Association for Behavior Analysis International

Automatically reinforced problem behavior may be difficult to treat due to practitioners’ inability to manipulate the establishing operations or functional reinforcers. Noncontingent reinforcement is one of the common interventions used to treat automatically maintained self-injury because the noncontingent delivery of the stimuli competes with engaging in the problem behavior. Although this intervention is effective, it might be difficult to implement in settings in which individuals are expected to engage in functional activities (e.g., schoolwork, daily living tasks) without engaging in problem behavior. Thus, the purpose of this study was to further evaluate the effects of noncontingent delivery of competing stimuli on automatically maintained self-injury and compliance for mastered tasks. Two children with developmental disabilities who engaged in severe self-injurious behavior participated in this study.

Elopement is a dangerous behavior exhibited by some individuals with autism, and accurately identifying the function of elopement is important to develop successful treatments. Functional analyses for elopement have been developed to mimic contingencies appearing in the natural environment; however, some of these analyses are limited by the required retrieval component. The current study replicated previous research which used a latency-based functional analysis that eliminates the retrieval component in order to safely and more precisely identify the function of elopement. In addition, we extended previous latency-based research by evaluating a treatment to reduce elopement. Specifically, we evaluated latency-based functional analyses to assess elopement exhibited by three children with autism. We then implemented function-based treatment packages for both children. Results showed that the treatment packages were effective to reduce elopement.