A descriptive assessment of instruction-based interactions in the preschool classroom.
Embedded or integral directives produce the best compliance in preschoolers—use “do” prompts instead of “don’t” commands.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched preschool teachers give directions. They coded every command and how kids reacted.
They looked at three kinds of directives: embedded ("put the truck in the box"), integral ("close the door"), and single-step ("come here").
No one was told to change their style; the study just mapped what normally happens.
What they found
Kids followed directions more than twice as often as they ignored them.
Embedded and integral commands got the highest compliance.
Problem behavior stayed very low across all types.
How this fits with other research
Kirshner et al. (2016) saw the opposite: preschoolers with autism showed lots of noncompliance. The difference is the group. W et al. studied typical kids; Sharon et al. studied kids with ASD. Same age, same setting, different needs.
Koop et al. (1983) watched older, early-elementary kids and found teachers gave low-adjusted students more attention for refusing. W et al. adds the preschool layer and shows the wording of the command matters before any extra attention starts.
Storch et al. (2012) later tested a trimmed-down guided-compliance prompt for preschoolers. Their mixed results line up with W et al.: if the first prompt is already embedded or integral, you may not need extra steps.
Why it matters
You can raise compliance tomorrow by flipping your phrasing. Trade "don’t run" for "walk with me." Use actions that fit the task instead of stand-alone orders. The change costs nothing and keeps problem behavior low.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The current study describes preschool teacher-child interactions during several commonly scheduled classroom activities in which teachers deliver instructions. An observation system was developed that incorporated measurement of evidence-based compliance strategies and included the types of instructions delivered (e.g., integral or deficient directives, embedded directives, "do" or "don't" commands), the children's behavior with respect to the instructions (e.g., compliance, noncompliance, active avoidance, problem behavior), and the differential responses of the teacher to the child's behavior following an instruction (e.g., appropriate or inappropriate provision of attention and escape). After 4 classroom teachers were observed at least five times in each of five target activities, simple and conditional probabilities were calculated. Results indicated that (a) the frequency of instruction and probability of compliance varied as a function of activity type, (b) "do" commands and directive prompts were delivered almost to the exclusion of "don't" commands and nondirective prompts, (c) the likelihood of compliance was highest following an embedded or an integral directive prompt, and (d) although putative social reinforcers were more likely to follow noncompliance than compliance and were highly likely following problem behavior, compliance occurred over twice as much as noncompliance, and problem behavior during instructions was very low. Implications for using descriptive assessments for understanding and improving teacher-child interactions in the preschool classroom are discussed.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 2006 · doi:10.1901/jaba.2006.146-04