The Use of Wrist Weights and Vibratory Stimulation to Treat Self-Injurious Behavior

Identifying successful interventions for persistent and frequent self-injurious behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement can be very challenging. Two treatments that have shown some promise in isolation have been the use of wrist weights, and vibratory stimulation as an alternative means to achieve sensory reinforcement. The current study examined the effects of these interventions separately, and in combination, to address chronic self-injurious behavior in a child with autism and intellectual disability. Although wrist weights resulted in substantial decreases in self-injurious behavior, the combination of wrist weights and vibratory stimulation matching the hypothesized sensory consequences of self-injurious behavior resulted in further decreases. The use of vibratory stimulation that did not match the hypothesized sensory consequences of SIB was not effective at reducing SIB when it was presented alone or in combination with wrist weights.