The effects of response interruption and redirection and sertraline on vocal stereotypy.

Tyrer et al. (2009) tested two ways to quiet vocal stereotypy in kids with autism. They used response interruption and redirection, or RIRD. When a child hummed or repeated sounds, the adult gave quick demands like 'touch head' or 'say cat.'

They also tried adding the drug sertraline to see if medicine plus RIRD worked better. Each child got RIRD alone, RIRD plus sertraline, or no treatment in turn.

RIRD alone cut the vocal stereotypy. The extra sertraline did nothing extra. The sounds stayed low only when adults kept using RIRD.

The study showed you do not need pills to make RIRD work.

Callahan et al. (2023) later packed RIRD into a clear work-play schedule and got even stronger drops with built-in generalization probes. Their design supersedes the 2009 method by showing how to make the gains stick across new toys and places.

Saini et al. (2015) trimmed RIRD to just one demand instead of three and still beat stereotypy, saving time for therapists. This successor study keeps the core idea but makes it faster to run.

Barszcz et al. (2021) then showed the skill moves to new rooms quicker than it first took to learn, so you can plan shorter follow-up sessions. Together these papers extend the 2009 finding: RIRD works, and later studies tell us how to do it leaner, stronger, and across settings.

You can start RIRD right away for vocal stereotypy and skip the pharmacy. Use one-demand prompts, slot them into a visual work-play schedule, and probe generalization early. The drug data give you confidence that behavior alone, not medication, is driving the change.