The immediate and subsequent effects of response interruption and redirection on vocal stereotypy, motor stereotypy and heart rate

Abstract

ABSTRACTA three-component multiple-schedule analysis was used to evaluate the immediate and subsequent effects of response interruption and redirection (RIRD) with stimulus control (SC) on levels of motor and vocal stereotypy and heart rate in a 19-year-old male with autism. After a wristband was established as a discriminative stimulus for implementation of RIRD contingent on engagement in motor or vocal stereotypy, the present treatment evaluation was conducted. During baseline sessions, there were no planned consequences for stereotypy. During treatment sessions, RIRD was implemented contingent on each event of targeted stereotypy. Motor and vocal stereotypies were evaluated using 5-s partial interval recording (PIR) and heart rate was monitored via momentary time sampling. Results showed that RIRD with SC produced immediate reductions in motor and vocal stereotypy to near-zero rates during treatment and did not produce subsequent increases in stereotypy when the intervention was removed. Heart rate remained consistent across all conditions. Following the above analysis, generalization probes were carried out in three additional settings. The utility of including SC procedures when implementing RIRD, considerations in using heart rate as a measure of distress, and avenues for future research is discussed.