Suppressive effects of visual and facial screening on self-injurious finger-sucking.

Effects of following the self-injurious finger-sucking of two profoundly mentally retarded persons by 5 seconds of either visual or facial screening were compared using an alternating treatments design. The two screening procedures reduced the self-injury more than did a no-treatment control condition. Visual screening was more effective than facial screening with one of the subjects. Subsequently, when the only treatment was visual screening, the contrast in the effect on self-injury between visual screening and no-treatment was further increased. The greatest suppression occurred when visual screening was given in all sessions. Toy play reliably occurred only with appropriate training: The mere provision of toys had no impact on toy play. The effect of toy play on self-injury was equivocal. Possible limitations to the generality of the findings were discussed.