Brief report demonstrates successful reduction of beach pica and improved sun safety in a child, indicating the viability of naturalistic behavioral interventions.
This brief report extended a prior home-based intervention for novel pica treatments and related beach and sun protection safety skills in a child in Australia. Pica involved sun hats, rash guard, sunblock, sand, seawater, seaweed, and pool water. Response interruption and redirection with differential reinforcement generalized from simulated indoor conditions to real-world settings including the beach, swimming pool, restaurant, school classroom, playground, and sandpit. The participant learned to clean up, use items appropriately (e.g., play with beach toys, apply sunblock, put on sun hat), and avoid unsafe materials. Involvement of his sibling and a gamified task-management app supported maintenance.
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Taylor et al. (2026) studied this question.
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