DISCRIMINATION-TRAINING IN THE TREATMENT OF PICA AND FOOD SCAVENGING

Pica and scavenging are serious, sometimes life-threatening behavior p roblems among a significant percentage of individuals with mental reta rdation. This study describes procedures developed to reduce life-thre atening pica and food scavenging in two adolescents with severe to pro found mental retardation. Treatment was designed to teach the subjects to discriminate safe from unsafe items by training them to ingest onl y those items put on a specified placemat and to communicate with simp le signs or gestures to obtain more food to be put on the mat. Discrim ination was achieved by praising subjects when they selected and inges ted items from their placemats and delivering a mild punisher when att empts to ingest nonplacemat items were made. A multiple baseline desig n across settings was used to evaluate the effects of the treatment pa ckage in three inpatient settings. All environments were ''baited'' wi th both edible and inedible items. Our treatment procedures appeared t o be effective in reducing pica in each of the settings. Generalizatio n of treatment effects to natural environments for one of the two subj ects was documented.