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Early Intervention and Restricted, Repetitive Behaviours and Interests

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Repetitive and Restricted Behaviors and Interests in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Part of the book series: Autism and Child Psychopathology Series ((ACPS))

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Abstract

The focus of early intervention research has been on social-communication outcomes, with much less known about intervention effects on Restricted, Repetitive Behaviours and Interests (RRBI). Moreover, as RRBIs may impede children’s learning, decrease social interaction and cause substantial parental distress, they have been targeted in some interventions. However, in so doing, it is also important to consider the functions RRBIs may serve for autistic children.

Strategies to manage RRBIs within interventions include antecedent-based strategies that change the conditions before the targeted behaviour occurs by modifying the environment and/or the child’s repertoire to reduce occurrence of the unwanted behaviours and replacing them with more adaptive, communicative, developmentally mature ones. Consequence-based strategies focus on what happens after the unwanted behaviour, un-coupling the association between the behaviour and reinforcing consequence, instead reinforcing social communication. However, there is a paucity of evidence on outcomes of interventions on RRBIs, with evidence from intensive early intervention on RRBIs yielding mixed results.

Given emerging evidence that children’s RRBI characteristics may impact intervention outcomes, RRBI characteristics, their context, functions, and impact on learning should be considered as potential moderators/mediators of intervention outcomes. Assessing RRBIs as part of planning an intervention differs from assessing the RRBIs for diagnostic purposes and there is need for more well-designed research in this area.

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Yaari, M., Dissanayake, C. (2021). Early Intervention and Restricted, Repetitive Behaviours and Interests. In: Gal, E., Yirmiya, N. (eds) Repetitive and Restricted Behaviors and Interests in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Autism and Child Psychopathology Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66445-9_13

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