Brief Report: Mobile Technology to Support Parents in Reducing Stereotypy
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BRIEF REPORT
Brief Report: Mobile Technology to Support Parents in Reducing Stereotypy Lydia Trudel1 · Marc J. Lanovaz1,2 · Isabelle Préfontaine1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Although behavioral interventions have been known to effectively reduce stereotypy in children with ASD, these types of interventions are not accessible to all families. In response to this issue, we evaluated the effects of the iSTIM, an iOS application designed to support parents in the reduction of stereotypy in their child with ASD. We used a series of AB designs to determine the effectiveness of the iSTIM on stereotypy using parents as behavior change agents. The use of iSTIM by the parents led to a reduction in stereotypy for six of seven participants. Our results suggest that the use of technology may be a cost effective and easily accessible method for parents to reduce stereotypy in their child with ASD. Keywords Autism · Behavioral interventions · Parent training · Stereotypy · Technology Stereotypy is typically defined as the occurrence of repetitive and invariant behaviors that do not serve any apparent social function (Rapp and Vollmer 2005). As it represents one of the diagnostic subcriteria for the disorder, at least 50% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in some form of stereotypy (Melo et al. 2019). Stereotypy may directly interfere with learning, socialization as well as adaptive functioning, and lead to social stigmatisation (Coon and Rapp 2019; Lampi et al. 2018; Lanovaz et al. 2013). Although stereotypy may be a problem in some contexts, practitioners should not target stereotypy for reduction at all times with all children. Stereotypy should only be targeted for reduction in contexts in which its frequency is so high that it interferes with learning, social inclusion or daily functioning. For example, a child may engage in levels of vocal stereotypy so high (e.g., 80% of the time) that it prevents their participation in learning activities and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04735-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Marc J. Lanovaz [email protected] 1
École de Psychoéducation, Université de Montréal, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC C.P. 6128, H3C 3J7, Canada
Centre de Recherche de l’Institut Universitaire en Santé Mentale de Montréal, Montreal, Canada
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significantly disrupts other students in the classroom. In this case, reducing vocal stereotypy may increase their level of functioning in the classroom while facilitating their social inclusion. On the other hand, a child who engages in stereotypy before bed or only briefly in class when excited should not be targeted for an intervention as the behavior does not interfere with functioning. Several behavioral interventions have strong empirical support for the reduction of stereotypy in children (Cook et al. 2018). Differential reinforcement (DR) and nonconting
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