A Model for Determining an Effective and Least Restrictive Treatment to Reduce Vocal Stereotypy

The current study evaluated a progression of treatments designed to determine a least restrictive procedure to reduce vocal stereotypy. The progression of treatments consisted of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR), differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO), DRO plus response interruption and redirection (RIRD), DRO plus time-out (TO), RIRD, and TO. An effective treatment (NCR) was identified for one of three participants after completing the initial progression of treatments. An effective treatment was identified for the other two participants when NCR was further evaluated after the initial progression through the treatments. Because the current study failed to replicate several research articles demonstrating the effectiveness of RIRD, an analysis of data collected during RIRD sessions was conducted. The analysis revealed that different decisions would have been made regarding the effectiveness of RIRD if an interrupted data collection method (as frequently used in RIRD research) had been used in the current study