Develop a plan for initial functional communication training with this client
S​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍​cenario #1: Josie is a 49-year-old woman with a diagnosis of severe intellectual disability. She has limited language skills, but is capable of an occasional, one-word vocal response. Her target behavior is self-injurious behavior in the form of slapping the sides of her face with both hands using a light amount of force. At most, there is a slight redness following the slapping behavior. You conducted a functional assessment and found that the function of self-injurious behavior was attention from staff in her group home. When she slaps her face, staff usually come over to her, console her, and say things like, “Josie, why are your hurting yourself? Please don’t hurt yourself.” The staff member then usually sits with her for a few minutes and talks with her. NOW THE READ THE PROPOSED INTERVENTION Josie is engaging in self-injurious behavior in the form of slapping the sides of her face with both hands using a light amount of force. The function of the problem behavior attention from staff in her group home. A replacement behavior is communication through Functional Communication Training (FCT). The reinforcer will be DRA which will reward instances of a desired substitute for Josie’s behavior of face slapping while depriving it of reinforcement. DRA simultaneously strengthens alternate behavior while reducing problem behavior (Cooper et al., 2019). An appropriate communicative response for Josie is sign language. I will begin by saying a word while ​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍​making the gesture that corresponds to the word. Every time I say a word, I will continue to make the sign for that word at the same time (Kase & Feld, 2015). When Josie enters the center, I will greet her by saying and signing “good morning.” All of my communication at the center will be verbal and signing. The other staff member will work one-on-one with Josie, every day, for 3hours each day, to teach her common words that she will use on a daily basis. Josie will feel comfortable learning to sign in the environment in which she spends most of her day. When Josie wants attention from another person, she will raise her arm, slightly, and sign excuse me. Whoever notices Josie first will immediately respond. According to how well Josie has learned to sign the duration of the training will decrease. Two weeks after getting one-on-on training, for 3 hours each day, Josie’s training will begin to fade to 2 hours for two weeks, then 1 hour for 1 week, then 30 minutes for one week. Every day Josie signs correctly, she will be rewarded with a gold star token. 5 gold star tokens will get Josie a gallon of her favorite sweet tea to take home on Friday. NOW: Critique the proposed FCT plan. Did the person identify an appropriate communicative response and the correct reinforcer? Why or why not? Describe how the person could add an extinction procedure to increase the efficacy of the FCT procedure. Include a description of how extinction would be implemente​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‍​d in this case.

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