Instruction in Functional Assessment, 2014a

Instruction in Functional Assessment Chapter 3
Table 10
Summary of NCR Procedure
1. Identify the reinforcers currently maintaining the individual’s challenging behavior
(e.g., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement) by conducting a functional
assessment
2. Schedule a frequent delivery of reinforcer according to time alone or independent of
behavior
3. Include an extinction component for when the problem behavior occurs
4. Initially use a rich schedule of reinforcement and adjust it to lean as the challenging
behavior decreases
Changing Antecedent Stimuli in the Natural
Environment
A quick method of preventing the individual’s challenging behavior is to manipulate
antecedent stimuli that control behavior (i.e., prompts). Antecedent stimuli include events,
objects, or people that are present before the individual’s challenging behavior occurs.
Stimuli in the environment that consistently precede the behavior can either be eliminated
or changed to affect the likelihood of the behavior (Martin & Pear, 2011). For example, if
the individual typically resists doing chores or is noncompliant then providing a choice of a
variety of different chores for that person to choose from may be an effective solution (Call,
Wacker, Ringdahl, Cooper-Brown, & Boelter, 2004). If the individual is escaping from
difficult work or material because the reading level is too difficult (i.e., negative reinforcement),
then provide more assistance or better instruction, or make the work easier (Sanford
& Horner, 2013). Also for escape-maintained behavior, the demands or requests could be
delivered less frequently (e.g., presenting demands once an hour instead of 20 times) and
then, as the levels of the challenging behaviors remain low, gradually returned to typical
levels (Lalli, Casey, & Kates, 1995). There is research to support the effectiveness of this
procedure for decreasing the number of requests, known as DEMAND FADING, for escapemaintained
challenging behaviors (see Pace, Iwata, Cowdery, Adree, & McIntyre, 1993;
Penrod, Gardella, & Fernand, 2012).
Another strategy is to add stimuli into the situation in which the challenging behavior
occurs to prompt or cue the individual’s desirable behaviors. For example, the likelihood of
the desired behavior occurring may be increased by presenting preferred curricular activities
(Foster-Johnson, Ferro, & Dunlap, 1994), background music (Desrochers, Oshlag, &
Kennelly, 2014), activity choices (Rispoli et al., 2013), or models demonstrating desired
behavior (Stokes & Kennedy, 1980).
Another method to change the antecedent stimuli involves an overall improvement
of the quality of the individual’s environment, known as ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT
(EE). EE entails increasing individuals’ access to preferred activities, people, or objects and
providing a variety of choices available in their everyday environment. One of the earliest
demonstrations of how EE can decrease problem behavior was conducted by Horner
(1980). More recently, in a controlled randomized experiment, it has been shown that
increasing sensorimotor experiences can have a beneficial effect on children with autism
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