In his book, Educate toward Recovery, Robert Schramm discusses the importance of instructional control, or having your child respond to your instructions. Gaining instructional control is a process with specific rules that must be applied in every learning situation with your child. Schramm breaks this process down into seven steps for parents to follow to establish and maintain instructional control.
1) Show your child that you are the one in control of the items he/she wants to hold or play with and that you will decide when and for how long he/she can have them.
By remaining in control of the desired items, you can begin to associate yourself with positive items, therefore, becoming a conditioned stimulus. The child will learn that they can gain access to reinforcement through you rather than trying to access it independently.
2) Show your child that you are fun. Make each interaction you have with him an enjoyable experience so that he will want to follow your directions to earn more time sharing these experiences with you.
Make sure to allow time in your interactions with your child to get lost in play. Allow them to direct the activities and make decisions about what they want to do. Try to become an active, engaged partner in their playtime. This in turn will help them want to follow directions in the future.
3) Show your child that you can be trusted. Always say what you mean and mean what you say. If you instruct your child to do something, do not allow him access to reinforcement until he has complied with your request. This step allows for prompting him to completion if necessary.
While it is important to have time where a child can play freely with you, it is important that when not in free play, you make sure that the child follows through with your request. By allowing your child to not comply, you have reinforced whatever behavior they engaged in before you withdrew the demand you had placed on them. For example, if you asked your child to clean their room and they threw a fit, then you withdrew the task by walking away or another response besides making them follow through with the request, you inadvertently reinforced the behavior of throwing a fit!
4) Show your child that following your directions is beneficial and the best way for him to obtain what he wants. Give your child easy directions as often as possible and then reinforce his decisions to participate by following them with good experiences.
Make sure to give your child many opportunities in order to complete easy tasks in which they get reinforcement through your praise, a preferred activity, or a desired tangible reinforcer. Rather than placing big tasks on them all at once and having that be the only chance to earn reinforcement, have a series of activities in which they can participate and be reinforced.
5) Provide consistent reinforcement. In the early stages of earning instructional control with your child, reinforce after each positive response. Eventually change to an ever-increasing variable of reinforcement.
It is crucial to establish a system in which your child knows that they will be reinforced. If they understand that system of reinforcement, they will be more likely to participate and quickly follow your demands. However, to establish this system, they must be reinforced each time they comply. Regardless of the situation or circumstances you may be in, you must try to make the time to reinforce and acknowledge their compliance. Once this system has been established, you can begin reinforcing less often.
6) Demonstrate that you know your child’s priorities as well as your own.
Make note of your child’s preferred activities, edible items, toys, etc. so that you know what will motivate your child to comply. A child’s interests can sometimes change so be aware of shifting preferences. To avoid satiation, or when a child is bored or “full” of a reinforcer, rotate reinforcers often. Have many options that the child can receive for their cooperation.
7)S Show your child that ignoring your instruction or choosing inappropriate behavior will not result in the acquisition of reinforcement.
If your child begins engaging in inappropriate behaviors, you cannot reinforce them. You must intentionally make whatever behavior they are engaging in for something unsuccessful. Over time, the child will resort to this behavior less often if they are never reinforced for it. Instead, they will act in a way in which there is a history of reinforcement, all the appropriate behaviors you have been teaching and reinforcing.
These seven steps will increase your instructional control with your child and ensure that you can shape their behavior to be appropriate and compliant. More information about Applied Behavior Analysis and parenting can be found in Schramm’s book.
