Abstract:
The study replicated Errorless Compliance Training (ECT), as designed by Ducharme et al., (1994). As an extension, the method was structured with the intention of assessing for the generalisation of intervention effects from home to school and vice versa. Four male students from one special school participated and they all had diagnoses of autism. They ranged in age from five-years-four-months to six-years-nine-months. Parents took on the role of deliverers at home and teacher aides did the same at school. Based on their anecdotal perception of their child’s compliance, parents assigned 111 requests into four probability levels. Baseline assessments of six requests from each level were then run in the children’s home and school setting. All school baselines had increasing trends so the intervention phases were not introduced. At home, two children also responded to baseline methods with increasing compliance trends. Two children went through ECT in their homes, targeting five requests per phase of intervention. Results showed that baseline methods alone generated socially significant increases in all of the children’s compliance levels at school. The home based ECT produced similar, socially significant, gains in compliance. Factors such as the pre-intervention setting, frequency of request presentation, and treatment integrity were hypothesised to have influenced the socially significant improvements observed during baselines. Consumer satisfaction questionnaires revealed that all participating parents and teacher aides found ECT to be an effective intervention for increasing compliance. Possible limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
