Behavioral variability and autism spectrum disorder.

Perez et al. (2015) wrote a concept paper. They asked: can we use ABA to loosen the rigid, repeated behaviors seen in autism?

The authors pulled together earlier single-case tests. They framed these studies as one story: reinforce variety and repetition drops.

The review says yes. When you pay off new responses, children with autism start to vary their play, speech, and building.

Tools that work are lag schedules, multiple examples, and rules that praise difference.

Dugdale et al. (2000) first showed the effect in five teens. A computer game paid points for new button orders. Variety jumped, giving the idea its first real data.

Gardner et al. (2009) and Jones et al. (2010) copied the trick with vocals and blocks. Each single-case success is a brick in the wall M et al. stack.

Loth et al. (2010) seems to push back. High-functioning boys with autism judged real-life event details as fixed, not flexible. The gap may come from sample differences: Eva's boys had strong language, while the lag studies mostly served younger or non-verbal kids. Both can be true—learned rigidity plus trouble spotting change.

You already shape eye contact or mand trials. Now shape flexibility. Pick one stereotypy—lining up cars, repeating phrases—and run a lag-2 schedule: only reinforce a response that differs from the last two. Track for ten minutes. If the child varies, heap praise. If not, model a new form and reset. One week of these bursts can cut repetition and build a skill that spreads to new toys and places.