Treatment of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder for a teenager with typical development within the home setting.

INTRODUCTION: Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) can occur in children with typical development and persist past childhood. This significantly impacts most areas of children's lives, but may become more evident in teenage years, especially socially. There is an empirically supported treatment for ARFID with 40 years of research backing, this being behaviour-analytic feeding interventions. However, application to individuals over age 12 is lacking, and needs to be investigated for effectiveness. This is important as the addition of ARFID (formerly called feeding disorders) to the DSM-V has seen an increase in new treatments for ARFID by attempting to apply eating disorder treatments to this population including children. More research is needed to identify if already established behavioural intervention procedures are effective for ARFID in individuals with selectivity, without disabilities, older ages, and in settings outside of intensive specialised feeding hospital admissions in the United States. METHOD: A 13-year-old female with ARFID and years of failed treatment attempts participated in her home in Australia. We conducted multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments and used a changing criterion design with multiple baseline probes. Treatment consisted of demand fading, choice, differential attention, and contingent access. We did not use cognitive or family based treatment. RESULTS: Consumption increased to 100%. Variety reached 61 foods across all food groups. She met 100% of goals and ate at a restaurant. Caregivers reported high satisfaction and social acceptability. Gains were maintained at 9 months. CONCLUSION: This brief, behaviour-analytic in-home treatment was effective in increasing food group variety consumption.

Measuring and reducing college students' procrastination.

We examined college students' procrastination when studying for weekly in-class quizzes. Two schedules of online practice quiz delivery were compared using a multiple baseline design. When online study material was made available noncontingently, students usually procrastinated. When access to additional study material was contingent on completing previous study material, studying was more evenly distributed. Overall, the mean gain in percentage correct scores on weekly in-class quizzes relative to pretests was greater during contingent access than during noncontingent access conditions.

Studying as fun and games: effects on college students' quiz performance.

We examined college students' participation in a game activity for studying course material on their subsequent quiz performance. Game conditions were alternated with another activity counterbalanced across two groups of students in a multielement design. Overall, the mean percentage correct on quizzes was higher during the game condition than in the no-game condition.

A unit price evaluation of severe problem behavior.

We evaluated problem behavior exhibited by 6 individuals with developmental disabilities using the behavioral economic conceptualization of unit price. Descriptive observations were conducted during interactions between the participants and their primary care providers in a clinical laboratory, the participants' homes, or school. Data were recorded on potential reinforcers and problem behavior. After identifying reinforcers for each participant's problem behavior by way of functional analysis, the descriptive data were analyzed retrospectively, using the cost-benefit ratio described by the concept of unit price. Results showed that demand was elastic and produced monotonic response output curves. The results represent an extension of the concept of unit price to severe problem behavior under naturally occurring environmental conditions.