ABSTRACT
There were four conditions in their study. Each condition was carried out twice daily in random order for 15 minutes for each child in a room normally used for therapy. In an attention condition, to see if the self-injurious behavior was being maintained by adult attention, a variety of toys were placed in the room and the child and the behavior modifier went into the room together. However, the behavior modifier pretended to do paper work and only interacted with the child when he/she engaged in the problem behavior. Each time the child engaged in self-injurious behavior, the behavior modifier would look at the child and express concern such as, “Don’t do that, you’re going to hurt yourself.” In a demand condition, to see if the self-injurious behavior was maintained by escape from demands, the behavior modifier and child went into the room together and the behavior modifier prompted the child to perform some task that the child found difficult. If the child engaged in the problem behavior, the behavior modifier stopped making demands on the child for 30 seconds. In an alone condition, to see if the self-injurious behavior was a form of sensory reinforcement when the child was alone, there were no toys in the room and the child was in the room by him/herself, although observed through a one-way window. In a control condition, to test whether self-injurious behavior occurred in the absence of the three previous conditions, the child and the behavior modifier were in the room together, a variety of toys were present, and the behavior modifier reinforced the child’s appropriate play behavior.
