Functional communication training and delay to reinforcement for the treatment of elopement in a boy with Dravet syndrome

Abstract

This study used a functional communication training procedure with delay to reinforcement to increase communication and decrease elopement of a 14-year-old boy with Dravet syndrome. The initial functional analysis showed that elopement was maintained by access to tangibles and avoidance of requests. The experimental design used was multiple probes across settings experimental design. The results indicated that the communication level increased, and elopement decreased during sessions conducted in the rehabilitation center and the home environment. Implications for practice are discussed. K E Y W O R D S communication, delay to reinforcement, Dravet syndrome, elopement, FCT 1 | INTRODUCTION Dravet syndrome (DS) is a rare form of infantile-onset epilepsy characterized by frequent, prolonged seizures accompanied by psychomotor and neurological impairments (Dravet, 2011). It affects between 1/20,000 and 1/40,000 of persons. Children with DS begin to show a psychomotor decline in the second year of life, which then arrests around 6 years resulting in a moderate or severe intellectual disability (Ceulemans, 2011). Most patients develop language planning difficulties, dysarthria, and expressive language deficits that cause significant communication difficulties. When growing up, adolescents with DS may have difficulties walking and need equipment to support mobility (Knupp et al., 2017). The syndrome also dramatically affects children's behavior (Sinoo et al., 2019), who nearly inevitably develop behavior problems. The most frequent behavior problems in children with DS are attention deficits, hyperactivity (Ragona et al., 2010), and autistic-like characteristics. Children are reported to be noncompliant with adult requests; they are restless and do not seem to be interested and participate in activities typical of their peers (Sinoo et al., 2019). Other behavior problems include opposition, irritability, and

Video Self-Modeling for a Student with Dravet Syndrome: An Intervention Involving Parents during COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy

“…for students with disabilities. To our knowledge, no studies have evaluated the effectiveness of telehealth-based VSM for participants with Dravet syndrome (DS), a rare form of childhood-onset epilepsy that is characterized by frequent and prolonged seizures, accompanied by psychomotor and neurological disorders (Dravet, 2011), which that can severely impair social life and adaptive behavior (e.g., Vascelli et al, 2021). In this study, VSM was used during parent-delivered DTT sessions for a participant with DS.…”