Differential reinforcement with and without blocking as treatment for elopement.
DRO alone will not stop elopement; you must add response blocking.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team compared two ways to stop elopement. One group got DRO plus blocking. The other got DRO alone.
They used an alternating-treatments design. Each child experienced both conditions in mixed order.
What they found
DRO with blocking cut elopement to near zero. DRO without blocking did nothing.
The blocking piece made the package work.
How this fits with other research
Hedquist et al. (2020) saw the same pattern with stereotypy. DRO alone failed there too.
Festinger et al. (1996) used only blocking and still cut eye poking fast. That lines up: blocking is the active part.
Ohan et al. (2015) looks like a contradiction. Their DNRO built bracelet wearing without any blocking. The trick is the behavior. Wearing jewelry is not an escape response, so blocking never enters the picture.
Why it matters
If you run DRO for elopement, add blocking from day one. Without it you risk wasting sessions. Check the function first. When the behavior is escape-driven, blocking is not optional.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Blocking is a frequent component of treatments for elopement. Unfortunately, blocking may not always be feasible because elopement often occurs when supervision is low or the behavior cannot be prevented. The present study evaluated the use of blocking in the treatment of elopement by using differential reinforcement of other behavior with and without blocking. In this case, results suggested that blocking may be an essential component for differential reinforcement-based treatments of elopement.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2011 · doi:10.1901/jaba.2011.44-903