Table 4.

Guidelines for Conducting FCT in Home Settings

Conduct a descriptive assessment to involve the parent from the onset of the assessment process and to generate hypotheses regarding the events that control both appropriate and destructive behavior. Conduct a functional analysis to provide a more rigorous evaluation of the consequences that maintain the child's destructive behavior. Coach parents through this procedure to enable them to experience directly how their behavior controls their children's behavior. Develop a functional communication training program that is relatively simple for the parent to implement and that leads to efficient reinforcement for the child. Teach the child an easy way to mand for reinforcement, but also provide reinforcement for functionally equivalent forms of manding. For example, the child may be taught to touch a word/picture card to obtain a “play” break, but a break would be provided for appropriate vocalizing or manual signing. For escape-maintained behavior, begin by requiring the child to complete a small amount of work prior to manding for a large amount of reinforcement. As the child's behavior improves, increase the amount of work the child is required to complete before he or she is given an opportunity to mand for a break. Once the child is successful with the training, introduce the same FCT procedures into new settings and situations (e.g., introduce new tasks).