Effects of spaced responding DRL on the stereotyped behavior of profoundly retarded persons.

Branch et al. (1981) tested spaced-responding DRL with three children who had profound intellectual disability. The kids showed frequent body rocking and hand flapping. An ABAB reversal design was used. During DRL, the child had to wait a set time without stereotypy before earning a small treat or praise.

Stereotypic behavior dropped fast once DRL began. At the same time, appropriate social behavior rose without any extra teaching. When DRL was removed, stereotypy returned. When DRL came back, stereotypy fell again. The pattern showed clear control by the reinforcement schedule.

REYNOLDS (1964) first proved the DRL rule in a lab with pigeons. N et al. moved that rule into a real classroom and made it help kids. Dowdy et al. (2020) later showed the same idea works in a noisy public pool with teens who have autism. Stasolla et al. (2014) cut stereotypy too, but they used optic sensors instead of timed responses. All four studies line up: reinforcement, not punishment, can trim repetitive behavior and lift social skills at once.

You can start DRL tomorrow. Pick a short wait time the learner can already do. Reinforce the first clean interval. Lengthen the wait as the child succeeds. You will see stereotypy fall and social bids grow with no extra programs. The 1981 data say one procedure gives you both gains.

Differential reinforcement of low rates (DRL) reinforces behavior that occurs at reduced frequency. In the spaced-responding DRL variant, reinforcement follows a response only if it is separated from the previous response by at least a fixed minimum interval.

This makes it well suited to reducing high-rate stereotypic responding, because the contingency directly targets responses that come too close together in time.

Three children with profound intellectual disability were treated using a reversal design. During baseline they showed high rates of stereotypic responding and very low rates of appropriate social behavior.

When the spaced-responding DRL contingency was applied to stereotypic responding, stereotypy decreased and appropriate social behavior increased markedly. The procedure both suppressed problem behavior and freed time for adaptive responding.