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Compound-Schedules Approaches to Noncompliance: Teaching Children When to Ask and When to Work

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Abstract

Researchers have demonstrated for practitioners how to use multiple-schedules preparations to thin initially dense schedules of reinforcement during functional communication training, without sacrificing benefits associated with dense schedules of reinforcement for manding. However, special considerations may be required for practitioners to successfully apply this strategy to noncompliance. The purpose of our study was to evaluate whether multiple-schedules preparations could maintain contextually prescribed compliance and manding during interventions for noncompliance. For one participant, a multiple-schedules intervention was sufficient to establish socially valid outcomes. For the other, chained-schedules modifications were required before compliance emerged in relevant components.

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Acknowledgments

Anne M. Clohisy is now at the Thompson Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the University of Missouri. We thank Taylor Brady, Carmen Caruthers, Crystal Finley, Ashton Hooper, Maggie Ward, and Stephanie Villeda who assisted in conducting this study, Rachel Mottern for her assistance with data analysis, and the Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders (TRIAD) for providing access to space and resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Special Education, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA

    Joseph M. Lambert, Anne M. Clohisy, S. Blair Barrows & Nealetta J. Houchins-Juarez

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  1. Joseph M. Lambert
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  2. Anne M. Clohisy
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  3. S. Blair Barrows
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  4. Nealetta J. Houchins-Juarez
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Correspondence to Joseph M. Lambert.

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All procedures were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

All participants’ guardians provided informed consent, and all participants assented to participate in this study before we initiated study-related activities.

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Lambert, J.M., Clohisy, A.M., Blair Barrows, S. et al. Compound-Schedules Approaches to Noncompliance: Teaching Children When to Ask and When to Work. J Behav Educ 26, 201–220 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-016-9260-5

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