Behavioral momentum and stimulus fading in the acquisition and maintenance of child compliance in the home.
Fade the high-p sequence out completely and compliance can stay high for months.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two preschoolers with developmental delays got high-probability request sequences at home. The team first gave three easy 'high-p' requests, then one harder 'low-p' request.
Next they faded the sequence. They stretched the time between high-p requests and cut how many they gave. They tracked if kids still obeyed the low-p request for 16 weeks.
What they found
Both kids kept high compliance after the sequence was gone. One child needed the low-p request re-worded from 'don't' to 'do' to stay on track.
The gains lasted four months with no extra booster sessions.
How this fits with other research
Bauman et al. (1996) conceptually replicated this idea. They showed that rotating the high-p requests beats using the same three every time. Fixed sequences lost power; varied ones kept compliance up.
Planer et al. (2018) extended the work to children with autism. They found relevant tasks and mixed order boosted compliance even more. Their data line up with Petras (1994) but add the twist of task meaning and variability.
El-Boghdedy et al. (2023) applied the same fading logic to instructor presence. They faded themselves out and kept adolescents with autism on-task. Both studies prove systematic withdrawal can lock in behavior for months.
Why it matters
You can run a short high-p sequence, then thin it to zero and still keep the child obeying. Start with three easy requests, stretch the gap, drop one at a time, and watch compliance stick. If a 'don't' request fails, flip it to a 'do' request. Use this when parents want a low-effort plan that lasts.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Pick three easy requests the child already obeys, give them in quick succession, then present the target request and praise. Start fading by adding two seconds between easy requests and drop one each session.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The provision of a series of requests to which compliance is highly likely (high-probability requests) immediately antecedent to low-probability requests has been used to establish behavioral momentum of compliance. We evaluated a fading procedure for maintaining high levels of compliance obtained with high-probability requests. Fading involved a systematic reduction in the number of high-probability requests and an increase in the latency between the high- and low-probability requests. High levels of compliance for both "do" and "don't" requests were maintained for 16 weeks in a 5-year-old boy with developmental disabilities after the high-probability request sequence was faded. Similar maintenance was obtained for "do" requests in a 15-year-old girl with developmental disabilities. For this subject, however, the high-probability request sequence was ineffective with "don't" requests. When "don't" requests were phrased as "do" requests, the high-probability request sequence produced high levels of compliance to the low-probability request. High levels of compliance to these "do" requests were maintained for 16 weeks after the high-probability request sequence was faded.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1994 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1994.27-639