| dc.description.abstract | Functional Communication Training (FCT) aims to reduce rates of problem behavior by teaching clients to emit functionally equivalent mands and then teaching local verbal communities to reinforce manding and to place challenging behavior on extinction. While FCT has been shown to be effective across a multitude of ages and diagnoses, a relatively small percentage of FCT studies evaluate generalization in untrained contexts in which contingencies enforced during therapy are not enforced during generalization, such as using extinction contingencies. Because typical audiences (i.e., listeners who mediate reinforcement for socially maintained behavior) are unlikely to be fluent with behavior-analytic interventions (e.g., differential reinforcement) and are likely to reinforce challenging behavior, evaluations of the generalization and maintenance of treatment effects in untrained contexts in which both problem behavior and manding produce reinforcement are needed. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to answer the following questions: (a) will FCT treatment effects established by one implementer in one training context generalize to a novel implementer in an untrained context and (b) in cases in which generalization of treatment effects does not occur following FCT, to what extent will a generalization training package (i.e., EO tolerance training, schedule leaning, multiple schedules, and sequential modification) promote generalization to a novel implementer in an untrained context? Three mother-child dyads were recruited to answer these questions. For all three child participants, FCT was effective in training contexts but there was little to no generalization of effect for both problem behavior and manding. Implications of the results are discussed. | |
