Extinction procedure to increase the efficacy of the FCT procedure
Develop a plan for initial functional communication training with this client
Scenario #2: Andrew is a 12-year-old boy with a diagnosis of severe intellectual disability. He has limited language skills and does not use vocal responses to communicate. He is capable of using picture cards to communicate. He already has an extensive repertoire of using a picture exchange system to request preferred items. His target behavior is property destruction defined as using his arms to push all items off the table and onto the floor, ripping worksheets in half, and snapping pencils in half. You conducted a functional assessment and found the function of property destruction was escape from demands. When he engages in property destruction, his teacher removes the demand and moves on to another student. If Andrew rips up a worksheet, it is not replaced with another and he is not required to complete the task. Andrew is not required to pick up items pushed to the floor. His teacher’s response has been to remove any request and ignore Andrew when he engages in property destruction. NOW READ THE PROPOSED INTERVENTION : To teach Andrew to request a break appropriately by using his break card I would use natural establishing operations because there are multiple demands put on him throughout the day in a school setting that will increase the value of the reinforcer (Tiger, Hanley, & Bruzek, 2008). I will prompt from most-to-least, every time (CRF-continuous schedule reinforcement or FR1-fixed ratio 1) a demand is placed on Andrew, he will be reminded that he can use his break card. When he uses his break card, he will get to escape the task. Once he has been on a CRF every time he is given a task to be prompted to use his break card successfully 100% of the time over 3 trials, the prompting will be faded. When Andrew is given a task, I will wait 10 seconds and see if he engages in the task, if he does not or I start seeing that he stops engaging in the work I will say “Remember, if you need a break, you have a break card” (FI-fixed interval). Eventually, the prompting will be faded to “What do you need Andrew?” 30 seconds after I see he is not engaging in the task, or it looks like he is wanting to escape the task (FI). Additionally, if Andrew engages in property destruction behavior, I suggest putting the behavior on extinction. However, when he has calmed down, he will have to clean up after himself and then be given the same task demand again, so he does not escape the demand when engaging in the problem behavior. Critique the proposed above FCT plan. Did the person identify an appropriate communicative response and the correct reinforcer? Why or why not? Describe how this person could could add an extinction procedure to increase the efficacy of the FCT procedure. Include a description of how extinction would be implemented in this case.
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