Medical problems,maladaptive behaviors,and the developmentally disabled

Research has shown that aberrant behaviors of people with developmental disabilities have multiple determinants; of these, medical problems and their potential relations to aberrant behaviors, have been, for the most part, not studied. This retrospective study examined the relations of 26 acute medical treatements to the aberrant behaviors of 10 elderly people with developmental disabilities. Results showed that 73.1% of the aberrant behaviors decreased in frequency after medical treatments. The study suggests the importance of acute medical problems and treatments as possible factors in the occurrence of aberrant behaviors in this population.     

Positive procedures and generalized self-choking

In two studies, self-choking by a middle-aged man with mental retardation was controlled both directly and indirectly by positive procedures. In the first study, paced eating procedures were employed to control postmealtime rumination. The frequency of generalized self-choking increased from periods where meals were paced to periods in which meals were not paced and vice versa. In the second study, redirection of self-choking and reinforcement for responses other than self-choking (DRO) reduced the frequency of self-choking, with the procedures applied successively to a number of different environments, trainers, distances from the client, and DRO parameters. These procedures related to a substantial reduction in generalized self-choking measured in other environments at other times.