MedTrace Logo

Refinements of Functional Communication Training

NCT04045600 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 24

Last updated 2024-04-09

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Although treatments for problem behavior, like functional communication training (FCT), can be highly effective in the clinic, changes in the way the FCT is implemented (e.g., when transferring treatment to the home, when teachers implement treatment with poor fidelity) can result in treatment relapse. The goal of this study is to evaluate whether using treatment signals and gradually introducing materials from natural contexts can help mitigate treatment relapse during context changes and poor treatment-integrity scenarios.

Conditions

  • Aggression
  • Self-injurious Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Trad FCT

This intervention emulates a traditional reinforcement schedule-thinning method during FCT in which clinicians program delays to reinforcement without discriminative stimuli (e.g., the child learns that some FCRs result in reinforcement and some do not). By programming reinforcement approximately every 15 s, the rate of reinforcement will be equivalent to mult FCT. During Period 1 of this project, trad FCT served as an appropriate control condition to which mult FCT could be compared.

BEHAVIORAL

Mult FCT

This intervention involves correlating discriminative stimuli (e.g., purple and yellow index cards) with times in which reinforcement for the functional communication response (FCR) is and is not available. During Period 1 of this project, this procedure resulted in rapid reduction of destructive behavior and mitigated resurgence and renewal when the discriminative stimuli were used as programmed.

BEHAVIORAL

Mult FCT + Stimulus Fading

This condition is similar to mult FCT except that the experimenters will gradually incorporate natural stimuli (e.g., rugs, tables, lamps) into sessions to approximate target settings that may occasion relapse typically without such gradual stimulus fading.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Wayne W Fisher, PhD · Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
3 Years
Max Age
17 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2021-05-03
Primary Completion
2025-12-31
Completion
2025-12-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04045600 on ClinicalTrials.gov