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Altering the timing of academic prompts to treat destructive behavior maintained by escape
Mercedes E Ebanks1, Wayne W Fisher
1Marcus Institute, Atlanta, Georgia 30329, USA.
Abstract:
Following a functional analysis showing that destructive behavior was reinforced by escape, we altered the aversiveness of task demands by interspersing easy and difficult tasks and by presenting a corrective prompt as an antecedent event the next time a previously failed item was presented; this procedure was compared with one in which the corrective prompt was provided as an immediate consequence. Results of a reversal design showed that the antecedent prompt acted as an establishing operation and reduced destructive behavior to zero.
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