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Assessment results indicated that pica exhibited by two boys with developmental disabilities was not associated with environmental contingencies. Consistent with previous research, an oral stimulation function was hypothesized. A related intervention that taught participants to exchange inedible items for edibles was developed. Findings showed that the intervention resulted in reductions in pica for both participants. When the intervention was introduced across settings, reductions in pica were observed for one participant. However, additional training with alternative pica items was necessary to produce reductions in pica across settings with the second participant. Reductions in pica were maintained as the intervention was systematically thinned. (Contains 3 figures.)

Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are at risk for experiencing problems with social functioning that are associated with adverse outcomes in adolescence and adulthood. To date, the most common ADHD treatments for children, psychostimulants and adult-mediated interventions, have had limited success reducing social impairments associated with ADHD. Using a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants design, we examined the efficacy of a sibling-mediated social intervention for reducing negative and increasing positive social behaviors of three children with ADHD. We also assessed implementation integrity by the siblings, and acceptability from the perspective of the participant with ADHD, the siblings, and the parents. Results indicated that siblings learned and used specific social skills strategies with their siblings with ADHD that lead to increases in sharing, helping, and compromising behaviors for children with ADHD compared with baseline (Tau- U = 0.9531, p <.001). Summary of findings, study limitations, implications for research, and practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]