Functional assessment of instructional variables: Linking assessment and treatment

The purpose of the present investigation was to refine and validate an assessment procedure to identify instructional variables influencing acquisition of conditional discriminations in children diagnosed with autism. An assessment was implemented with eleven individuals to identify the specific instructional variables influencing the individual's responding. A prescribed academic intervention was selected for participants based on the results of the functional assessment. The prescribed intervention was compared to an alternative treatment and control condition. The functional assessment identified several different patterns of responding to instructional variables across participants. The treatment evaluation demonstrated that the prescribed academic intervention was effective in teaching conditional discriminations.

Research highlights▶ Our functional analysis of instructional variables lead to prescribed academic interventions. ▶ We validated the assessment results by comparing prescribed an alternative treatments. ▶ The prescribed treatment was superior to the alternative treatments for 3 of 4 participants. ▶ We extended previous research on functional assessments of academic interventions.