Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder often engage in various forms of vocal stereotypy, non-contextual and nonfunctional speech. Nonfunctional speech may include repetitive unrelated words or phrases, meaningless sounds such as grunts and squeals, singing, and etc. (Taylor, Hoch, and Weissman (2005). Vocal stereotypy may be disruptive to the individual and others, interfere with learning opportunities and skill acquisition, and can have adverse social consequences. In order to successfully address this issue, research suggests the implementation of interventions based on the function of the stereotypic behavior. Once the function of the behavior is identified through functional analysis methodologies, intervention can focus on systematically manipulating the controlling environmental antecedents and consequences (Cunningham & Schreibman, 2008). There are several different theories on the function of stereotypic behavior (Ahearn et al., 2007; Cunningham & Schreibman, 2008; Jones, Wint, & Ellis, 1990; Lewis & Bodfish, 1998). The functional analysis perspective emphasizes the contingencies of social positive (e.g., attention, praise) and negative (e.g., escape or avoidance) reinforcements where …show more content…
Another side effect of response interruption and redirection is increased levels of stereotypy during the post-response blocking intervention. This is likely due to imposed deprivation for the stimulation generated by stereotypy (Rapp, 2006). A potential side effect of response blocking is that it can induce aggression or responses that are in the same class as the one being blocked (Lerman et al., 2003). Lerman et al. found that when response blocking was used as a treatment there were undesirable side effects that arose in the participant’s