Functional analysis-based treatment of disruptive behavior in preschool children

The purpose of our study is to prove that methodologies based on experimental functional analysis can be successfully adapted to the preschool classroom through a three-phase process of functional assessment, and be useful in designing effective treatments. In the first phase the disruptive classroom behavior of four preschool children was assessed using a functional assessment conducted through interviews and observations. Second, based on the information collected, hypotheses were formulated regarding the function of the problem behaviors. During the third phase a brief experimental functional analysis was used to verify our hypotheses. A treatment was then designed based on the factors involved in the problem behaviors. The treatment consisted in an adaptation of a classic DRO procedure applied functionally and resulted in a significant reduction of the problem behaviors which was sustained across the follow-up period. Our findings show that strategies combining an experimental functional analysis with a previous indirect observational functional assessment can contribute to the design of effective treatments at preschool level.