A Six Week Parenting Program For Child Compliance

Child compliance is an important skill for young children to develop. It is often the focus of intervention efforts. This paper presents a six week program for professionals to use in parent training. At each week, new parenting skills are taught and utilized in real life child compliance situations. Data collection is built into the six-week program. For assistance to professionals and parents, the article presents the manual in its entirety for use. Keywords: Parent training, manual, child compliance, six week program, behavioral procedures. ********** Compliance problems in young children are often at the heart of many parent-child difficulties. It is an area where effective treatments are available (Van Hasselt, Sisson, & Aach, 1987). Parent training procedures based on a behavioral approach incorporating antecedent and consequent components provide an empirical evidence-base for users (Cipani, 2004; Issac, 1982; O'Dell, 1974). This parent-training manual lays out a step-by-step plan for developing key skills in parents for compliance situations. Professionals can use the manual in individual parent training efforts as well as group training formats that span a six-week (or longer period). If used individually, it can be tailored to fit the individual client needs and may require more or less time than six weeks. It is recommended that the skills taught should be kept in their current sequence. A child's compliance to simple parental commands is an important skill to develop. Isn't life more harmonious when children put their back packs up without constant reminding? What about living with children who fail to respond to your requests, time and time again? Is a child's failure to comply a satisfying state of affairs? Which family would you like to be "parent for a week": Ozzie & Harriet Nelson or the Simpson's? While you may laugh more at Bart, you certainly hope he is your neighbor's child, and not yours. Parents are not the only beneficiaries of compliance in their children. Children who have learned to follow parental directives and commands without great distress and commotion often live happier lives, both at home and in school. In contrast, children who lack this ability often have difficulty in their daily interactions with people, particularly at school. This six-week parental program to deal with child compliance has the following phases: Week 1: Set the stage for child compliance Week 2: Know the difference between a clear and an unclear command Week 3-4: Learn to use praise, time limits and "Sit & Decide" Week 5: How's it going? Week 6: The non-compliance jar This six-week program is highly suited for young children, at preschool and early elementary ages (results are not guaranteed). In some cases, parents may be able to effectively deploy these procedures without any outside consultation. However, other parents may require technical assistance in some part(s) of the six week program in order to be effective with their particular child. I strongly encourage such parents to seek out consultation from some one trained in applied behavior analysis, particularly if they experience problems in implementing these recommendations with their child. Such personnel can be found at the following web sites (www.bacb.com or www.abainternational.org). If more serious mental health problems exist, a physician or other mental health professional may need to evaluate your child, prior to or during this program. Before embarking on this six-week program, please fill out the following questionnaire (Table 1). The questionnaire asks you to rate your child's level of compliance to your commands over the prior two-month period. Week 1: Set the Stage for Child Compliance The case of child non-compliance: Parent: "Geraldo please put your raincoat on. It's beginning to rain and I don't want you to get your clothes wet and get sick. …