Compliance and Instruction Following

1. Compliance and Instruction Following Emily Bellaci Amanda Lewis University of Houston, Clear Lake February 13, 2010

2. Overview • Understanding compliance • Breaking the cycle of noncompliance • What you are going to do? • What should you expect from your child? • 3-step prompting • Practice! • Things to avoid • Things to keep in mind • Ensuring continued compliance • Questions???

3. Understanding Compliance • What is compliance? • Known vs. unknown skills • Consistency • Why is compliance important? • Misunderstandings about compliance • They should do it just because you tell them to • Comparing compliance with peers • Why are children noncompliant? • Inconsistency with follow-through • Not enough reinforcement for compliance • Testing the waters

4. Breaking the Cycle of Noncompliance • What should you do? • Follow-through! • Reward compliance! • Practice! • Be consistent! • What should you expect from your child? • May become worse before it gets better • Getting what you put in • It will get better!

5. How to Follow-Through: 3-Step Prompting • What is a prompt? • Any hint used to increase the chance of an accurate response • You start with the least then work your way to the most • 3-Step prompting… • Ensures follow-through • Is consistent and systematic • Is easy to remember • What is 3-step prompting? 1. Instruction (you say “sit down”) 2. Instruction + Gesture or Model (you say “sit down” while pointing to the chair or sitting down yourself) 3. Instruction + Physical Guidance (you say “sit down” and physically guide them to sit down)

6. Good Instructions • Why is an instruction so important? • Good Instructions are… • Simple and Short • Specific • Statements • Consistent • Delivered with child’s attention • Problematic Instructions are… • Lengthy • Vague • In the form of a question • Repeated without follow-through • Emotional (angry, desperate, happy)

7. Reinforcement • Reinforcers should: • Increase the likelihood of future compliance • Be individualized • Be delivered IMMEDIATELY • Types: • Social: praise, hugs, tickles, high-5 • Material: toy, edible, favorite activity • When should you reinforce? • REINFORCE: improvement, compliance • DON’T REINFORCE: problem behavior, noncompliance, physical guidance

8. Things to AVOID • Inconsistency • If you are unable to follow through don’t ask • Punishment • Defeats purpose of pairing compliance with reward • Punishment is often times counterproductive • Time-Out • Removing an enjoyable item or activity • Rarely an appropriate consequence for noncompliance • Dangling the Carrot (bribing) • PROBLEMATIC: Offering the reward after noncompliance occurs • OKAY: Offer the reward BEFORE the instruction!

9. Making Things Easier • Pick Your Battles • You are going to have to follow through • Do you really want to ask? • Break Down Difficult Demands (modifying the task) • Create smaller, more manageable demands • Increases success/rewards • Reduce non-compliance by making task less aversive • Ex: “get ready for school” → “put your clothes on” • Ex: breaking 1 worksheet into sections • Does not take extra time (less time spent being noncompliant) • Potential for better performance

10. Making things easier… • Give Your Child/Student Choices • Choices between tasks • Good Ex: “Do you want to brush your teeth or take a bath first?” • Good Ex: “Do you want to practice reading or writing?” • Bad Ex: “Do you want to do your homework or go to timeout?” • Choices of materials for tasks • Good Ex: “Do you want to wear your dinosaur shirt or your car shirt?” • Good Ex: “Do you want to use the red marker or blue marker?” • Choices for reinforcement • Good Ex: “Do you want skittles or stickers?” • Bad Ex: “Do you want to draw a picture or a happy meal for dinner?”

11. Making things easier… • Decrease Distractions • More distractions = less attention to your instruction • Ex: not watching favorite TV show or at playground • Temporarily block distractions when possible • As opposed to removing completely • Knowing Your Child/Student • Certain demands that result in problem behavior • Modify the task • Create motivation with choices • Specify reward for compliance • Don’t wait for noncompliance (i.e., dangling the carrot)

12. Practice! • Why is it critical you practice? • Compliance is a learned behavior (you have to teach it) • Creates history of compliance • Associates compliance (good behavior) with your attention (praise) and rewards • Makes following instructions part of the routine • How often should you practice? • Depends on child: Set a goal (write it down and post it)! • Ex: 2 times a day for 5 minutes each time • Make practice fun! • Include enjoyable demands (% of demands should be fun) • Slowly add “less fun” demands • Include a couple more “less fun” demands if child is doing well for one week • Reinforce

13. Decreasing Reinforcement • Why you need to reduce reinforcement? • Reinforcement is delivered often during practice • Goal is to make compliance occur for natural rewards (praise) • How do you reduce reinforcement? • Reinforce less often • Reward after multiple instances of compliance • Remove dependency on material rewards • After compliance is established • Ex: reward every other act of compliance → reward every few acts of compliance → reward every 5 acts of compliance • Continue to praise

14. Ensuring Compliance • Complying for Everyone • Practicing with more people = complying for more people • Understanding a failure to comply with people • Complying Everywhere • Understanding poor compliance in certain settings • i.e., at the water park or zoo • Recognizing places where follow-through is not used • i.e., babysitter’s house or school • Continued Practice is Essential!