuli. Functional Communication Training (FCT), although an efficacious treatment to reduce occurrences of maladaptive behavior, may result in unmanageable rates of the communicative response. Research has shown that gradually introducing a multiple schedule of reinforcement can ameliorate these high rates. To date, no studies have attempted the gradual introduction of a multiple schedule with behavior sensitive to negative reinforcement. Moreover, although evidence exists in the basic literature for the use of auditory stimuli as discriminative stimuli for the components of a multiple schedule, there is a paucity of applied research on multiple schedules with auditory signals. In the current study, two participants with developmental disabilities and intact vision and hearing received FCT to teach a functionally communicative response (e.g., touching a "break" card). Once the participants acquired the response, they were exposed to a multiple schedule condition, in which either auditory or visual signals were arranged to signal the components, and a mixed schedule (control) condition in which neither component was signaled

Functional Communication Training (FCT) is an intervention that involves teaching a communicative response to decrease the occurrence of challenging behavior in individuals with disabilities. FCT is a two step intervention in which the interventionist first determines the function, or purpose, of the challenging behavior and then teaches a communicative response that will provide the same function as the challenging behavior. This meta-analysis addressed the following questions: (a) Is FCT more effective with a complete or brief functional analysis? (b) Is FCT differentially more effective for one communication mode versus another (unaided augmentative and alternative communication, aided augmentative and alternative communication, or verbal)? (c) Is FCT more effective when implemented in natural or contrived contexts? (d) Is FCT more effective for different functions of challenging behavior (attention, tangible, escape and multiple)? (e) How effective is FCT with individuals with challenging behavior, across different age ranges? (f) How effective is FCT with individuals with challenging behavior, across different disability categories? A thorough search was performed to find all articles related to FCT. The articles were then reviewed to ensure that they met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted from the graphs within each study and then analyzed using Robust Improvement Rate Difference (IRD). Forest plots were also created to aid in visual analysis to determine statistical significance and consistency of the results. A variable was determined to moderate the effectiveness of FCT if there was a statistically significant difference between the levels within each variable. Thirty nine studies were included in this meta-analysis. Over-all FCT has a Robust IRD score of .86 (confidence intervals = .85 - .87). Based on the findings of this meta-analysis FCT is most effective with brief functional analysis and verbal communication. FCT was equally effective in natural and contrived settings. FCT appears to be most effective when an individual's behavior serves as attention seeking or an attempt to gain access to a tangible item. FCT appears to be more effective with school age individuals rather than adults. Finally, FCT may be more effective with individuals with autism spectrum disorder than intellectual disabilities or other disabilities.

The current study evaluated the effectiveness of delivering behavioral assessment and treatment to reduce challenging behavior shown by Korean children with ASD by using in-home telehealth from the U.S. The participants were five young children diagnosed with autism who lived in Korea and displayed challenging behavior. The children’s mothers, who had no previous experience in functional analysis (FA) and functional communication training (FCT) procedures, implemented all procedures with coaching provided by a behavior consultant during assessment and treatment sessions via telehealth. The results of the current study showed that functional analyses conducted via telehealth from the U.S. to the children’s homes in Korea were effective in identifying the function of challenging behavior for each participant. Furthermore, the results also showed that challenging behavior was reduced by 100% across all children by the end of treatment. These results suggest that telehealth can be an effective and efficient way to deliver behavior analytic services for underserved populations in countries like Korea.

Communication deficits are often evident in students with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities. For these students, basic communication needs, like asking to use the restroom, requesting food or expressing discomfort are a challenge. Frustration caused by communication deficits can lead the student to express interfering behaviors, which may interrupt student learning. This paper identifies and describes evidence-based practices (EBPs) used to increase functional communication skills for students with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities. This review focuses on functional communication training (FCT) and the picture exchange communication system (PECS) and their use to increase functional communication skills. The study also explains how to implement FCT and PECS and the results and challenges that may take place during the implementation process. This is an informative paper intended for special education teachers who work with students with moderate-to-severe disabilities.

The non-profit sector is growing, where NPOs compete for scarce resources. Meanwhile, innovation in communication technology requires resources and creativity. Can social media work as an efficient tool for communicating organizational goals and values and how does it enhance trust in NPOs relationship with donors? How do NPOs use ICT and social media in communication to donors and how do they implement functional and emotional communication online?  The research area is approached through a deductive, qualitative, and constructivist perspective. Interviews with two leading NPOs were held, as well as a number of interviews with potential donors. The theoretical framework builds upon Morgan and Hunts and MacMillan et al’s models of trust and commitment. Functional and emotional communication was developed through various theories on online communication. The main findings of this thesis are that Swedish NPOs mainly focus on emotional communication in order to obtain emotional commitment before further developing trust, which is created from functional communication. The investigated NPOs use functional communication to a very little extent.

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, often engage in challenging behavior that severely limits positive outcomes. Although treatment packages comprising functional communication training and multiple schedules of reinforcement have demonstrated great promise to both increase appropriate, socially acceptable communication responses for preferred items and decrease challenging behavior associated with not having access to preferred items, resurgence of challenging behavior has been reported to occur during lengthy periods when preferred items are not available (i.e., extinction). This study evaluated whether noncontingent access to an alternative item during an abrupt shift to a lengthy period of extinction would reduce the extent of challenging behavior. Two children with Autism Spectrum Disorder participated. The results of this study indicated that (a) functional communication training successfully reduced challenging behavior and increased the rate of functional communication responses (FCR) for both participants, (b) multiple schedules of reinforcement (i.e., signaled periods of reinforcement and extinction for FCRs) successfully produced discriminated FCRs, and (c) no major differences in challenging behavior were observed when alternative items were presented during the abrupt shift to a terminal period of extinction versus when alternative items were not presented. Limitations and future directions of research are discussed.

Treatment for adulthood stuttering traditionally focuses on some combination of stuttering management and fluency management and may also target emotional and cognitive reactions to stuttering. However, long-term gains are often limited, and there is a need for continued development of approaches for mitigating impacts of stuttering. We know of no evidence-based therapy approaches designed to target functional communication in adults who stutter (AWS), despite widespread interest in improving functional communication in members of this speaker group. Script training is an intervention approach designed to improve accuracy and automaticity in functional communication. Script training was originally designed for use with adults with aphasia and was also recently applied successfully with adults with apraxia of speech. The aim of this study was to determine effects of script training in AWS. Three males participated, one who stuttered mildly, one moderately, and one severely. Using a single-subject, multiple-baseline design, treatment and maintenance performance was compared to baseline performance on three dependent variables: Script accuracy, percentage of syllables stuttered, and speaking rate. Results indicate that script training may benefit AWS. Script accuracy increased and percentage of syllables stuttered decreased in all three individuals. Speaking rate increased for one participant, whose pre-treatment stuttering was rated as mild in severity. All participants reported a self-perceived increase in confidence communicating. These effects indicate that additional research is warranted to continue investigating effects of script training in people who stutter.

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The primary purpose of the current study was to determine which variables influence or change response allocation among mand topographies. The variables evaluated consisted of response effort, schedule of reinforcement (extinction), changes in concurrent schedules arrangements, and availability of visual stimuli (i.e., a communication card). The stability of responding was evaluated across more than one reinforcement context (escape, attention, and tangible) for each of the 2 participants. Finally, a concurrent schedules arrangement was used to evaluate response allocation among card touches, manual sign, microswitch touches, and vocalizations. Results of the evaluation suggested that response allocation varied across reinforcement contexts in baseline and when responding was challenged. However, variations in response allocation were not uniform across all challenges and reinforcement contexts. Problem behavior continued to be exhibited at low levels throughout the evaluation even when mild punishment procedures were implemented. These results are discussed in terms of changes in patterns of responding across reinforcement contexts, variability in response allocation among available response options, and persistence of responding when challenges are implemented.

Behavioral momentum theory provides a conceptual framework for the study of the recurrence of previously extinguished operant behavior. Commonly referred to as treatment relapse, this is the failure to maintain treatment gains (e.g., reductions in challenging behavior) when there is a change in conditions under which these gains were achieved. One treatment relapse paradigm previously examined in basic and applied research is reinstatement. Reinstatement of challenging behavior has been shown to occur when functional reinforcers are delivered on a fixed-time schedule following extinction of challenging behavior. Although examinations appropriate behavior have applied value, analyses of reinstatement have been conducted almost exclusively with challenging behavior. During the current study, a reinstatement methodology was applied to communicative responses with five children diagnosed with developmental disabilities who exhibited comorbid communication deficits, as well as challenging behavior maintained by positive reinforcement. In the first phase of the reinstatement evaluation, each child received functional communication training (FCT) within a positive reinforcement context within a two-component multiple schedule design with each schedule paired with a distinct communicative response. After achieving steady-state responding in the first phase, in which all participants were independently emitting both communicative responses, all appropriate communication was placed on extinction in the second phase. Extinction continued until rates of appropriate communication were at or near zero. In the third phase, positive reinforcement was delivered and the recurrence of appropriate communication was evaluated. For two of five participants, communicative responding recurred following the fixed-time delivery of the functional reinforcer, indicating a successful demonstration of reinstatement. For three of five participants, communicative responding recurred prior to the delivery of fixed-time reinforcement, indicating that an alternative recurrence phenomenon likely occurred. These results suggest that reinstatement methodologies can be applied to cases in which FCT treatment failures have occurred to efficiently restore clinical gains for some participants. Implications for clinical practice and future directions of this line of research are discussed.