Correspondence Training and Observational Learning in the Management of Hyperactive Children

Abstract

Two females diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were participants. One subject (S1) was intervened with the reinforcement of do-report correspondence technique, in which reports about the inhibition of target inappropriate behaviors (e.g., inattention to task materials) were reinforced with tangible events (e.g., small toys) only if such reports corresponded with the actual absence of target behaviors. The second subject (S2) observed both the programming of the present correspondence training technique and the delivery of the consequence contingent upon the verbal-nonverbal correspondence of S1. These contingencies were reversed in a later session, in which S1 observed S2 during the process of correspondence training and delivery of consequences scheduled with S2. These interventions were programmed in a treatment room, using a variant of the reversal design in combination with the changing-criterion design. Generalization tests were conducted in a classroom. Both interventions yielded consistent low levels of target behaviors relative to baseline sessions. But the correspondence training method was more effective than the observational learning technique in controlling instances of hyperactivity and better results were found with the observational learning procedure when this procedure was preceded by a period of verbal-nonverbal correspondence training. Generalization of treatment effects occurred with both methods.