Estimates suggest that up to one quarter of people who have a severe learning disability engage in self injurious behaviour (SIB). SIB poses serious risks, both to the person's physical health and their quality of life. Behavioural approaches have made a contribution to supporting people who engage in SIB, although the last review of these…

Skin-picking is a type of self-injurious behavior involving the pulling, scratching, lancing, digging, or gouging of one's own body. It is associated with social impairment, and increased medical and mental health concerns. While there are several reports showing that skin-picking is common in individuals with developmental disabilities, knowledge…

Background: There is little research on the safety of the various types of restraint commonly used with individuals with intellectual disabilities who exhibit severely aggressive or self-injurious behaviour. Method: This study analysed the use of restraint with 209 individuals with intellectual disabilities over a 12-month period. Results: Planned…

Aggressive and destructive behaviors are an ongoing challenge for many children, adolescents, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD). What's behind these high-risk behaviors, and how can professionals help manage them? Discover the answers in this comprehensive text, the most up-to-date compendium of knowledge on…

Children with autism frequently display self-injurious behavior (SIB), but skin picking--a less severe topography of SIB--has not been the focus of much clinical research. The present study evaluated a home-based intervention that was implemented with a 9-year-old girl who had autism and picked her fingers with resulting tissue damage. The…

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) that occurs at high rates across all conditions of a functional analysis can suggest automatic or multiple functions. In the current study, we conducted a functional analysis for 1 individual with SIB. Results indicated that SIB was, at least in part, maintained by automatic reinforcement. Further analyses using…

The current exploratory study examined the ability of three stimulus preference assessments to identify effective reinforcers for general education students. Four students from Grades K through 5 and their teachers participated. A student nomination, teacher nomination, and ongoing (daily) stimulus preference assessment were evaluated. The results…

The present study describes a case of a 9-year-old girl diagnosed on the autism spectrum who averaged nearly 1200 hand-to-head self-injuries (+attempts) per school day. Given the resources of the school and the significance of the self-injurious behavior (SIB), analog functional analysis is not possible. Moreover, functional assessment results…

Background: Research to date suggests that as many as 12-15% of young people engage in self-harm behaviour; however, the current understanding of the psychological basis of adolescent self-harm is limited. The objective was to determine whether adolescents who self-harm are a psychologically homogenous group. It was hypothesised that psychological…

The current study investigates the comparative effects of sensory-integration therapy and behavioral interventions on rates of self-injurious behavior (SIB) in a 9-year-old boy with diagnosis of autism. A functional analysis was conducted to identify the variables maintaining the self-injurious behavior. This analysis demonstrated that SIB was…

This volume includes four sections of the 2020 NORDSCI international conference proceedings: (1) Education and Educational Research; (2) Language and Linguistics; (3) Philosophy; and (4) Sociology and Healthcare. Education and Educational Research includes 15 papers covering the full spectrum of education, including history, sociology and economy…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) suffer from numerous social and communicative deficits that create difficulties when interacting with their peers, adults, and their social community. An increased prevalence of problem behaviors has also been found in children with ASD, and it is likely that such problem behaviors interfere with the…

The current study evaluated risk factors for the occurrence, frequency and severity of challenging behavior among a sample of individuals with a diagnosis of autism, under the age of eighteen, in Ireland. Age, gender, hours of intervention received, age at diagnosis, presence of challenging behavior at diagnosis and treatment type at diagnosis…

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a prevalent behaviour among youth. School is an opportune setting for intervention with this population, but it is unknown how many youth who engage in NSSI would be willing to access school-based support. The current study surveyed 7,126 middle and high school students. Those that indicated that they engaged in…

The mental health of today's college students continues to be a top-level concern for institutions of higher education, whether it is viewed from the perspective of staffing mental health services on campus, responding to after-hours crises in residence halls, providing accessible treatment with limited budgets, managing behavioral threats, or…