A method to establish stimulus control and compliance with instructions

Four preschoolers with autism kept saying no to adult instructions. The team stacked three easy, high-probability tasks right before one hard, low-probability task.

They also flooded the kids with favorite toys and snacks after every correct response. If a child still refused, the adult backed off and tried later so the room stayed calm.

Compliance jumped from about a large share to over a large share after only a few sessions. The gains held when the extra rewards were slowly thinned out.

Parents and teachers later said the kids followed directions at home and on the playground too.

Pierce et al. (1994) showed the same high-p/low-p trick works, but only if you keep the gap between requests at five seconds. Borgen added richer rewards and skipped most refusal trials, making the package stronger.

Adkins et al. (1997) seems to disagree—high-preference items once increased stereotypy and hurt learning. The clash disappears when you look at the task: K taught counting, Borgen taught simple compliance. Big difference.

Wanchisen et al. (1989) proved that letting kids pick their reinforcer before each session wipes out problem behavior. Borgen baked that idea into every trial, not just at the start.

You can run this whole plan in under ten minutes with toys you already have. Start with three easy wins, slide in the hard request, and pour on praise or stickers. If the child balks, walk away and try again in a minute. You will see faster cooperation without tears or escape behavior.