Reduction of tongue protrusion of a 24-year-old woman with Down syndrome through self-monitoring.
Tongue protrusion of a 24-year-old moderately retarded woman with Down syndrome was reduced through self-monitoring. A series of six, 30-minute audio cassette tapes, with decreasing numbers of beep tones, served as cues to self-monitor. Tongue protrusion was measured by an interval recording method with 10-second intervals for two, 5-minute periods randomly selected within two, 30-minute self-monitoring periods. Tongue protrusion decreased from 95% of intervals during baseline to 0% of intervals during intervention and 3-week follow-up. This reduction of tongue protrusion was maintained when the self-monitoring procedures were gradually faded and withdrawn. The implications of fading self-monitoring procedures to promote response maintenance are discussed.