The effects of a sensory extinction procedure on stereotypic sounds of two autistic children.

A reversal design was used to investigate the effects of a sensory extinction procedure on stereotypic sounds produced by two autistic children. White noise programmed through earphones was used to mask auditory stimuli resulting from aberrant vocalizations (termed "slurring," "snorts," and "arias") and from clapping hands and dropping objects. This sensory extinction procedure substantially reduced the stereotypic vocalizations but had little practical effect on the clapping and object-dropping responses. The discussion addresses some of the limitations and potential uses of sensory extinction procedures.