Choice-Making as Intervention for Public Disrobing in Children With Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

The authors describe a choice-making intervention with two children who had developmental disabilities and demonstrated public disrobing in school settings. The children also urinated in their clothing, apparently to gain access to new and more preferred apparel. The intervention gave the children a choice to change into high-preference clothes at scheduled opportunities during the day. Evaluated in a multiple baseline design, intervention decreased and eliminated incidents of public disrobing and urinary incontinence with both children. Scheduling acceptable opportunities to change clothes appears to have functioned as an abolishing operation that lessened each child's motivation to disrobe. Clinical implications of these findings are discussed.