Long-term follow-up of telehealth-enabled behavioral treatment for challenging behaviors in boys with fragile X syndrome.

Background: A significant proportion of boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common known genetic cause of intellectual disability, exhibit challenging behaviors such as aggression and self-injury that can cause significant distress to families. Recent evidence suggests that coaching caregivers to implement functional communication training (FCT) with their child via telehealth can help to ameliorate these behaviors in FXS. In the present study, we followed families who had participated in our previous randomized controlled trial of FCT to evaluate the longer-term effects of FCT on challenging behaviors in this population.

Conducting In-Home Functional Analyses of Aggression and Self-Injury Exhibited by Boys with Fragile X Syndrome.

Objective: Boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS) are at increased risk for exhibiting aggression and self-injury that can be extremely disruptive to families. Few studies, however, have examined the extent to which social-environmental factors can influence these behaviors, particularly in home settings.

Methods: Caregivers of 32 boys with FXS, aged 3 to 10 years, were coached by a board-certified behavior analyst to implement a functional analysis (FA) with their child in their home over 2 days.

Telehealth-enabled behavioral treatment for problem behaviors in boys with fragile X syndrome: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) are at increased risk for exhibiting problem behaviors such as aggression and self-injury. However, many children with FXS have limited access to behavioral treatments that have known efficacy due to the low availability of treatment providers and the wide geographical dispersion of families with FXS across the country. Telehealth may offer a cost-effective and practical solution to overcome these significant barriers.

Telehealth Delivery of Function-Based Behavioral Treatment for Problem Behaviors Exhibited by Boys with Fragile X Syndrome.

Telehealth is increasingly being employed to extend the reach of behavior analytic interventions to families of children with developmental disorders who exhibit problem behaviors. In this preliminary study, we examined whether function-based behavior analytic interventions could be delivered via telehealth over 12 weeks to decrease problem behaviors exhibited by ten boys with fragile X syndrome (FXS), aged 3- to 10-years. Results showed that for eight children who completed treatment, rates of problem behavior decreased from baseline by 78.