Coaching Caregivers to use Effective Directions and Routines
Throughout my work with parents, I use the ABC model of behavior as our anchor to organize the strategies I teach. The ABC model consists of:
[Setting Events: Vulnerability factors that increase the likelihood of a challenging behavior (e.g., fatigue, hunger, anxiety)].
Antecedent: Any situation, action, or event that immediately precedes a behavior.
Behavior: An observable or measurable act.
Consequence: A response that immediately follows a behavior and can either strengthen or weaken it.
In the first session, I focus on positive attention and teach caregivers both a setting event intervention (special time) and a consequence-based intervention (praise/attends). In the second session, we add another consequence-based intervention (strategic ignoring). These two sessions alone often do much of the ‘work’ in reducing challenging behaviors. By this point, parents are usually bought into the process, because they’ve been reinforced for their own efforts. Still, that doesn’t mean all challenging behaviors have disappeared. Typically, at this. point, we see reductions in behaviors that are attention-maintained, but parents will often ask: “If I tell my child to brush their teeth and they refuse, I know I shouldn’t add negative attention—but then what?” That’s when I say: You’re absolutely right. Now we need to address the ‘escape’ component of the equation.
In the third session, I introduce antecedent-based strategies to motivate children to do the things they need to do. We begin with effective directions. Parents give children countless directions throughout the day, and kids can easily become overwhelmed or tune them out. So we work on two key steps: (1) reducing the number of directions given, and (2) delivering directions in ways that maximize cooperation.
Next, we focus on structuring routines, since those are times when demands pile up and pushback is common. My ‘trio of success’ includes visual checklists, visual timers, and rewards for task completion. With these tools in place, directions can become simple contingencies: “When you finish your checklist, then you can watch TV.” or “If you beat the clock, then you earn an extra book.” Parents often tell me they’ve tried these strategies before, but usually not all three together—or we just need to fine-tune the details (e.g., shortening a list, or adjusting the timing of a reward). The remainder of this session is spent troubleshooting the obstacles parents encounter when putting routines into practice.
From there, as we move further down the ABC chain, future sessions focus on teaching and shaping replacement behaviors, and giving children opportunities to practice bravery and flexibility challenges.
