Incorporating trauma-assumed practices into the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior evoked by corrective feedback

Abstract

Receiving corrective feedback can be challenging, yet it is essential for teaching new skills. Thus, learning to tolerate corrective feedback from others is a critical skill for accessing less restrictive environments. Our case study details the referral of a 7-year-old boy to a university-based outpatient clinic for the assessment and treatment of increasingly dangerous, challenging behavior. We integrated trauma-assumed approaches by (a) conducting a performance-based functional analysis with synthesized contingencies and (b) evaluating a treatment package (e.g., token system including task choice and graduated exposure across activities) to build tolerance of evocative properties of corrective feedback. We describe how clinical decision-making and trauma-assumed modifications during assessment and treatment reduced challenging behavior, increased tolerance of corrective feedback, and maintained these effects when treatment was extended to caregivers in the home.