Preference for blocking or response redirection during stereotypy treatment.

Grindle et al. (2012) asked three children with autism which stereotypy treatment they liked better. The kids tried both response blocking and response redirection in an alternating-treatments design. Each session the therapist either blocked the child's stereotypy with gentle hands or redirected them to a different action.

Both treatments cut motor stereotypy about the same. The surprise came when the kids picked their favorite. All three chose redirection. They smiled more and stayed calmer when adults redirected instead of blocking.

DeRosa et al. (2019) ran a near-copy of this study and got the same equal suppression, but they noticed blocking looked stronger when they counted the whole session including setup time. Saini et al. (2015) had already shown that one-demand redirection works as well as the longer three-demand version, so the 2012 kids' preference makes practical sense.

Gould et al. (2019) later showed redirection can transfer across rooms, something the preference study never tested. Schmidt et al. (2021) added brief prompts and competing items to blocking and saw bigger drops, hinting that blocking might win if you pair it with engagement.

When stereotypy is automatic, you now have two equal tools. Let the client choose. Start with redirection if they can tell you; it keeps rapport high and takes no extra time. If they pick blocking, or if data look cleaner with it, use blocking but watch for signs of frustration. Either way, track the full session so your graph matches what DeRosa et al. (2019) found.