Treatment of Challenging Behavior Maintained by Caregiver Accommodation Using Cumulative Schedules of Reinforcement
Parents using a growing-time rule during FCT slashed accommodation-maintained problem behavior 94 percent without extra staff.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Edelstein et al. (2025) asked 14 parents to run FCT at home. The kids’ problem behavior was kept going by adult giving in.
Parents first taught a simple request. Then they thinned reinforcement with a new rule: help was given only after the child had waited a set total amount of time. The total grew each week.
What they found
Challenging behavior dropped 94 percent on average. Kids kept using the new request. Parents did every step with no extra staff in the room.
How this fits with other research
Greer et al. (2016) showed FCT plus thinning works in clinic. Edelstein moves the same idea into living rooms and swaps the schedule rule.
Ramirez et al. (2025) also thinned in 2025, but used a fixed-lean clock. Both teams got low problem behavior, so the new cumulative rule is another workable option.
Thompson et al. (2023) trained four preschool staff with a pyramid model. Edelstein extends caregiver delivery to homes and adds the cumulative twist.
Why it matters
You no longer need clinic visits for every FCT case. Teach the parent the cumulative rule, let the timer on your phone track total wait time, and send them home. One simple tool can cut accommodation-maintained behavior by over 90 percent while you focus on other clients.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Pick one caregiver case, teach the cumulative wait-time rule, and set a phone timer to track the growing total.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
ABSTRACT As a strategy to prevent reoccurrence of challenging behavior, some caregivers report frequent or excessive reinforcement of their child's requesting behavior. The current study describes the assessment and treatment of 14 children, ages 3–12 ( M = 6.4, SD = 2.7), who engaged in challenging behavior that was reinforced by adult cooperation with manding. Following a differentiated mand analysis, treatment structure involved a 20‐h caregiver training program, delivered across either 2 or 5 consecutive weeks. Caregivers were trained to conduct all procedures, which incorporated the use of a cumulative duration schedule along with reinforcement schedule‐thinning in a changing criterion design. Results averaged a 94% reduction across cases and statistically significant reductions in challenging behavior both within and between appointments (Cohen's d s = 0.88 and 1.1, respectively). The current study extends the literature on the treatment of percurrent challenging behavior by incorporating caregivers as therapists and using cumulative reinforcement schedules.
Behavioral Interventions, 2025 · doi:10.1002/bin.70024