Individualized Levels System and Systematic Stimulus Pairing to Reduce Multiply Controlled Aggression of a Child With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The team worked with one 11-year-old autistic girl who hit, kicked, and bit for many reasons. They built a three-level token board just for her. She moved up levels by keeping her hands and feet safe.

Next, they paired her mom and teacher with the tokens. The adults gave tokens and praise together until the praise alone could calm her. This transfer step is called stimulus pairing.

Aggression dropped fast once the girl could earn tokens for safe behavior. When praise alone took over, the low aggression stayed. Mom and teacher could now manage her without the board.

Jenkins et al. (1973) showed that preschool teachers could flip aggression up or down just by giving or withholding attention. Cohen et al. (2018) adds a token layer and then hands that same adult power to caregivers through pairing.

Lloyd et al. (1969) used timeout plus rewards to stop severe aggression in an institutional ward. The new study skips timeout and still wins, showing a milder, family-friendly path.

Fernand et al. (2023) cut aggression with functional communication training and schedule thinning. Both studies use single-case designs and thin rewards, but Fernand relies on talking while R et al. relies on tokens and praise pairing.

You can run this package in any home or classroom. Build a quick levels board, teach the child to earn tokens for zero aggression, then pair caregiver praise with the tokens. Once praise alone works, you can fade the board and keep the peace. No seclusion, no extra staff, just caregiver voices running the show.