Assessment and treatment of clinical fears in mentally retarded children.
Moms can deliver participant modeling with prompt fading to help kids with ID overcome intense fears of unfamiliar adults.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Wing (1981) asked moms to act as the model in a fear-reduction package. Each mom first showed her child with intellectual disability how to approach an unfamiliar adult. Then she slowly faded prompts until the child faced the adult alone.
The team used a multiple baseline across kids. They filmed sessions in a clinic room. Follow-up probes happened six months later.
What they found
All children cut fear behaviors like crying, hiding, or refusals. Gains held six months later with no extra sessions.
Kids also started greeting unfamiliar adults on their own during probe trials.
How this fits with other research
Bryant et al. (1984) ran a near-copy of the package but for fear of the dark. Moms used the same prompt-fade logic and hit mastery in two weeks. Together the studies show moms can run graduated exposure plus fading for very different fears.
SRieth et al. (2022) swapped live modeling for picture books plus short video calls. Dog phobia dropped in preschoolers without a clinic visit. The 1981 study gave the blueprint; the 2022 study made it cheaper and remote.
Striefel et al. (1974) first proved prompt fading works in kids with ID. Wing (1981) moved the procedure from the lab to the living room by using moms instead of staff.
Why it matters
You already teach parents to reinforce or block behavior. This paper shows you can also train them to model and fade prompts for fear. Script the steps, give mom a checklist, and let her run the exposure in daily life. You save staff hours and the child practices where fear really happens.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Three moderately mentally retarded females ranging from 8 to 10 years of age were treated for long-standing fears. These children had refused to talk with or be in the same general vicinity of adults other than their parents, a few close family members, and to a lesser degree, their teacher. To establish an accurate criterion for successful performance on dependent measures, participants were matched on age, sex, and level of mental retardation with children having "normal" amounts of fear. Dependent measures included approaching and talking to strange adults as well as child ratings of overall fear. Participant modeling was given by the mother who provided a sufficient amount of physical and verbal prompts to ensure that an acceptable greeting of adults specified by the mother were made. These prompts were gradually faded out as treatment progressed. Treatment, which was given in a multiple baseline format across subjects, proved effective and gains in the reduction of fears were maintained at the six month follow-up.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1981 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1981.14-287