Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible DRI and Differential Reinforcement of Alternative DRA are highly effective behaviorchange procedures that involve reinforcing a specific desirable behavior while simultaneously withholding reinforcement for an undesirable target behavior A critical distinguishing feature of DRI and DRA compared to procedures like Differential Reinforcement of Other behavior DRO is that they focus on teaching or strengthening a specific replacement behavior For these procedures to be implemented successfully it is absolutely essential that the client is already capable of performing the replacement behavior If the behavior is not yet in the clients repertoire the practitioner would first need to teach the skill using other instructional methods eg shaping prompting chaining before DRI or DRA could be applied The guideline about attempting less restrictive interventions is primarily associated with the ethical considerations and hierarchy of interventions when punishment is being considered not for differential reinforcement which is generally considered a positive and less restrictive approach While it is crucial for any target or replacement behavior to be observable and measurable for effective data collection this is a general requirement for behavioral programming not a prerequisite for the existence of the behavior itself within the repertoire for DRIDRA Lastly while client preference and input are valuable the ability to verbally articulate preferences is not a universal prerequisite for the implementation of DRIDRA especially for individuals with limited verbal skills