Three developmentally normal adolescents with chronic hair pulling were treated with a simplified habit-reversal procedure consisting of awareness training, competing response training, and parental social support. Treatment resulted in immediate reduction to near-zero levels of hair pulling with one to three booster sessions. Results were…

A study of three individuals with self-injurious behavior (SIB) evaluated a device designed for restraint fading with individuals who display hand-to-head SIB. Results demonstrated that stimulus control of SIB occurred in all individuals subsequent to restraint fading. The study also examined the effects of the rigid arm sleeves and restraint…

This study examined the effects of blocking self-injurious behavior on the self-restraint of a 19-year-old male with severe mental retardation. Consistent with the negative reinforcement hypothesis, blocking SIB resulted in near-zero levels of SIB and moderate reductions in self-restraint. (Author/DB)

This study examined effects of providing attention (the presumed reinforcer) both noncontingently and contingent upon either self-injurious behavior or self-restraint with a 12-year-old female with multiple disabilities including profound mental retardation. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that both responses were maintained by…

This study compared rates of self-injurious behavior (SIB) exhibited by a 32-year-old woman with profound mental retardation across conditions in which access to restraint was either continuously available, presented as a consequence for SIB, or unavailable. Rates of SIB increased when access to restraint was contingent upon SIB, suggesting that…

Discussion of the functional relationship between self-injurious behavior (SIB) and self-restraint in people with severe disabilities considers SIB and self-restraint as members of the same functional response class, SIB and self-restraint as functionally independent responses, access to self-restraint as positive reinforcement of SIB, termination…