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Abstract
Intervention for challenging behavior has long been characterized by consequence approaches, which often meant the application of aversive procedures. However, in recent years the development and refinement of functional assessment has brought about alternative approaches to behavior management. Antecedent interventions represent one alternative. Because antecedent intervention approaches are relatively new, a number of questions remain regarding utility and applicability. The current paper reviews empirical research describing assessment-- based antecedent interventions implemented in natural settings. Descriptive information is provided along a number of dimensions pertaining to participant characteristics, assessment utilized, and intervention attributes.
In relatively recent years, educators, parents, and practitioners have come to value the importance of an assessment-based intervention for addressing challenging behavior. (e.g., Miltenberger, 2000). This resulted, in part, because intervention efforts came to focus almost exclusively on consequence procedures alone (e.g., Pelios, Morren, Tesch, &; Axelrod, 1999), Specifically, at the core of behavioral intervention is the three-term contingency consisting of an antecedent, behavior, and consequence, That is, most behavior is believed to occur subsequent to some type of environmental event (i.e., an antecedent) which then may be maintained if it is followed by an event that is pleasurable or reinforcing (i.e., consequence). Although consequences encompass a variety of forms, including positive reinforcement, instructions, etc., concern emerged that when they were used in the context of challenging behavior, they often involved the application of very restrictive procedures, such as seclusionary time out, corporal punishment, administration of noxious stimuli, etc, (e.g., Guess, Helmstetter, Turnbull, & Knowlton, 1987). In addition, behavior interventionists began to recognize that interventions might be strengthened if they focused on multiple facets of the three-term contingency. One promising facet involves the antecedents (e,g., Kern & Dunlap, 1998).
Antecedent-based interventions diverge considerably from consequence-- based interventions because, rather than imposing a consequence following the occurrence of problem behavior, they instead focus on reducing the probability of problem behavior occurring (e.g., Luiselli, 1998). Thus, they can be considered proactive and preventive. An additional strength of this approach is that antecedent-based interventions can reduce or eliminate the need for punitive consequential procedures.
Antecedent interventions focus on two classes of antecedent events (Miltenberger, 1998). The first class of events, referred to as discriminative stimuli (ST,), are variables or events that serve as...