The effects of matched stimulation and response interruption and redirection on vocal stereotypy.
Pairing RIRD with matched stimulation can slightly improve stereotypy suppression and increase appropriate vocalizations, but RIRD alone still does the heavy lifting.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers compared two ways to quiet vocal stereotypy. One was response interruption and redirection (RIRD). The other was matched stimulation (MS) — giving toys that make the same kind of sounds the child already likes.
They used an alternating-treatments design. Each child got RIRD alone, MS alone, and both together in rotating sessions.
What they found
Both RIRD and MS cut vocal stereotypy. When the team combined them, one child showed even less stereotypy. Both children also used more appropriate words during the combo condition.
How this fits with other research
Shawler et al. (2020) ran almost the same matchup. They also saw RIRD beat MS alone, but they found a bigger gap. The 2020 study used sound-making toys, which may explain the stronger toy effect.
Sivaraman et al. (2020) added a time twist. They showed RIRD only keeps working after you stop if you run it for 20-minute blocks. The 2012 paper did not test carry-over, so we still don’t know if the combo lasts longer.
Dawson et al. (2000) warned that single-set MS can fade fast. Rotating toy sets every 10 minutes keeps noncontingent reinforcement strong. If you copy the 2012 combo, rotate the matched toys to avoid quick habituation.
Why it matters
If a child’s vocal stereotypy is loud and continuous, start with RIRD. Then add matched stimulation only if you can rotate sound toys every 10 minutes. Track both stereotypy and appropriate speech; the combo may give you a small extra drop in stereotypy and a free boost in functional words.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Stereotypy has been classified as repetitive behavior that does not serve any apparent function. Two procedures that have been found to reduce rates of vocal stereotypy effectively are response interruption and redirection (RIRD) and noncontingent access to matched stimulation (MS). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of RIRD alone, MS alone, and MS combined with RIRD. One participant's results suggested similar suppressive effects on vocal stereotypy across treatment conditions. For the second participant, a slightly greater suppression of stereotypy was associated with MS + RIRD. In addition, both participants emitted a greater frequency of appropriate vocalizations in conditions with RIRD. Data suggest that the addition of MS might facilitate the implementation of RIRD in applied settings.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2012 · doi:10.1901/jaba.2012.45-549