Examining stereotypy when promoting appropriate behavior : reinforcement and response interruption and redirection

Document Type

Thesis

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree

M.S. Applied Behavior Analysis

Date Completed

2021

First Committee Member

Ahearn, William H.

Second Committee Member

Bourret, Jason

Third Committee Member

Henley, Amy

Abstract

"Response interruption and redirection (RIRD) is an evidence-based treatment for decreasing stereotypy. While much of the research literature surrounding stereotypy focuses on the decrease of the behavior, Colón et al. (2012) studied the effects of reinforcement of verbal behavior on both stereotypy and appropriate vocalizations. The purpose of the current study is to act as a systematic replication and extension of Colon et al. by promoting contextually appropriate social, leisure, and verbal behavior in contexts that simulated naturally occurring activities in the SaUWiciSaQWV¶ daiO\ cOaVVURRPV. The iQWeUacWiYe OeiVXUe WUaiQiQg cRQWe[W iQYROYed bXiOdiQg XSRQ social skills, the independent leisure context provided incidental opportunities for pre-existing leisure skills to occur, and verbal behavior was targeted in two contexts; one context that iQYROYed bXiOdiQg XSRQ Whe SaUWiciSaQWV¶ YeUbaO RSeUaQW UeSeUWRiUeV aQd RQe that provided incidental opportunities for pre-existing verbal responses to occur. For one participant, we observed low levels of stereotypy in at least three out of the four DRA contexts. Context-specific redirection was implemented in the remaining context, where it was effective at decreasing stereotypy. For the other participant, we observed low levels of stereotypy and high levels of contextually-appropriate behavior across all four contexts, suggesting that, for some individuals, promoting and reinforcing appropriate behavior may be sufficient when treating stereotypy."

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