Treatment of automatically reinforced object mouthing with noncontingent reinforcement and response blocking: experimental analysis and social validation.

A brief functional analysis indicated the object mouthing of a young girl diagnosed with autism was maintained independent of social consequences. Separate and combined effects of response blocking and noncontingent reinforcement (with preferred stimuli) were then evaluated as treatments for object mouthing. Although both interventions were unsuccessful when implemented separately, combining them resulted in generalized reductions that were socially valid.