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Functional communication training (FCT) is an evidence-based intervention that has been widely used and implemented to reduce problem behavior and teach replacement behavior in a variety of settings. Specific procedures have been researched and documented to ensure correct implementation. Functional communication training can be broken into three steps: (a) identifying the function of the problem behavior through a functional behavior assessment (FBA); (b) selecting an appropriate replacement communicative response; and (c) building new skills acquisition through teaching and rehearsal while using reinforcements and extinction.

Functional communication training (FCT) is a behavioral treatment that has been shown to reduce problem behavior and increase appropriate communication in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, we assessed the effects of FCT on targeted and nontargeted problem behaviors outside of the training context, as well as parent stress, for 30 young children with ASD and their parents. Indirect measures of generalization treatment effects were administered prior to and following FCT treatment delivered via telehealth. Children demonstrated significant improvement on both targeted (measured via observation) and nontargeted (measured via checklist) problem behaviors, both within and outside of the training context, and parent stress was significantly reduced following treatment. These results suggest that the impact of FCT may extend beyond the training context for both the children being treated and the parents delivering treatment, even when generalization is not specifically programmed for during treatment.

The most well known fact about sleep is that humans need it - while we are asleep our metabolic processes slow down and during long periods of sleep our bodies repair the damage that the stress our bodies have undergone throughout the day. Throughout the day our bodies are bombarded by signals from the environment, and undergoes biological changes in response to external and internal stimuli. Sleep is a period of time to restore the body to optimum condition to continue the process all over again the next day. The human body regulates stress by producing glucocorticoid steroid hormones, which also function as immune response suppressants. During sleep cortisol levels are decreased as they inhibit the body’s period of restoration. The production of immunoglobulin A, an antibody associated with mucosal membranes, is inhibited by glucocorticoids, and thus shows a relationship with sleep and other factors associated with stress. This experiment focused on correlations between sleep and stress found on the campus of Radford University. Our groups recorded the amount of sleep participants acquired the previous night and how long they had been awake, and correlated these with the concentration of salivary IgA. According to our initial data collection there was no significant correlation between the amount of sleep (p=0.305) or hours awake (0.670) to IgA levels. Additional sampling later in the semester will be used to supplement this data set and mapped using geospatial coordinates.

The goal of this project is to test students and faculties stress levels in their saliva compared between the beginning of this semester and the end of the semester. IgA levels are influenced by many physiological factors, including the hormones associated with stress. The findings conclude that there is significance between IgA levels in a student or faculty based on hours since they had left class and hours until they have class. Students and faculty showed a correlation between IgA and time since being in class or work (p-value = 0.03), however no significance of the duration of the expected rest period (p-value = 0.71). The significance of this finding is that students and faculty tend to be more stressed after being in class/work based on IgA levels in their saliva.

Our study is to determine and compare human IgA levels to self reported stress levels of college students and faculty at the beginning of the college semester, when stress levels are expected to be low, as compared to a later point in the semester, when stress levels are expected to be higher. This study is significant because the data will provide us with information regarding whether or not people are as biologically stressed as they report at different periods of the semester. Individuals are expected to be at a lower stress level at the beginning of the semester than at the end of the semester. Biological stressors are indications that the psychological and physical aspects of an organism are attempting to maintain an equilibrium in order to function properly. We are interested in quantifying biopsychological stressors between mental and physical stress responses and the effect of psychosomatic influence. To analyze samples for IgA molecules levels in comparison to proclaim stress levels to determine if students are as physically stressed as they are mentally feeling stressed. Stress was reported on a zero to ten scale and these reports will be compared to actual levels of human IgA attained from saliva samples. Geospatial coordinates have been taken to relate the data to location across campus. After a regression test, showing a P value of 0.206, it was clear that there was no significant correlation in the data. This tells us that, overall, the levels of IgA, and therefore stress, did not relate to the reported level of stress from the participants.