
toilet training of an autistic eight-year-old through
conditioning therapy: a case report
operant conditioning techniques have been successfully
used in the treatment of a wide variety of be-
havioral problems including hysterical blindness (brady
and lind, 1961), tics (barrett, 1962), psychotic
symptoms (lindsley, 1956; 1960, 1961), reading disabilities
(rachman, 1962) stuttering (flanagan et. al.,
1958) enuresis (mowrer and mowrer, 1938; lovibond,
1961, 1963a, b) and encopresis (neale, 1963;
madsen, 1965).  neale (1963) successfully treated three
out of four encopretic children using operant
training techniques.  in the case of one 9-yr-old boy, with
an 18 month history of encopresis, going to the
toilet was rewarded by a candy, praise and recording the
event in a special book in the boy's presence.
soiling was not inadvertently rewarded (e.g. attention) or
punished; the boy would be given a clean pair
of pants without comment.  neale reports that response to
treatment was rapid and complete and 6 months
after toilet training there had been no relapse in bowel habits.
procedures similar to those used by neale were used in
the case reported here.  positive and, in a
small number of instances, negative reinforcement were used
to toilet train an 8-yr-old boy diagnosed by
a child psychiatrist/neurologist as having infantile autism.
