Recruiting

Communication Training

Sponsor:

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Code:

NCT04045600

Conditions

Aggression

Self-injurious Behavior

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 3 - 17

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Trad FCT

Mult FCT

Mult FCT + Stimulus Fading

Study Details

Brief summary:

Although treatments for problem behavior, like functional communication training (FCT), can be highly effective in the clinic, changes in the way the FCT is implemented (e.g., when transferring treatment to the home, when teachers implement treatment with poor fidelity) can result in treatment relapse. The goal of this study is to evaluate whether using treatment signals and gradually introducing materials from natural contexts can help mitigate treatment relapse during context changes and poor treatment-integrity scenarios.

Conditions

Aggression

Self-injurious Behavior

Study ID

NCT04045600

Start date

May 3, 2021

Status verified date

Jun, 2026

Completion date

Dec 31, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec 31, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 3 - 17

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Boys and girls from ages 3 to 17
  • Destructive behavior that occurs at least 10 times a day despite previous treatment
  • Destructive behavior reinforced by social consequences like attention (FCT is not appropriate for automatically reinforced destructive behavior)
  • On a stable psychoactive drug regimen for at least 10 half-lives per drug or drug free
  • Stable educational plan and placement with no anticipated changes during the child's treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who do not meet the inclusion criteria
  • Patients currently receiving 15 or more hours per week of treatment for their destructive behavior
  • DSM-5 diagnosis of Rett syndrome or other degenerative conditions (e.g., inborn error of metabolism)
  • A comorbid health condition or major mental disorder that would interfere with study participation
  • Occurrence of SIB during study assessments that presents a risk of serious or permanent harm (e.g., detached retinas) based on our routine clinical-risk assessment
  • Patients requiring drug-treatment changes, but the experimenters will invite these patients to participate if they meet inclusion criteria after drug regimen is stable.

Study Design

Enrollment

24 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Mult FCT/Trad FCT

Participants assigned to this condition will receive both traditional FCT (trad FCT) and FCT with multiple schedules (mult FCT) to evaluate the effects of mult FCT on renewal, super-resurgence, and reinstatement.

experimental: Mult FCT + Stimulus Fading/Trad FCT

Participants assigned to this condition will receive both traditional FCT (trad FCT) and FCT with multiple schedules and stimulus fading (mult FCT + stimulus fading) to evaluate the effects of mult FCT and gradual fading of contextual stimuli on renewal, super-resurgence, and reinstatement.

Interventions

Trad FCT

This intervention emulates a traditional reinforcement schedule-thinning method during FCT in which clinicians program delays to reinforcement without discriminative stimuli (e.g., the child learns that some FCRs result in reinforcement and some do not). By programming reinforcement approximately every 15 s, the rate of reinforcement will be equivalent to mult FCT. During Period 1 of this project, trad FCT served as an appropriate control condition to which mult FCT could be compared.

Mult FCT

This intervention involves correlating discriminative stimuli (e.g., purple and yellow index cards) with times in which reinforcement for the functional communication response (FCR) is and is not available. During Period 1 of this project, this procedure resulted in rapid reduction of destructive behavior and mitigated resurgence and renewal when the discriminative stimuli were used as programmed.

Mult FCT + Stimulus Fading

This condition is similar to mult FCT except that the experimenters will gradually incorporate natural stimuli (e.g., rugs, tables, lamps) into sessions to approximate target settings that may occasion relapse typically without such gradual stimulus fading.

Primary outcome measure

  • Rate of Destructive Behavior in Renewal Test [ Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 3 weeks. ]
  • Rate of Destructive Behavior in Super-Resurgence Test [ Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 3 weeks. ]
  • Rate of Destructive Behavior in Reinstatement Test [ Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 3 weeks. ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Wayne W Fisher, PhD

8488008503wayne.fisher@rutgers.edu

Serena Claiborne

8488008504SClaiborne@childrens-specialized.org

Locations

Children's Specialized Hospital - Rutgers University Center for Autism Research, Education, and Services

Recruiting

Somerset, New Jersey, United States, 00873

Contacts

Wayne Fisher, PhD

8488008503wayne.fisher@rutgers.edu

Serena Claiborne

8488008504sclaiborne@childrens-specialized.org

More Information

Sponsor

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Last update posted

Jun 17, 2026

Last verified

Jun, 2026

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey on 2026-06-17.