ON THE RELATION OF MANDS AND THE FUNCTION OF DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR

When standard analogue functional analysis procedures produce inconclu sive results in children with conversational speech, the child's mands may help to identify the function of destructive behavior. In the cur rent investigation, functional analyses conducted with 2 children who exhibited self-injury, aggression, and property destruction were undif ferentiated across conditions. Based on informal observations and scho ol and parental report, an analysis was conducted using mands to help determine the function of the destructive behavior. Using a multieleme nt design, the therapist's compliance with the child's mands occurred either on a fixed-ratio (FR) 1 schedule or contingent on destructive b ehavior. Destructive behavior occurred at high and consistent levels w hen reinforcement of mands was contingent on destructive behavior and at near-zero levels when reinforcement of mands occurred on the FR 1 s chedule. Based on these results, a second analysis was conducted in wh ich compliance to mands occurred only when the child appropriately req uested it (i.e., functional communication training plus extinction) an d, for 1 child, compliance with mands was terminated contingent upon d estructive behavior (i.e, functional communication training plus respo nse cost). For both children, the rates of destructive behavior decrea sed markedly. The results suggest that assessing the child's mands may be useful in decreasing destructive behavior when a functional analys is is inconclusive.