Using Video to Bridge the Gap Between Problem Behavior and a Delayed Time-out Procedure

The team tested a simple fix for a common problem. When you must wait 15 minutes to give time-out, kids often forget why they are in trouble.

They filmed each problem behavior on a tablet. Right before the delayed time-out, they showed the child a 10-15 second replay.

Two elementary students took part. The setting was their regular classroom. The study used an ABAB design to be sure the video replay was the active piece.

Both kids’ problem behavior dropped sharply when the video replay was used. When the replay was removed, the behavior came back.

The 15-minute delay no longer weakened time-out. The short clip kept the punisher effective even after a long wait.

Griffith et al. (2012) extends this work. They later showed you can thin the time-out schedule to a variable ratio and still keep suppression. Coppage et al. gave us the bridge; M et al. showed how to make it cheaper.

Staddon (1972) and McReynolds (1969) are early timeout-only studies. They proved timeout alone can suppress behavior, but they used immediate delivery. Coppage et al. updates this by solving the delay problem with video.

Jenkins et al. (1973) used a token economy plus 1-minute timeout for preschool compliance. Coppage et al. keeps the timeout piece but swaps tokens for video replay to handle longer delays.

If your school policy forces you to wait before removing a student, this gives you a practical tool. Record the incident on any phone or tablet. Show the clip right before the time-out. You keep the power of immediate consequences without breaking the rules.