Preventing Behavioral Crisis in Special Education: Supporting Teacher-Implemented Functional Communication Training. 74 views

Challenging student behavior is an ever-increasing concern in educational settings. This problem leads many special education teachers to experience burnout and leave the field. However, behavioral outcomes are shaped by more than interventions alone; they are influenced by interconnected student-, intervention-, and teacher-level factors. Behavioral crises become more likely when these systems are misaligned. Limited research explores how student challenging behavior and teacher attrition interact and affect long-term behavioral outcomes and well-being. This dissertation presents an integrated model of behavioral crisis prevention by examining the interdependent processes of challenging behavior, behavior resurgence, and SET attrition. Functional communication training (FCT) is an effective evidence-based intervention for reducing challenging behavior. Manuscript one is a meta-analysis that summarizes the literature on school-based FCT and examines whether effect sizes differ across study-level characteristics. In manuscript two, the types and frequency of SET victimization experiences are examined, and the timing of crisis intervention training is evaluated. Finally, manuscript three extends the literature by evaluating the feasibility and sustainability of school staff-implemented FCT with schedule thinning in ECE settings. This dissertation presents a behavioral crisis-prevention framework that integrates the issues of challenging behavior, resurgence, and SET attrition and provides recommendations for future research and implications for practice.

PHD (Doctor of Philosophy)

Special Education; Functional Communication Training; Challenging Behavior

English

2026-07-22