Johnson C R, Hunt F M, Siebert M J
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Behav Modif. 1994 Apr;18(2):214-29. doi: 10.1177/01454455940182005.
Pica and scavenging are serious, sometimes life-threatening behavior problems among a significant percentage of individuals with mental retardation. This study describes procedures developed to reduce life-threatening pica and food scavenging in two adolescents with severe to profound mental retardation. Treatment was designed to teach the subjects to discriminate safe from unsafe items by training them to ingest only those items put on a specified placemat and to communicate with simple signs or gestures to obtain more food to be put on the mat. Discrimination was achieved by praising subjects when they selected and ingested items from their placemats and delivering a mild punisher when attempts to ingest nonplacemat items were made. A multiple baseline design across settings was used to evaluate the effects of the treatment package in three inpatient settings. All environments were "baited" with both edible and inedible items. Our treatment procedures appeared to be effective in reducing pica in each of the settings. Generalization of treatment effects to natural environments for one of the two subjects was documented.
异食癖和捡食行为是相当一部分智力障碍者中存在的严重、有时甚至危及生命的行为问题。本研究描述了为减少两名重度至极重度智力障碍青少年危及生命的异食癖和食物捡食行为而制定的程序。治疗旨在通过训练受试者只摄取放在特定餐垫上的物品，并通过简单的手势或姿势进行沟通以获取更多放在餐垫上的食物，来教会他们区分安全与不安全的物品。当受试者从餐垫上选择并摄取物品时给予表扬，而当他们试图摄取非餐垫上的物品时给予轻微惩罚，以此实现辨别。采用跨环境的多基线设计来评估该治疗方案在三个住院环境中的效果。所有环境中都放置了可食用和不可食用的物品。我们的治疗程序似乎在每个环境中都有效地减少了异食癖。记录了其中一名受试者的治疗效果向自然环境的泛化情况。
