For many individuals with autism, engaging in stereotypy can interfere with skill acquisition and inhibit appropriate social interactions (Martinez & Betz, 2013). The purpose of this line of research is to assess response interruption and redirection (RIRD), a variation of response blocking and a common treatment for automatically maintained behavior such as stereotypy (Ahearn et al., 2007). One study uses an ABAB variant design, in which the B component is an alternating treatment comparison of two different levels of procedural integrity, to evaluate whether a less intrusive procedure is effective in suppressing vocal stereotypy; generally, full integrity had a more immediate suppressive effect compared to diminished integrity, however, results indicate that for some individuals, a less intrusive form of RIRD can be equally as effective. A second study compares the efficacy of motor and vocal RIRD without prompting compliance with issued demands using an ABAB design with an alternating treatments analysis during the B condition; results suggest that both motor and vocal RIRD, without prompting, are similarly effective. These data have been presented at BABAT 2015.
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Autism Research Database (AFD)
