The effects of social punishment on noncompliance: a comparison with timeout and positive practice.

Four children with intellectual disability kept ignoring teacher requests.

The team tried three quick fixes: a short reprimand plus a disappointed look, a two-minute sit-out, or repeating the task five times.

Each day the teacher rotated the fixes so the kids served as their own comparison.

The simple reprimand mix won. It cut refusal faster and the teacher used it less often.

Timeout and the repeat-the-task drill needed more repeats to get the same drop.

Walker (1993) later looked at dozens of studies and agreed: programs that pair small social rewards work better than timeout alone.

Clark et al. (1973) had shown timeout can work, but they used it on a single noisy tic, not broad non-compliance, and the child had no ID.

Burrows et al. (2018) remind us timeout still has a place, yet staff need hands-on role-play training to run it right.

You now have a cheap first-line tool: calm words plus a brief disapproving glance. Try it before you set up chairs for timeout or plan extra practice loops. It saves minutes and may give you faster compliance with less effort.