Simplified Habit Reversal and Treatment Fading for Chronic Skin Picking in an Adolescent With Autism

Abstract

We evaluated the effects of simplified habit reversal (HR) that combined competing response training and differential reinforcement on skin picking by an adolescent female with autism attending a classroom at a specialized school. The competing response training procedure allowed her to manipulate preferred sensory stimuli independently and when instructed by classroom staff. Differential reinforcement included praise and tokens that she received following intervals without skin picking and when she performed competing response training. Compared with a baseline phase, skin picking decreased with simplified HR and during a subsequent phase when treatment was faded by implementing differential reinforcement without competing response training. We discuss the clinical implications of these findings.

Keywords

skin picking simplified habit reversal competing response training differential reinforcement autism

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