Multiple effects of a procedure to increase sitting in a hyperactive, retarded boy.

A daycare team worked with one hyperactive preschooler who had an intellectual disability.

They gave a gentle prompt to sit and then praised the boy each time his bottom touched the chair.

The study tracked sitting, odd body postures, toy play, and how close he stood to peers.

Sitting shot up when the prompt-plus-praise package began.

Extra wins showed up for free: strange postures dropped, toy touching rose, and he stayed near peers more often.

Walking did not change, so the gains were true side effects, not just less movement overall.

Koegel et al. (2014) later used the same differential-reinforcement idea with adults who had ID. They stopped reinforcing prompted answers and independence doubled—showing the rule works across ages and responses.

Barber et al. (1977) tested a similar plan on an older hyperactive child. Reinforcement beat Ritalin in the clinic, but the drug helped aggression at home. Together the papers say: use DR for classroom control, but add medication if anger shows up at home.

Wilson et al. (1975) swapped the target from sitting to academic work in a token system. Hyperactivity still fell and math scores jumped to 85 percent. The pair shows you can reinforce different productive responses and still calm the child.

You can shrink problem behavior and grow play skills by reinforcing one simple, easy-to-see response: sitting. Pick a seat, give quick praise, and watch collateral gains roll in. If the child is older or academic, reinforce correct work instead—the same calming side effects appear.