Date of Award:

12-2011

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Special Education and Rehabilitation

Advisor/Chair:

Sarah E. Bloom PhD

Abstract

Problem behavior can interfere with teaching and learning. Developing interventions for problem behavior may be more efficient when the function of problem behavior is known. A variety of functional analysis (FA) methods have been developed to provide information on the variables maintaining problem behavior. Unfortunately most of the current adaptations of the FA are not always feasible for classroom teachers, or suited to a typical school day. The trial-based FA is an adaptation that increases the accessibility of FA in educational settings, but typically relies on occurrence measures. The use of latency as a measure may improve the sensitivity of the trial-based FA. This study extends the literature on adaptations to the functional analysis, specifically for use in the classroom, by using latency as a measure of response strength in the trial-based FA.

Comments

Publication made available electronically December 21, 2011.

Copyright for this work is retained by the student.