Increasing spontaneous play by suppressing self-stimulation in autistic children.
Appropriate play with toys was studied in two autistic children with high occurrences of self-stimulatory behavior. Each child participated in the experimental sessions in an A-B-A design, where "A" refers to baseline sessions and "B" refers to self-stimulation suppression sessions. It was found that: (a) during the baseline sessions, the children exhibited low levels of play and high levels of self-stimulatory behavior; (b) the per cent of unreinforced, spontaneous, appropriate play increased when self-stimulatory behavior was suppressed; and (c) when the suppression of self-stimulation was discontinued, the per cent of self-stimulation and that of appropriate play approached their presuppression levels. These results seem particularly significant because they identify a set of conditions under which spontaneous appropriate behavior, uncommon in autistic children, occurs at an increased level.
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011678:Punishment; D012008:Recurrence; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012653:Self Stimulation; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior