Parents' acceptability ratings of alternative treatments for use with mentally retarded children.
Parents of kids with ID rate DRI and overcorrection far more acceptable than time-out or pills.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers asked 64 parents of kids with intellectual disability to rate four treatments.
Parents scored each one on a 1-9 scale for fairness, effectiveness, and willingness to use it.
The four options were DRI, overcorrection, time-out, and drug therapy.
What they found
DRI earned the highest score. Overcorrection came second.
Time-out and medication landed at the bottom. The gap was large enough to matter.
How this fits with other research
Perry et al. (2024) later showed parents will actually run behavioral plans at home and hit treatment goals a large share of the time. That proves the 1987 preference for DRI can turn into real success.
Anonymous (2024) found online parent training works as well as face-to-face. Together these studies extend the 1987 survey: parents still like behavioral methods and now accept Zoom delivery too.
Dolezal et al. (2010) looked at autism and saw parents pick treatments that match their beliefs about cause and control. The 1987 ID study didn’t ask about beliefs, so the two papers sit side-by-side: one shows what parents choose, the other shows why.
Why it matters
When you write a behavior plan, start with DRI or overcorrection. Parents already view these as fair and effective. Expect more questions if you propose time-out or medication. Use this quick preference map to speed up consent and keep rapport strong.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Parents of mentally retarded children rated the acceptability of four treatment techniques: differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI), over correction, time-out, and drug therapy. The treatments were described in a clinical case study of a mentally retarded child; acceptability was evaluated using the Treatment Evaluation Inventory and the Semantic Differential. The most acceptable treatment was DRI followed by overcorrection. Time-out and drug therapy proved least acceptable but were not rated significantly different from each other. This study extends findings from previous research on treatment accept- ability to parents of mentally retarded children, which is important because they are often involved in choices and implementation of treatment alternatives for their children.
Behavior modification, 1987 · doi:10.1177/01454455870111002