Control of an obscene "verbal tic" through timeout in an elementary school classroom.

A teacher tried to stop a 10-year-old from yelling obscene words during class. First she used repeated word practice. That helped a little, but the cursing kept coming back. Then she added a short timeout. Each time the child swore, he left the room for a few minutes. The study tracked how often the obscene tics happened before and after timeout started.

Timeout almost wiped out the obscene vocal tics. The word-practice phase had only cut them part-way. Once timeout began, the child rarely swore in class again. The teacher could run the plan alone with no extra staff.

Burrows et al. (2018) later showed that staff need good training to use timeout correctly. Their structured role-play method beats a simple lecture, updating the 1973 "just do it" approach.

Renne et al. (1976) seems to disagree. They found a quick reprimand worked better than timeout for child non-compliance. The key difference is the behavior. Reprimands beat timeout for simple defiance, but timeout still shines for loud, disruptive vocal tics that disturb the whole class.

Davison et al. (1984) extend the idea to autism. They used white-noise masking to cut vocal stereotypy, showing that extinction can take many forms.

If a student’s obscene outbursts disrupt learning, a brief classroom timeout can work fast. You do not need extra adults or gear. First try teaching a replacement skill, but if the tic lingers, add timeout and track the data. Remember to train yourself or staff first—use Burrows et al. (2018) role-play steps so the timeout is fair, brief, and consistent.