Incorporating trauma-assumed practices into the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior evoked by corrective feedback

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Receiving corrective feedback can be challenging, yet it is essential for teaching new skills. Thus, learning to tolerate corrective feedback from others is a critical skill for accessing less restrictive environments. Our case study details the referral of a 7-year-old boy to a university-based outpatient clinic for the assessment and treatment of increasingly dangerous, challenging behavior. We integrated trauma-assumed approaches by (a) conducting a performance-based functional analysis with synthesized contingencies and (b) evaluating a treatment package (e.g., token system including task choice and graduated exposure across activities) to build tolerance of evocative properties of corrective feedback. We describe how clinical decision-making and trauma-assumed modifications during assessment and treatment reduced challenging behavior, increased tolerance of corrective feedback, and maintained these effects when treatment was extended to caregivers in the home.