Reduction of disruptive behaviors in mentally retarded adults. A self-management approach.

Two adults in a vocational program had loud, off-topic outbursts during work.

The trainer taught them to watch their own mouths, score each five-minute block, and hand themselves a token when they stayed quiet. No extra staff hovered.

Disruptive talk dropped to almost zero the first day. The adults kept the gains while the trainer faded reminders and checked again six months later.

Cohen et al. (1990) copied the same three-step package with students who had severe autism. Stereotypic hand-flaps and noises also fell to zero, even when staff left the room.

Bacon-Prue et al. (1980) tried an earlier self-cue trick: adults with ID used picture cards to clock their own break times. That worked too, but it only taught on-task timing, not behavior cut-down.

Demello et al. (1992) got equal drops in disruption using staff-run DRA instead of self-management. Both paths succeed; self-management just gives the power to the learner.

You can hand over behavior control to the client. A simple wrist-clicker, sticky note scorecard, and pocket token may replace external time-out grids. Try it when you want both reduction and independence in workshop or classroom settings.