Assessing the utility of a demand assessment for functional analysis.

We evaluated the utility of an assessment for identifying tasks for the functional analysis demand condition with 4 individuals who had been diagnosed with autism. During the demand assessment, a therapist presented a variety of tasks, and observers measured problem behavior and compliance to identify demands associated with low levels of compliance or high levels of problem behavior (low-probability demands) and demands associated with high levels of compliance or low levels of problem behavior (high-probability demands). Results showed that clearer functional analysis outcomes were obtained for 3 of the 4 participants when low-probability rather than high-probability demands were used.