A Single-Arm Pilot Trial for Mitigating Relapse of Severe Problem Behavior in Children and Adolescents

What this Trial Is About

Researchers are studying ways to improve teaching self-control and communication skills to children and adolescents aged 6 to 17 with challenging behaviors. The goal is to find methods that make behavior-change treatments more effective and long-lasting, even when environments or reinforcement schedules change. The study looks at how cognitive and behavioral factors like memory, timing, and decision-making affect treatment success. Participants will receive a behavioral intervention that includes functional communication training to teach appropriate communication responses, extinction-correlated stimuli to signal reinforcement changes, schedule thinning to reduce reinforcement frequency, competing stimuli to reduce challenging behaviors during delays, and caregiver training to support skill use at home. These approaches will be personalized and applied in structured sessions. During the study, participants will complete assessments to identify preferred activities and understand causes of challenging behaviors. They will learn new communication skills to replace problem behaviors and practice transferring these skills to new situations and people. Researchers will monitor changes in challenging behavior from enrollment through 16 weeks of intervention to evaluate treatment durability and generalization.

A Single-Arm Pilot Trial for Mitigating Relapse of Severe Problem Behavior