Maladaptive behaviors associated with children with developmental disabilities include yelling, screaming, aggression,
and self-injurious behavior, such as head banging (Lecavalier, 2006). Lecavalier (2006) reports that over a two-year period,
school-age children with pervasive developmental disorders experience high rates of emotional and behavior problems as
compared to typically developing students. In their systematic review, Davies and Oliver (2013) report that aggression and
self-injury increase with age in children with developmental disabilities even into adulthood. Maladaptive behaviors are
often inadvertently reinforced by parents seeking to reduce the severity of behavior and giving into such behavior, and
thereby offering a perceived reward (Eddy, Leve, & Fagot, 2001).