An extensive literature on the causes of challenging behaviors has been developed, primarily in the applied behavior analysis literature. One hundred and seventy-three empirical studies were reviewed where functional assessment serves as the primary method of identifying these causes. Most of the studies were able to identify a clear function or…

Ten schizophrenic and autistic children who exhibited self destructive, tantrum, echolalic, and self stimulatory behaviors were treated by reinforcement therapy. Reinforcement withdrawal, in the form of interpersonal isolation contingent upon self-destruction, and electrical shocks served to extinguish these behaviors in some children.…

A description of the Social Exchange Laboratory's work with autistic children is presented. The laboratory's philosophy of the exchange theory of autism, seen as a set of habitual response patterns maintained and intensified by exchanges which are inadvertantly structured by others in the child's environment, is set forth with characteristics,…