Teaching the control of diurnal bruxism to two children with autism using a simple cueing procedure

Abstract

Bruxism is a habit that causes significant dental damage and that has been identified in the literature as occurring more often in handicapped than in normal populations. A nonaversive treatment procedure was developed for two severely developmentally delayed and autistic boys, aged 101/2 and 11 years. The procedure was based on elements of Azrin and Nunn's (1973, 1977) habit reversal technique, and involved a physical cue to open the mouth when the behavior was observed. The study used a multiple baseline design with data collection in two school situations. For both boys, bruxing was nearly continuous during baseline; implementation of the cueing procedure resulted in an immediate decrease in the frequency of the behavior. Little generalization to the second school situation occurred in either case until cueing was instituted directly in those situations. Follow-up data after two years indicated that the rate of bruxing remained low.