Functional Communication Training and Its Effects on Challenging Behaviour in Children with Severe Intellectual Disabilities in Kano State

This study examines the effects of functional communication training on challenging behaviour among children with severe intellectual disabilities in special education settings in Kano State, North West Nigeria. Challenging behaviour, including self-injury, aggression, and property destruction, is highly prevalent among children with severe intellectual disabilities and is widely understood through a communicative framework as functioning to access or escape desired or aversive conditions. Functional communication training, which replaces challenging behaviour with a communicative alternative serving the same function, represents an evidence-based behavioural intervention with substantial international support. This study employs a functional analysis followed by a multiple-baseline single-subject experimental design with five children in two special schools in Kano metropolis. Each participant's challenging behaviour is functionally assessed, and a personalised communication replacement behaviour is trained using augmentative communication modes appropriate to each child's communicative profile. Direct observation data are collected throughout baseline and intervention phases, with visual analysis and effect size computation applied. The study contributes original empirical evidence from Northern Nigeria to the international functional communication training literature. Findings are anticipated to demonstrate consistent reductions in challenging behaviour co-occurring with increases in functional communication use. Recommendations include training special education teachers in functional behavioural assessment methods and augmentative communication implementation across North West Nigerian special schools. Keywords: functional communication training, challenging behaviour, intellectual disability, Kano State, augmentative communication.