Functional Skill Replacement Training

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are pervasive developmental disorders characterized by impairments in social interaction, communication, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped behaviors. Symptoms exhibited by individuals diagnosed with ASD can manifest themselves over a wide variety of combinations of these three core behavioral deficits, with severities ranging from mild to severe. In addition, many individuals with ASD frequently evince at least one maladaptive behavior such as self-injury behavior (e.g., hand-biting, head-banging, face-slapping), property destruction, disruptions (e.g., tantrums), noncompliance, stereotypies (e.g., body rocking, hand flapping), and aggression toward others. These maladaptive behaviors can often cause physical injury to oneself and others, and, for that reason, many caregivers increase the use of restrictive procedures such as restraint, long-term residential care, and psychotropic medication to manage these problems. One approach for the treatment of maladaptive behavior is to identify the function of the behavior and teach the individual functional alternative behaviors or skills to replace the maladaptive behavior, known as "functional skill replacement training." The aim of this chapter is to provide a rationale methodology for replacing maladaptive behavior with more positive adaptive behaviors through functional skill replacement training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)(chapter)