Two boys labelled hyperactive who had followed a salicylate-free diet for over a year consumed specially prepared cookies daily for 6-7 weeks. With subject 1 (age 6), salicylates were presented in the cookies on two occasions; on other days the cookies were salicylate-free. On two occasions subject 1 violated his diet and consumed salicylates from other sources. With subject 2 (age 12), salicylates were presented five times. Observers collected daily data on out-of-seat, off-task and physically aggressive behavior in the classroom. Visual inspection of the data suggested that behavior changes were associated with salicylate ingestion for subject 1, although there was some variability, but not for subject 2. A randomization test indicated that for subject 1 differences associated with planned salicylate ingestion were significant at the 0.05 level. No significant differences were noted for subject 2.
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