Assessing and Treating Repetitive Behavior and Anxiety in Persons with ASDs

Intensive behavior analytic intervention for young children diagnosed with autism can produce large gains in social, cognitive, and language development. One critical area to address is repetitive behavior such as stereotypy. Applied research on evaluating and treating stereotypic behavior will be reviewed, focusing on effective interventions for building core adaptive living and social skills, in addition to procedures for treating stereotypic behavior directly. Response Interruption and Redirection (RIRD) research for treating stereotypy has shown that many variations of this procedure can be effective even with individuals with limited vocal, verbal skills. Variations of the procedure and when they are most appropriate will be discussed, along with videos depicting the procedure. This presentation will also describe repetitive behavior associated with anxiety and how to treat it.