The use of behavioral assessment to prescribe and evaluate treatments for severely handicapped children.

The team worked with children who had severe intellectual disability and long-lasting self-injury.

First they ran a quick preference test on a computer to see what each child liked.

Next they did a short functional analysis to learn why the self-injury kept happening.

Then they built a tiny microswitch that gave the child that liked item for any safe body movement.

They used a multiple-baseline design across rooms to be sure the change was real.

Self-injury almost disappeared once the switch delivered the liked item for six to fifteen months.

The same plan worked in different rooms and with different children.

Two small experiments showed the same strong result.

Rosenberg (1986) built the first microswitch preference computer three years earlier. Steege et al. (1989) took that tool and added a functional analysis to turn it into a treatment.

Wanchisen et al. (1989) ran the same year and also found that quick presession choice wiped out problem behavior in preschoolers with autism. Both papers prove that fast preference checks can drive big behavior change, even when the clients and tools differ.

Scheithauer et al. (2023) copied the exact blueprint thirty-four years later. They paired functional analysis with differential reinforcement to cut self-injury in a child with Bainbridge-Ropers syndrome. The old plan still works in a brand-new population.

You can copy this in one afternoon. Run a five-minute computer or tangible preference test, then do a short functional analysis. Build a simple switch that gives the liked item for any safe response. The child stops hurting himself and you get months of peace. No fancy gear, no long table sessions, just data-driven reinforcement that lasts.