Rapid Assessment of Attention Types for the Treatment of Attention-Maintained Problem Behavior

Craig W Strohmeier; Carolyn Crysdale; Suni Schwandtner

doi:10.1007/s40617-018-00300-x

Rapid Assessment of Attention Types for the Treatment of Attention-Maintained Problem Behavior

Behav Anal Pract. 2018 Sep 28;11(4):417-423. doi: 10.1007/s40617-018-00300-x. eCollection 2018 Dec 31.

Authors

Craig W Strohmeier¹, Carolyn Crysdale^{1

2}, Suni Schwandtner¹

Affiliations

¹ 1Department of Behavioral Psychology, Neurobehavioral Unit Outpatient Clinic, Kennedy Krieger Institute, 9810 Patuxent Woods Drive, Columbia, MD 21046 USA.
² Little Leaves Behavioral Services, Silver Spring, MD USA.

Abstract

In the current study, we expanded previously described attention assessment procedures (e.g., Piazza et al., 1999) to create a rapid assessment of attention types (RAAT) suitable for clinical and educational settings. The RAAT was developed to identify a form of attention most likely to reinforce functionally equivalent alternatives to problem behavior. We describe the procedures for conducting a RAAT, as well as the results of a treatment evaluation that included two attention types from the RAAT, programmed to increase prosocial alternative behaviors.

Keywords: Attention assessment; Functional analysis; Problem behavior; Replacement behavior.