A functional analysis is where a behavior analyst arranges antecedents and consequences in a client’s natural environment while observing and measuring the effects they have on the client’s behaviors. According to Iwata et al. (1994), an intervention may lose its effectiveness if the function of the problem behavior changes which does occur (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2020). The three standard test conditions include contingent attention, contingent escape, and when alone which means that there was test conditions observing a client when attention was withheld or diverted, when a researcher continuously delivers task demands (escape), and when they were alone with no socially mediated variables and a low level of stimulation.

Another maintaining variable that could be measured include contingent tangible conditions which is where a client has access to a preferred activity or toy and then those preferred toys/activities are removed. The control condition in this situation would include a play condition which is where the client has continuous access to preferred toys or activities, social attention is provided, and no demands are placed on this person (Cooper et al., 2020). If I was conducting a functional analysis under the contingent tangible conditions, I would use the play conditions as my control to measure how the child responds when they have complete access to all tangibles and their response when they are removed. As an example, I have a client that is highly motivated by playing with puzzles and this activity is their most preferred activity. I would first measure their responses and behaviors in the play conditions and record how often they engage in agitated disruptive behaviors that include loud vocalizations. I would then record how often they engage in loud vocalizations immediately after the puzzles are removed and how often they engage in it while puzzles remain removed and only neutral toys are present. In this functional analysis, I did find that contingent tangible access was a maintaining variable in the client’s loud vocalizations which showed that I need to create an intervention of a functionally equivalent way to gain access in a more appropriate way. Some barriers I may run in to would be finding out what skills are in this child’s repertoire thus far. If they have no functional way of communicating, then inappropriate loud vocalizations have been their only means of communicating access to preferred items. I would start by teaching them an appropriate form of communication and only reinforcing that and placing the inappropriate loud vocalizations on extinction by withholding reinforcement when they engage in it.  Another barrier that may have arisen would be if the target behavior for reduction was dangerous to their self or others which means a functional analysis may not have been ethical to conduct, however, fortunately the loud vocalizations are not harmful so there are no ethical barriers to consider. Another barrier of providing the tangible reinforcement after the engagement of the problem behavior is that it could be strengthening the cause/effect relationship between the behavior and consequence. A way to overcome this barrier is to identify an appropriate replacement behavior early on that is functionally equivalent to the problem behavior which makes it easier to decrease that problem behavior.

References:

Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3^rd Ed.). Pearson Education Inc.