Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior and Extinction to Reduce Loitering and Stealing for an Adult With an Intellectual Disability and Dementia

Abstract

The authors present the case study of a 52-year-old female with Down’s syndrome and Alzheimer’s-type dementia. After a functional assessment suggested that this individual’s theft was maintained by access to preferred activity material, the authors used a differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) procedure with extinction to reduce loitering in an area where other consumers’ belongings were kept, thereby reducing stealing of items (i.e., nonapproved items) from other consumers. The results show that DRO plus extinction reduced number of intervals the participant was in the entryway and number of nonapproved items in the participant’s possession to zero. Two follow-up probes, which were conducted 2 months and 3 months after the formal intervention was discontinued, indicated that reductions in both target behaviors were maintained over time.