Functional Assessment of Behavioral Disturbances Related to Diagnostic
Features of Autism
Iser G. DeLeon, Ph.D., BCBA
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders (DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 2000) lists impairments in three domains as the core diagnostic features of Autistic Disorder: 1) impairments in social interaction, 2) impairments in communication, and 3) the presence of restricted repetitive and stereotyped behaviors, interests and activities. Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) also sometimes display severe behavior problems such as self-injurious behavior, aggression, and property destruction. The current standard of care in the treatment of severe behavior problems includes some form of functional assessment to determine the variables that give rise to and maintain problem behaviors. In this presentation, I will focus on functional assessment of behavioral disturbances specifically for individuals with ASD. First, I will discuss how conventional functional assessment outcomes have differed in persons with and without ASD. Then, I will consider outcomes of studies that applied functional assessment procedures to behaviors that contribute to diagnostic symptomatology of ASD. Finally, I will consider how functional assessment procedures have been used to examine how the core diagnostic features of ASD can interact with other environmental variables to give rise to more severe behavior problems.
Iser DeLeon received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Florida and later completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Behavioral Psychology and Pediatrics at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Director of Research Development for the Department of Behavioral Psychology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, and Co-Director of the Applied Behavior Analysis Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, past president of the Maryland Association for Behavior Analysis, and serves on the editorial boards of several journals including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, for which also served as Associate Editor. Dr. DeLeon has published several papers and has received several federal research grants related to the assessment and treatment of behavior disorders in individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Additional, often convergent, lines of research have investigated determinants of choice responding in this population.