Treatment of a retarded child's faeces smearing and coprophagic behaviour.

The daily rearrangement of a profoundly retarded child's routine shower was effective in eliminating his low-frequency faeces smearing and coprophagic behaviour during the late afternoon/early evening part of the day. The effects appeared to generalise such that both types of behaviour were reduced at other times of the day and night. These results are discussed in terms of a social learning framework. A model for analysing the motivations and reinforcing conditions for rectal digging, coprophagy, and smearing faeces is also presented.