Wallace, M. D., Iwata, B. A., Zhou, L., & Goff, G. A. (1999). Rapid assessment of the effects of restraint on self-injury and adaptive behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 32, 525-528.

We evaluated the effects of restraint on occurrences of self-injurious behavior (SIB) and adaptive responses exhibited by 2 individuals across eight response-effort conditions: baseline (no restraints); restraint sleeves without stays; restraints with 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 thin metal stays; and restraints with five thick metal stays. From this analysis, we identified a restraint level for each participant that reduced SIB but did not inhibit adaptive responding.

DESCRIPTORS: self-injurious behavior, restraint, response effort