Oppositional Behavior
Errorless
Compliance Training is a useful approach in dealing with difficult
children. It has been shown to be effective in over 80% of cases
and I recommend it to many parents who have children with oppositional
behavior.
Errorless
compliance training for parents is a success-based, noncoercive
intervention for children with sever oppositional behavior. It
involves hierarchical introduction of more demanding parental
requests at a gradual pace designed to reduce non compliance and
to prevent the need for constraining consequences (e.g., time-out).
Errorless
compliance training is based on the premise that confrontational
parent-child interactions in this population may (1) exacerbate
the child’s oppositional behavior, (2) increase the probability
of parental violence, and (3) increase emotional problems the
child may have (e.g., depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem).
An individualized set of requests is developed for each child.
Requests
are categorized into a hierarchy, from requests to which child
compliance is highly probable (level 1) to requests to which compliance
is unlikely (level 4). In sessions conducted in the home by the
parent, children are exposed to a high proportion of level 1 requests
(e.g., “turn on the television”; “give me five”).
These requests present frequent opportunities for parents to reinforce
compliance. Requests to which compliance is less likely are gradually
introduced overt the next several weeks. Eventually, level 4 requests
are introduced (e.g., “put away your toy”; “brush
your teeth”. Because noncompliance and oppositional behavior
occur infrequently with this approach, a constraining consequence
is typically unnecessary
November
4 , 2002
