Self-injury in the profoundly retarded: clinically significant versus therapeutic control.
Two experiments investigated the effects of behavioural interventions on the self-injurious behaviour of two profoundly retarded girls who had a long history of such behaviour. In the first experiment, response-contingent aromatic ammonia was used as the aversive stimulus to reduce the high frequency of face-slapping and face-hitting in a deaf and blind girl. In the second experiment an overcorrection procedure was used to control jaw-hitting in another girl. In both cases, the treatments resulted in near-zero levels of self-injury. However, complete suppression of self-injury was not achieved. The results are discussed in terms of clinically significant versus therapeutic control of self-injurious behaviour in institutionalised profoundly retarded persons.
D000293:Adolescent; D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000523:psychology*; D012008:Recurrence; D012652:Self Mutilation / Q000534:rehabilitation*