The use of a positive procedure to increase engagement on-task and decrease challenging behavior.

The team worked with one adult who had lived in an institution for years.

He had an intellectual disability, frequent stereotypy, and self-injury.

The staff used a DRA-DRO plan: they praised and gave tokens when he stayed on task, and ignored the odd movements and head-hits.

On-task time rose and problem behavior dropped.

The man learned to package items for a local business.

After decades inside, he moved to a regular day program and kept the job.

Mantzoros et al. (2022) looked at 34 studies and found DRO cuts stereotypy faster than any toy or break.

Matson et al. (2004) is one of those wins, just done earlier and with an adult instead of kids.

Van Hanegem et al. (2014) asked, "What if we skip staff and let a tablet cue the work?" Their tech prompts worked too, so you now have two roads to the same goal: staff praise or automated cues.

Wehman et al. (2014) remind us to check why the behavior happens in the first place. If it escapes work, DRA-DRO still works because it gives the man a break for good behavior, not for head-hits.

You can turn long-term stereotypy and SIB into a résumé. Pair any work task with praise or tokens for on-task moments and withhold attention for the odd stuff. In a week or two you may see the same jump: more work, less injury, and a ticket to community employment.