Examination of an antecedent communication intervention to reduce tangibly maintained challenging behavior: A controlled analog analysis

We examined the influence of an antecedent communication intervention on challenging behavior for three students with developmental disorders. Students were taught to request tangible items that were identified as reinforcers for challenging behavior in a prior functional analysis. Individual participant multielement and reversal designs were used to compare the effects of the antecedent communication intervention versus a no antecedent communication intervention condition. Immediately following the antecedent manipulations students were exposed to the tangible condition of the functional analysis. Results indicate that the antecedent communication intervention reduced challenging behavior in the subsequent tangible test condition for all three students. The importance of examining antecedent interventions to treat challenging behavior from a function analytic perspective is discussed.

► An antecedent intervention to reduce challenging behavior was examined.
► Intervention consisted of prior exposure to stimuli.
► A multielement design was used to demonstrated experimental control.
► The intervention was successful in reducing challenging behavior.
► Future research should examine this intervention in applied settings.