A Review of DRO: The Influence of the Degree of Intellectual Disability and the Frequency of the Target Behaviour

Abstract

A review of the use of Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviours (DRO) showed that the majority of people had target behaviour with an initial frequency of greater than once a minute. There was a rapid drop in the number of published studies as the frequency of the initial target behaviour decreased. However, there were some studies that reported using DRO to reduce target behaviours with frequencies of less than once a day. There was evidence that DRO could be used with people with the full range of intellectual disabilities, to reduce target behaviours with frequencies as low as several times an hour, though those people with severe to profound disability needed more training on the DRO schedule before it was effective. It is suggested that DRO may not be as effective with lower frequency target behaviours and recommendations are made as to how its effectiveness might be increased.