An alternative method of thinning reinforcer delivery during differential reinforcement.

Hawley et al. (2004) wrote up a new way to thin reinforcement during DRA.

Instead of building fancy schedules, you simply keep the fun items on a high shelf.

The child must ask or do the target response to get the item.

No numbers on kids or results were given; the paper is a how-to note.

The authors showed the steps but did not report outcome data.

They only said the method is workable and worth trying.

Chesbrough et al. (2024) now leap past this idea.

They proved jumping straight to a lean fixed schedule beats slow thinning.

So the 2004 shelf trick feels old-school; fixed-lean is faster and clearer.

Iannaccone et al. (2021) give a cousin tactic: progressive delay with DRA.

They keep the response but make the child wait longer, not hide the item.

Both papers keep DRA alive while thinning, yet use different levers.

Drifke et al. (2020) also back the DRA rule during FCT delays.

They show requiring a response beats simply withholding or giving free tokens.

You now have three user-friendly ways to thin DRA: hide the item, jump to lean fixed, or stretch the delay.

If you want zero setup, try fixed-lean first.

If the client needs the item visible to remember the response, use the shelf trick or add tiny delays.

Pick one, take data, and switch if progress stalls.