ExcelPrep
The Communication Story
7-Month Journey
As Communication Went Up,
Challenging Behavior Went Down
Challenging Behavior Went Down
Learner Lynn · Age 4 · Jun 2024 – Jan 2025 · 7-Month Trajectory
7
Programs
x1.33
Requesting Growth
x1.06
Naming Growth
~8.5
Mands/Day
÷1.2
CB Latency
⚡ The Inverse Relationship
As Learner Lynn learned to ask for what she wants, she stopped escaping from what she didn’t
Jun – Aug 2024
Challenging Behavior
Frequent
Requesting
Emerging
Baseline: Instruction was aversive. Learner Lynn escaped through tantrums, refusal, and disruption. Requesting was low-frequency and heavily prompted. Vocal but largely nonverbal — no functional words.
→
Sep – Nov 2024
Challenging Behavior
Decreasing
Requesting
x1.33/week
Reduction: As requesting accelerated, challenging behavior dropped. Moved from single-word mands to functional phrases. The replacement was happening.
→
Dec 2024 – Jan 2025
Challenging Behavior
Low & Stable
Requesting
~8.5/day
Current: CB data shows low-frequency occurrences. Learner Lynn sustains 7 concurrent programs because she has communication tools to participate.
This is functional equivalence in action. When appropriate communication serves the same function as problem behavior (accessing reinforcement), the appropriate behavior replaces the problem behavior. Seven months later, Learner Lynn can sustain 7 concurrent programs because she has the communication tools to participate — despite a diagnosis of autism with vocal but largely nonverbal presentation, challenging behavior, and no independent toileting at entry.
All 7 Programs
What Learner Lynn Is Working On
Six skill-building programs (we want these going up) and one behavior-reduction program (we want this going down). Together, they tell the story of a learner whose profile has fundamentally changed.
🔥 Strongest Growth
Requesting / Manding
Single Word Mand Request · Jul 2024 – Jan 2025
x1.33
Weekly Growth
~8.5/day
Spontaneous
📈 Accelerating
Asking for things spontaneously growing by 33% every week. Started with single-word requests, now using words and phrases. Progressed through 4 phases: Farm Animal Noun ID → “Eat”/”Water” → Mand using Words and Phrases. This is the engine driving behavior replacement.
🔴 Behavior Reduction
Challenging Behavior
Within Instruction · Nov 2024 – Jan 2025
Low
Current Rate
Decel
Goal
✓ Decelerating
Goal is deceleration. Chart data from Nov 2024 – Jan 2025 shows low-frequency occurrences near the bottom of the celeration chart. Learner Lynn now sustains 7 concurrent programs with manageable behavior levels — a qualitative shift from baseline when instruction was aversive.
💬 Language Development
Expressive Naming (Tact)
See-Say Nouns · Aug 2024 – Feb 2025
x1.06
Weekly Growth
2-word
Milestone
From single nouns to two-word combinations (attribute + noun). Current level: 25.14 correct responses per day. Language complexity is increasing as vocabulary broadens. Level increased x1.43 from previous phase — demonstrating acceleration across phase changes.
🤸 Motor Skills
Gross Motor Imitation
Hear-Do 1:1 · Jun 2024 – Jan 2025
x1.04
Weekly Growth
Fine
Next Phase
✓ Steady
Copying large body movements (clapping, jumping). Recently graduated to fine motor tracing — smaller, more precise movements. Current level: 8.5 correct/day with improvement index of x1.02. This progression from gross to fine motor demonstrates systematic skill building.
🖼️ Receptive-Expressive
Naming Pictures
See-Say Pictured Items · Aug 2024 – Jan 2025
~1.1
Correct/Min
x1.06
Imp. Index
🎯 At Goal
Learning to name pictures by category. Progressed through sorting based on color to coloring activity phases. Regularly touches goal line, ready for more advanced naming tasks. Errors decelerating (÷1.09) while corrects maintain — accuracy is improving.
📋 Following Directions
Multi-Step Directions
Hear-Do Directions · Recent Program
3
Phases
↑
Complexity
🚀 Advancing
From “Give me the red one” to “Give me color + shape” to “Put the blue circle on top” — building multi-part instruction-following with increasing linguistic complexity across 3 progressive phases.
🏠 Routines
Responding to Name / Come Here
Hear-Do Routine Based Instruction · Jul 2024 – Feb 2025
÷1.2
Latency Rate
↓
Response Time
÷1.03
Imp. Index
⚡ Faster
Coming faster each week when called. Lower latency = better engagement with instruction. The celeration chart shows correct response level at 0.355 with errors at 0.1683 — responding to name is becoming more reliable. This foundational skill supports participation in all other programs.
The Clinical Takeaway
This is what successful early intervention looks like — and sustains
When skills grow AND challenging behavior shrinks, you’re watching a child’s relationship with learning change permanently. Learner Lynn entered Excel Prep Schools at age 4 with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, presenting as vocal but largely nonverbal with challenging behavior and no independent toileting. Learning was aversive — she escaped through tantrums, refusal, and disruption.
Seven months later, she can sustain 7 concurrent programs with challenging behavior at low, manageable levels. Functional communication replaced problem behavior. Requesting at x1.33/week isn’t just a number — it’s proof that appropriate behavior is more effective than escape. She’s progressed from zero functional words to multi-word requesting, from single nouns to two-word expressive combinations, from no motor imitation to fine motor tracing.
And when appropriate behavior works better, problem behavior fades. That’s the theory. This is the data showing it works.