Examining stereotypy when prompting 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

2019

First Committee Member

Ahearn, William

Second Committee Member

Bourret, Jason

Third Committee Member

Henley, Amy

Abstract

"The use of decelerative methods is often necessary when treating stereotypy, but Colón, Ahearn, Clark, and Masalsky (2012) showed that teaching and reinforcing appropriate alternative verbal behavior can also decrease stereotypic behavior. This study extended this research by constructing simulated environmental arrangements similar to those within the participants classroom environment and measuring stereotypy and appropriate behavior. Two contexts targeted verbal behavior, one which mimicked their typical academic programming, and another which provided the individual incidental opportunities to mand for preferred leisure materials and edibles. Two contexts targeted leisure skills. An interactive leisure context was used to extend established social and play skills, while established play skills were examined during an independent leisure context. With both participants, we observed low levels of stereotypy in both verbal behavior contexts. During the interactive and independent leisure contexts, there were high levels of appropriate engagement, but also high levels of stereotypy which required intervention. For one participant, the addition of vocal response interruption and redirection (RIRD-V) was necessary to decrease stereotypy to near zero-levels."

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