Data analysis of response interruption and redirection as a treatment for vocal stereotypy

• Published in: Journal of applied behavior analysis Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 749 - 764
• Main Authors: Wunderlich, Kara L., Vollmer, Timothy R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2015
• Subjects: Adolescent; Attention - physiology; Autism; Autism Spectrum Disorder - complications; Autism Spectrum Disorder - rehabilitation; Behavior; Behavior Therapy - methods; Child; Child, Preschool; Classrooms; Data analysis; Educational Environment; Extinction, Psychological; Female; Humans; Male; redirection; response interruption; Statistics as Topic; Stereotyped Behavior - physiology; Stereotypic Movement Disorder - etiology; Stereotypic Movement Disorder - rehabilitation; stereotypy; Studies; Teaching Methods; Therapists; Treatment Outcome; vocal stereotypy; Voice; Young Adult; vocal stereotypy; data analysis; response interruption; redirection; autism; stereotypy
• ISSN: 0021-8855; 1938-3703
• DOI: 10.1002/jaba.227

Vocal stereotypy, or repetitive, noncontextual vocalizations, is a problematic form of behavior exhibited by many individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Recent research has evaluated the efficacy of response interruption and redirection (RIRD) in the reduction of vocal stereotypy. Research has indicated that RIRD often results in reductions in the level of vocal stereotypy; however, many previous studies have only presented data on vocal stereotypy that occurred outside RIRD implementation. The current study replicated the procedures of previous studies that have evaluated the efficacy of RIRD and compared 2 data‐presentation methods: inclusion of only data collected outside RIRD implementation and inclusion of all vocal stereotypy data from the entirety of each session. Subjects were 7 children who had been diagnosed with ASD. Results indicated that RIRD appeared to be effective when we evaluated the level of vocal stereotypy outside RIRD implementation, but either no reductions or more modest reductions in the level of vocal stereotypy during the entirety of sessions were obtained for all subjects. Results suggest that data‐analysis methods used in previous research may overestimate the efficacy of RIRD.