Assessment and treatment of destructive behavior maintained by stereotypicobject manipulation

In the current investigation, 2 participants with mental retardation displa yed property destruction and stereotypy, and both responses involved the sa me materials (e.g., breaking and tapping plastic objects). Three experiment s were conducted (a) to indirectly assess the functions of these two respon ses, (b) to determine their relation to one another, and (c) to develop a t reatment to reduce the more serious behavior, property destruction. In Expe riment 1, previously destroyed materials were either present or absent, and their presence reduced property destruction but not stereotypy In Experime nt 2, matched toys (ones that produced sensory stimulation similar to stere otypy) were either present or absent, or were replaced by unmatched toys (f or 1 participant). Matched toys produced large reductions and unmatched toy s produced small reductions in property destruction and stereotypy In Exper iment 3, attempts to pick up undestroyed objects were either blocked or not blocked while matched toys were continuously available. Response blocking reduced property destruction (and attempts), prevented stereotypy, and incr eased manipulation of-matched toys. These results suggest that the two aber rant responses formed a chain (e.g., breaking and then tapping the object), which was maintained by the sensory consequences (e.g., auditory stimulati on) of the terminal response, and that previously destroyed material or mat ched toys made the initial response (property destruction) unnecessary.