Ep. 45- ABA in one take- Teaching bilingual learners to adapt to varying language circumstances

Functional communication training is an essential part of a behavior analysts’ job. It is one of the most used treatments, and there is no denying that. However, these authors were able to cleanly identify a huge gap in the research literature. That gap was the lack of research regarding functional communication training to bilingual learners. Specifically, these researchers set out to teach a bilingual learner to change their mand modality (language) based on an extinction contingency by a caregiver. This was to ensure that the resurgence would not occur just because a caregiver or therapist did not understand the language that was being used. With a clever mixture of behavioral skills training and massed trials, they were able to achieve this in a very naturalistic manner.

Banerjee, I., Lambert, J. M., Copeland, B. A., Paranczak, J. L., Bailey, K. M., & Standish, C. M. (2022). Extending functional communication training to multiple language contexts in bilingual learners with challenging behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55(1), 80-100. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.883