Two boys with multiple disabilities increasing adaptive responding and curbing dystonic/spastic behavior via a microswitch-based program.

A recent study has shown that microswitch clusters (i.e., combinations of microswitches) and contingent stimulation could be used to increase adaptive responding and reduce dystonic/spastic behavior in two children with multiple disabilities [Lancioni, G. E., Singh, N. N., Oliva, D., Scalini, L., & Groeneweg, J. (2003). Microswitch clusters to enhance non-spastic response schemes with students with multiple disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation, 25, 301-304]. The present study was an attempt to replicate the aforementioned study with two boys with multiple disabilities. The adaptive responses selected for the boys consisted of pushing an object with the hand or the back. The dystonic/spastic behavior consisted of body arching (i.e., pushing belly and stomach forward) and leg stretching for the two boys, respectively. Initially, the boys received preferred stimulation for all hand- and back-pushing responses. Subsequently, the stimulation followed only the responses that occurred free from the dystonic/spastic behavior. The results showed that both boys increased the frequency of adaptive responses, learned to perform these responses free from the dystonic/spastic behavior, and maintained this improved performance during a 2-month post-intervention check.