The Effects of a Procedure to Decrease Motor Stereotypy on Social Interactions in a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Tereshko et al. (2021) worked with one child with autism who flapped and rocked a lot.

They mixed two tricks: first, praise and small prizes when the child played or talked without flapping. Second, they taught the child to count his own flaps and give himself tokens for quiet hands.

Sessions happened in different rooms and with different people to see if the fix would travel.

Motor flapping dropped sharply as soon as the package started.

At the same time the child began starting games, answering questions, and looking at adults far more often.

The gains stayed high even when staff stepped back and let the child run his own counter.

Chandler et al. (1992) did the first self-management test for social skills in autism. Their kids also talked more and acted out less after learning to score their own behavior. Tereshko adds differential reinforcement to the mix and shows the same social lift while also cutting stereotypy.

Crossman et al. (2018) used backward chaining plus differential reinforcement to raise toy play and saw stereotypy fall for two of three children. The new study swaps chaining for self-management and targets social bids instead of play, yet the stereotypy drop looks just as large.

Segal-Gavish et al. (2016) and Burrows et al. (2018) trimmed repetitive grooming in autism-model mice with stem cells or a drug. Those biologic cuts were small; the behavioral package here produced a large, quick change in a real child—no lab mouse required.

You can run the same one-two punch in an afternoon: set a timer, deliver praise or tokens for quiet hands plus any social move, and hand the counter to the learner. The child in the study kept the wins without adults hovering, giving you a low-effort route to slash stereotypy while building the social responses that matter for friendships and classroom success.