Decreasing Self-Injurious Behavior in a Student with Autism and Tourette Syndrome through Positive Attention and Extinction

Abstract

This case study was conducted with a student diagnosed with autism and Tourette syndrome who displayed severe self-injurious behavior (SIB). We conducted a functional behavioral assessment which indicated that SIB was maintained by multiple functions using an ABAC design to determine the effect of positive social attention and extinction. Results show a considerable decrease in SIB incidents, particularly when session duration was reduced from 10 minutes to 5 minutes during the second intervention phase. Thus, the combination of contingent social attention formulated from the functional assessment and extinction was successful in bringing about significant decreases in SIB. This combination holds great promise as a nonintrusive positive strategy for SIB.

KEYWORDS:

• autism
• extinction
• positive attention
• self-injurious behavior
• Tourette syndrome

The authors thank the Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research at Texas Tech University for providing assistance in data collection.