Errorless Compliance Training to Reduce Extreme Conduct Problems and Intrusive Control Strategies in Home and School Settings

Abstract

The present case study involved intervention for a 7-year-old boy with a history of extreme aggression and noncompliance. Given the severity of his behavioral difficulties, his parents used highly coercive consequences, including physical restraint, which significantly compromised the parent—child relationship. The authors used errorless compliance training, a success-based, noncoercive intervention strategy to assist the mother in obtaining child cooperation without need for physical intervention. Although initial intervention attempts were ineffective because of the poor quality of the mother—child bond, systematic adjustments to the intervention eventually produced substantial improvements in child compliance in the home. Concurrent use of the intervention in the child’s classroom led to meaningful gains in classroom compliance. Anecdotal reports from the mother after intervention suggested widespread improvements in prosocial behavior and the parent—child relationship. The study findings provided support for use of errorless compliance training as a home and school-based alternative to interventions that require punitive or coercive consequences to suppress severe antisocial behavior.