Parental management of inappropriate hyperactivity in a young retarded child

This paper describes a procedure used by parents to eliminate inappropriate hyperactive behavior at mealtime and after meals, using a multiple baseline procedure and contingent attention and time-out. Parents were taught to record inappropriate behaviors during mealtime and a half hour following, and were trained to give positive attention to appropriate behaviors while ignoring inappropriate behaviors; following mealtime a time-out procedure was employed when any one of several inappropriate behaviors occured. Inappropriate behaviors decreased sharply and remained at a low rate for approximately 5 weeks thereafter. These procedures demonstrate the use of training parents to utilize an effective home management program.