Brief assessment and treatment of multiple challenging behaviors

✍ Scribed by Jeff Sigafoos; Madonna Tucker

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 152 KB
• Volume: 15
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1072-0847
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-078x(200001/03)15:1<53::aid-bin43>3.0.co;2-v

✦ Synopsis

We conducted a brief assessment of multiple challenging behaviors in a 19-year-old man with developmental disabilities. The results of the brief assessment suggested that spitting and aggression were attention maintained, whereas property destruction was related to escape and tangibles. Spitting also appeared to have a sensory component. Based on the results of the brief assessment, three treatments were evaluated. For attention, treatment involved noncontingent attention and teaching an alternative attention-gaining gesture. For the escape and tangible functions, opportunities to request tangibles were made contingent on task participation. The third treatment involved provision of leisure materials to provide an alternative source of sensory stimulation. All three treatments were associated with reduced challenging behavior and increased alternative behaviors. These ®ndings suggest that a combination of brief assessment and treatment evaluation may be a useful component in the provision of behavioral support to individuals with developmental disabilities who present with multiple forms of challenging behaviors.