O Transtorno do Espectro Autista sob uma Abordagem Contextualista Multidimensional e Revisão Sistemática do Treino de Comunicação Funcional

Abstract

This work is divided into two chapters based on a contextualist approach to understanding behavioral phenomena, particularly Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and related behavioranalytic interventions. The first chapter presents, in an accessible manner to an audience with heterogeneous backgrounds, the predominant mentalist perspective in mental health disciplines and proposes a radical behaviorist alternative, discussing the harmful aspects of a mentalist— and consequently reductionist—approach to clinical intervention for ASD. The second chapter consists of a systematic literature review of Functional Communication Training (FCT) implemented with children with ASD, focusing specifically on generalization programming. The review aimed to identify the generalization programming principles proposed by Stokes and Osnes (1989) in FCT planning for children with ASD. The specific objectives were: (a) to identify FCT application studies with autistic children over the past eleven years; (b) to describe the general characteristics of the interventions; (c) to verify the occurrence of generalization planning in each study and, if applicable, characterize emerging categories of generalization promoting tactics not directly related to those proposed by the authors. The review followed the PRISMA protocol. The databases used were APA PsycNet, CAPES Periodicals, and BVS, with the following inclusion criteria: articles in English and Portuguese; FCT application with children aged 0 to 12 years diagnosed with ASD; published in peer-reviewed journals; from 2013 to 2024. The searches yielded 566 articles, of which 14 were retained for analysis. In 12 of them, one or more generalization tactics were identified in the FCT design. However, only one study conducted generalization verification steps after the intervention. The results confirm that research on the generalization of behaviors taught through FCT is scarce. Although conditions favoring generalization were identified in most studies, their effectiveness cannot be confirmed. There is a need for more research focusing on behavior occurrence after FCT completion to gather more data about the efficacy of generalization tactics. Based on both chapters, the practical implications of an anti-mentalist approach are highlighted, focusing on the role of social context in maintaining and modifying behaviors. Similarly, the need for a critical perspective from behavior analysis toward its own field is discussed, ensuring more robust results regarding generalization, as well as discussions about the biases within this scientific community.