A modified time-out procedure for children with noncompliant or defiant behaviors.

Time-out (TO) is a behavior modification technique effective in reducing a wide variety of undesirable child behaviors including disobedience, aggression, and inappropriate social behaviors (Harris, 1985; Norton, Austen, Allen, & Hilton, 1983; Sowa, McIntyre, May, & Bland, 1994). TO has been defined as "a period of time in a less reinforcing environment made contingent on a behavior" (Brantner & Doherty, 1983, p. 87). TO usually involves placing a child in the corner of a room (Adams & Kelly, 1992) or isolated place (Allison & Allison, 1971). Isolation TO (Allison & Allison, 1971; Gast & Nelson, 1977; Justen & Howerton, 1993) was a very restrictive, exclusionary method of behavior control that removed the child from the room in which the rule infraction occurred and required the child to serve time alone in a room, usually either a bedroom or, in an educational setting, an isolation chamber. In the case of bedrooms, effectiveness was often hindered because the child found enjoyable play activities to engage in while serving the TO, hardly a punishment. On the other hand, isolation chambers utilized by some schools, usually with students displaying dangerous behaviors, led to charges of cruelty, possibility of abuse, and legal and ethical concerns (Harris, 1985). Because of these concerns and the possibility of misuse, isolation TO is rarely used today except in extreme situations and usually in institutional settings. Unfortunately, educational professionals and parents often associate these valid criticisms of isolation TO with the more commonly used and much less controversial exclusion TO. Exclusion TO involves placing the child in a corner away from interesting activities, unreinforced by social interactions (Harris, 1985; Hobbs, Walle, & Caldwell, 1984; Miltenberger, Parrish, Rickert, & Kohr, 1989). Children are usually excluded for a maximum of 5 minutes (Adams & Kelley, 1992). It is with this method of TO that most professional discussions and this paper are concerned. Many recommendations for modifications have been offered over the past 20 years. Some have enhanced the effectiveness of the basic procedure, others have been abandoned for lack of support. For example, approaches that stressed guided compliance and increased adult interaction appeared no more or even less effective than approaches espousing minimal verbal interaction (Handen, Parrish, McClung, Kerwin, & Evans, 1992; Harris, 1985; Hobbs & Forehand, 1977). In addition, while studies have varied the duration of TO from 2 tol5 minutes (Hobbs et al., 1984; Norton et al., 1983; Miltenberger et al., 1989), Pendergrass (1971) found that durations of 5 minutes and 20 minutes were equally effective. A particularly interesting modification known as contingent delay TO involves extending the TO for a specific period of time each time a child displays a defiant behavior while sitting in the TO chair. Research regarding the increased effectiveness of contingent delay procedures over standard TO has to this point remained inconclusive (Mace, Page, Ivanicic, & O'Brien, 1986), although Hobbs and Forehand (1975) found contingent delay to be superior in reducing aberrant behavior and noncompliance. Mace et al. (1986) reported that because both procedures virtually eliminated display of noncompliance, superiority of contingent delay or regular TO procedures could not be demonstrated. Because elementary school counselors are regularly engaged in consultation/collaboration with parents and teachers to reduce noncompliant or defiant behaviors, counselors must continually bolster their repertoire of effective intervention strategies. When utilizing TO procedures, several important caveats must be highlighted. Because TO is a punishment, its purpose is to suppress the display of inappropriate behavior. TO does not teach appropriate behavior. Thus, TO should be used in conjunction with positive reinforcement or other instructional/educational techniques (Charlop, Burgio, Iwata, & Ivanicic, 1988; Harris, 1985). …