Real world application of DRO schedules

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Dr. Jim Moore, Chief Clinical Officer of Apollo Behavior, joins me in the 11th installment of the Apollo  Case Study Series. 

In this podcast, Jim also brought three of his Apollo colleagues into the discussion: Lydia Lindsey, Christina Nylander, and Lauren Elliott.

We started off the show with Lydia providing some background on her ABA career and how it brought her to Apollo. Spoiler alert: we managed to fit in a shout-out to Auburn University's ABA program (insert the obligatory "War Eagle" chant! (note: Christina and Lauren were guests in ACSS episodes Six and Nine, respectively).

This conversation centered around the use of Differential Reinforcement of Other (DRO) behavior procedures that the Apollo team implemented with two clients (see graph below for one client's data). As such, we discuss the following

• From a conceptual perspective, is DRO a reinforcement or punishment-based intervention?
• Why they chose this procedure over a more specific FCT intervention.
• The importance of determining a precise Inter-Response Time.
• How to avoid ratio strain.
• How to successfully fade DRO schedules.
• Balancing the effectiveness and efficiency of behavioral interventions.
• The importance of accurately re-setting the DRO interval.
• Coaching behavioral technicians to implement this procedure correctly, even when it is challenging to do so (see Dr. Claire St. Peter's excellent work in the general area of Treatment Integrity too).
• The Seven Steps to Instructional Control (disclosure: Amazon Associates link).
• The "London Cabbies Test."
• The importance of conducting client-oriented research in clinical settings.

If you are interested in learning more about Apollo Behavior, you can follow them on Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit their website here.