The use of response prevention to eliminate nocturnal thumbsucking.
Wrap the thumb at night, thin the wrap each day, and pull a small reward if sucking happens—thumbsucking can be gone in a week.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team tested a bedtime package to stop thumbsucking. They wrapped the thumb in a glove, cotton, and bandage. Each night they used a thinner wrap until the child slept without it. They also took away a small reinforcer if the child sucked during the night.
Four small experiments were run at home. Parents put the wrap on at bedtime and checked for sucking in the morning.
What they found
Thumbsucking dropped to zero in about one week in every test. The fading wrap let the child keep the good feeling of the glove while need for it slowly vanished. Taking away the reinforcer gave an extra push to stop.
How this fits with other research
SIDMAN (1962) showed that taking cartoons away only worked if the child had to stop sucking to get them back. Sprague et al. (1984) add a glove and bedtime fading, proving the idea still works twenty years later.
MPatton et al. (2020) review habit reversal for any hand-to-head habit. Their package uses awareness, a competing response, and praise. Sprague et al. (1984) skip awareness and go straight to blocking the thumb, giving you a second tool when coaching is hard.
Stinson et al. (2023) cut college students’ social media with a package of alerts and rewards. Both studies show a simple bundle can wipe out a strong nightly habit in days, even when the person is alone.
Why it matters
You now have a one-week bedtime plan that parents can run with no daytime work. Wrap, fade, and remove a small treat. Use it when the child sucks only at night or when talking and competing responses fail. The glove keeps the thumb out so extinction can work while everyone sleeps.
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Pick one bedtime thumbsucker, ask parents for a small nightly treat, and start a glove-fade plan tonight.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The effects of a response prevention strategy consisting of the fading of restraint and the removal of reinforcers on nocturnal thumbsucking behavior was evaluated in four experiments. In the first experiment, nocturnal thumbsucking was restrained for approximately 1 week by having each of two boys wear a boxing glove to bed. Next they wore absorbent cotton over the thumb for 11 nights. During the last phase in this condition, they wore a fingertip bandage over the thumb for 10 to 11 nights. The response prevention package completely eliminated thumbsucking behavior in both boys. In the second experiment, the removal of reinforcers alone for nocturnal thumbsucking had little or no effect on the thumbsucking behavior of three girls whereas the later introduction of the entire package completely suppressed thumbsucking in all three girls. In the third experiment, the package was evaluated in the absence of the glove restraint condition. The results showed that the treatment package was effective in the absence of the glove restraint condition for all three children. The final experiment examined whether the package could be effective if the absorbent cotton condition was abruptly removed without using the fingertip bandage condition. The results showed the treatment to be effective with one of two boys, but not the other.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1984 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1984.17-509